So what’s the lastest and greatest best deal on a military surplus rifle?

[dtknowles]

With the price of new bolt action hunting rifles and other fun guns being so low, no mil surps seem to be a bargain.

Tim

[savagetactical]

With the price of new bolt action hunting rifles and other fun guns being so low, no mil surps seem to be a bargain.

Tim

I suppose that depends on what you want. I am not saying they're bad rifles but this new crop of cheap hunting rifles isn't what I really am keen on guns like the Ruger American, and Savage Axis do not appeal to me . It't not that I hate plastic stocked rifles, I own a Stery SSG , but these new bargain guns just feel cheap and I like for my hunting rifles to look and feel like those of years past.

One of the things I truly appreciate about an old mauser is the quality of the gun. The craftsmanship , steel, wood and the challenge of getting an old gun to shoot for me.

[salpal48]

With the Import buys On surplus Military Rifles . the prices will just keep going Up.. There are still Millions out There in surplus storage. If the govt would change the policy from Curio & Relics to Antique, then more items will come in. The last big change was the Nepal rifles but They were antique. In C&R was the Swiss M 1889 / M 1896.

[Bmi48219]

I’m old enough to remember K-31s & German Mauser 98s for $10.00 in NRA Very Good condition at the gun shows. That being said there’s a good chance our kids will one day regret not buying surplus military rifles when (as in now) they were only $600 to $1200.00.

[samari46]

I had a jungle carbine and a Ruger MKII. Guess which one got used
the most for hunting in Pennsylvania?. The jungle carbine. It used to be many years ago you grab a surplus rifle,take off the old sights and slap on a set of peeps and off you went. For the well heeled shooter, instead of irons he'd get a scope mounted and bolt altered. By the time you do that today your money ahead getting a Ruger All American in your favorite caliber. Frank

[ebb]

A friend and i bought 5 Turkish Mausers from SOG about 12-15 years ago $59 each. I am not about to pay $300 for a M-N.

[charlie b]

"In the old days" the interest in the surplus rifles was to get the rifle, put on a sporter stock, good sights and then go hunt. Total cost about 1/2-2/3 of a new Remington or Winchester rifle.

These days, IMHO, there seems to be a resurgence of the popularity of the WWII era. Just look at the many movies in the past several years. I know of several of the younger (30's) who have become interested in that era of world history. At least one has mentioned looking for one each of the service rifles and pistols from each country in WWII.

Then there are the Youtube videos with folks shooting surplus rifles and getting decent accuracy from them.

At the range I find some who have one of these old rifles and they have a lot of fun with them. I have to admit I still enjoy shooting my Garand a lot.

The only WWII bolt gun I would not mind having would be the SMLE jungle carbine. Just a bit of a weird duck, but, kinda the pre-cursor to the "scout rifle" of today.

[savagetactical]

"In the old days" the interest in the surplus rifles was to get the rifle, put on a sporter stock, good sights and then go hunt. Total cost about 1/2-2/3 of a new Remington or Winchester rifle.

The only WWII bolt gun I would not mind having would be the SMLE jungle carbine. Just a bit of a weird duck, but, kinda the pre-cursor to the "scout rifle" of today.

While I admit they are a handy rifle... The precursor to the scout rifle is the ZF41 not the jungle carbine . IIRC I think Cooper actually referenced the inspiration being the ZF41 ...

Incidentally I wanted one pretty badly the finances just never allowed for it and given the cost of a ZF41 in this day and age I do not see myself getting one ever.

[Nick Adams]

CMP M1 Garand, ... 'nuff said.

[godzilla]

CMP M1 Garand, ... 'nuff said.

Do they have any guns left to sell????

[HumptyDumpty]

Do they have any guns left to sell????

Last I checked, they had a few service grades for $700.

[TNsailorman]

I mostly shot "surplus" rifles for over 50 years. Then the supply started getting thin and the demand went up followed by startling jumps in prices. I bought my first 8mm "byf" 98 mauser for $8.00 and the last one, a 24/47 for $159.00(in re-arsenal new condition). I will not be buying anymore at the going prices today. I enjoyed the ride while it lasted but no more. james

[MOC031]

The only WWII bolt gun I would not mind having would be the SMLE jungle carbine. Just a bit of a weird duck, but, kinda the pre-cursor to the "scout rifle" of today.

A 1950 Long Branch No4 Mk1, the last of the best, is the primary platform for most of my cast bullet shooting. I have never felt the love for the No. 5 - but if a nice one were offered me for sale, I would not find it hard to come up with the cash to buy it.

But... scout rifles?

My 30 years as lawn dart infantry ended not too long ago, no small amount of it in recce. It spanned the early 1980's to the second decade of the second milennium; aperture sights to optical sights. Bolt action sniper rifles to semiautomatic gas operated snipers.

Unless I've forgotten something from too many landings on my head, I don't recall a single NATO nation - including those fighting crappy little bushfire wars in assorted countries - who saw sufficient value in Jeff Cooper's "scout rifle" idea to arm even some of their specialized units with such a rifle. Maybe they knew something based on decades of real world recce experience that Cooper did not.

The "scout rifle" always appeared to me to be an ingenious solution to a nonexistent problem. Charging magazines via stripper clips thanks to a forward mounted VERY long eye relief scope, versus simply changing the magazine out, appears to me to be something that could only be realistically useful to a very tiny group of people who could find no other commercial alternative.

If you like it - then it's the perfect rifle for you and as always I'm happy when any fellow gun/shooting enthusiast finds a rifle that floats their boat. But looked at from the scout/sniper end of the real world infantry biz... I don't see anything there I would have had any use for in my travel light/freeze at night years.

I will now don my asbestos suit and prepare for the incoming fire...

