How about the Pre-War bolt action classics?

[Harter66]

I have a couple of pre war to end all wars Mausers 1 marked 1908 Oviedo and 1 marked Deutsche Waffen Munitions 1916 Berlin, Gew 98.
There's an 1866 Chessipot 11mm needle fire with and 1870 issue stamp on the stock but I'm not sure it would qualify without being specific about which War.

[aephilli822]

Back when the Swedish and Turkish Mausers were being sold "3 for XX$" I just HAD to bite. Got three of each. Still have 3 sporter stocks for the Swedes waiting on me to get inspired. But now that the unmolested ones are "worth something" I may have to leave one alone....
BZN 42 Mauser in Mannlicher style stock was in 7x61 Sharpe & Hart, so HAD to have it, too.
Remington 03 "Match Rifle" shown earlier is the least molested of 3 I have. The Smith Corona 03A3 is pretty bubbafied, tho.
I haven't sent the VZ24 to Shaw's to be made a 458 Win Mag yet.


Don't judge me, I'm down to 2 Garands.....

[W.R.Buchanan]

I also have an M96 Swede made in 1899!... It is being converted to a CG63 Target Rifle. That gun has been on hold for a fairly long time waiting for me to develop the stock fitting skills necessary to adequately finish the fitting of a knock off CG63 stock in nice walnut which is absolutely beautiful.

It will be an excellent shooter and will be very pretty when finished. This gun wasa 1.5MOA gun before I took it apart. The previous wood was completely oil soaked and looked like most early Enfields, so it got scrapped.

Check out the grain,,, and believe me the pictures don't do it justice.

This gun will be my goto gun for Long Range Silhouette when done. 6.5x55 is well suited to that game.

Randy

[aephilli822]

Lookit the siza that bolt.....

[Frank46]

Love the Swedish mausers so much I have 6 of them. One model 38 and 4 1896's and one that has been drilled and tapped for scopes and the barrel cut back to about 1/2" in front of the front barrel band. One of them did suffer a blown primer from some old Lapua target ammo so that one cost me a new firing pin. Low recoil and excellent accuracy what could anyone ask for more. Truth be told 4 of them cost me $75 bucks each and while the stocks look worn they all shoot. Buddy of mine who owns a gun shop had them in the rack @$75 each. Funny thing is that they all have matching parts. Frank

[Earlwb]

I have shot and hunted with some old bolt action rifles as well. One of my first was a 7.65 Argentine rifle. The Argentine