[GunsandCoffee]

CMP M1s are still a solid deal when they are available. IMO, even if paying a premium (which to me means $900-$1300), they will last a civilian shooter a lifetime. I have several that I purchased when stationed in AL (close to Aniston) and my grandkids will probably use them.

[perotter]

Royal Tiger Imports right now has about everything ever made in bolt action. Even have a few different makes of self loader including M1 Carbines. The era's covered start with black powder cartridge rifles to about 1960.

They bought all of the Ethiopian surplus and bringing batches in so pays to check from time to time. The lowest priced currently are Carcano 1891 carbines at $250. Seems that the Ethiopians never got rid of anything that came there way.

[Nick Adams]

CMP M1s are still a solid deal when they are available. IMO, even if paying a premium (which to me means $900-$1300), they will last a civilian shooter a lifetime. I have several that I purchased when stationed in AL (close to Aniston) and my grandkids will probably use them.

A guy at our range just bought two CMP M1's - one directly from the CMP, a .30-06 RG or FG 'Special' (the ones for like, $750-$800), and one in .308/7.62 that was another club member's. I think he paid about $900 for that one. Not sure what 'grade' it was, but the seller gave him the CMP paperwork.

He bought both to be 'shooters' - the .308 primarily, because .308 FMJ ammo is easier and less spendy to source at least in normal times, thanks to the proliferation of .308 AR rifles, than chasing down 'Garand-Safe' '06 ball ammo. ... The Greek mil-surplus HXP is either gone or prohibitively expensive. Dudes at our club say Gun-Show dealers are asking almost $1.00 a round for that stuff!

So having an M1 in .308 these days just makes a whole lotta sense.

[GhostHawk]

I have a young protege (30's) who is into com bloc rifles.

He has a Romanian PSL (Sniper version of the 762x54r.
A couple of AK's in the smaller 5.7x28 caliber. One of which is an SBR.

A Steyr Aug, and he just bought a Finnish M39 reworked Mosin.

His big issue is it is not a great time to find good accurate loaded rounds for them.

He also bought a used Mossberg 12 ga shotgun. I'm not sure which model.

[10-x]

A guy at our range just bought two CMP M1's - one directly from the CMP, a .30-06 RG or FG 'Special' (the ones for like, $750-$800), and one in .308/7.62 that was another club member's. I think he paid about $900 for that one. Not sure what 'grade' it was, but the seller gave him the CMP paperwork.

He bought both to be 'shooters' - the .308 primarily, because .308 FMJ ammo is easier and less spendy to source at least in normal times, thanks to the proliferation of .308 AR rifles, than chasing down 'Garand-Safe' '06 ball ammo. ... The Greek mil-surplus HXP is either gone or prohibitively expensive. Dudes at our club say Gun-Show dealers are asking almost $1.00 a round for that stuff!

So having an M1 in .308 these days just makes a whole lotta sense.

Wow, gun show prices on M-2 ball around here are little over $2/ round, about same for 7.62.

[Tracy]

A 1950 Long Branch No4 Mk1, the last of the best, is the primary platform for most of my cast bullet shooting. I have never felt the love for the No. 5 - but if a nice one were offered me for sale, I would not find it hard to come up with the cash to buy it.

But... scout rifles?

My 30 years as lawn dart infantry ended not too long ago, no small amount of it in recce. It spanned the early 1980's to the second decade of the second milennium; aperture sights to optical sights. Bolt action sniper rifles to semiautomatic gas operated snipers.

Unless I've forgotten something from too many landings on my head, I don't recall a single NATO nation - including those fighting crappy little bushfire wars in assorted countries - who saw sufficient value in Jeff Cooper's "scout rifle" idea to arm even some of their specialized units with such a rifle. Maybe they knew something based on decades of real world recce experience that Cooper did not.

The "scout rifle" always appeared to me to be an ingenious solution to a nonexistent problem. Charging magazines via stripper clips thanks to a forward mounted VERY long eye relief scope, versus simply changing the magazine out, appears to me to be something that could only be realistically useful to a very tiny group of people who could find no other commercial alternative.

If you like it - then it's the perfect rifle for you and as always I'm happy when any fellow gun/shooting enthusiast finds a rifle that floats their boat. But looked at from the scout/sniper end of the real world infantry biz... I don't see anything there I would have had any use for in my travel light/freeze at night years.

I will now don my asbestos suit and prepare for the incoming fire...

I guess that would be so, if the only purpose of a rifle were use in a modern military environment.

[MOC031]

I guess that would be so, if the only purpose of a rifle were use in a modern military environment.

Except that's how the concept was attempted to be sold... unless "scouting" was more related to hunting, backpacking, etc., somehow or other. Most of my 30 years were mostly as a lawn dart, and mostly in recce, or teaching it. and I don't see much useful to scouting with a Scout Rifle, whether Vietnam or current conflicts.

The FN is one rifle that had both a bridge for chargers (in the dust cover) and a magazine. I think the instances of soldiers recharging an FN (for example) via striper clips and the charger bridge rather than simply changing mags in a situation of duress would be about as rare as rocking horse poop.

For those who are enthusiasts of the Scout Rifle theory, good on them for having what they believe is the best rifle setup for their needs. When one of my obsessions is plugging away at targets 600 yards away with a Lee Enfield (loaded via the charger bridge, BTW) and aperture sights... I am going to be the last one to say they picked the wrong rifle setup.

But the Scout Rifle doesn't have any relevance to military scouting, particularly being born in an era of semiautomatic weapons, where even designated marksman have optical sights mounted directly above the action opening. Which is why, to the best of my knowledge, not a single nation has adopted the Scout Rifle concept for any segment of its military.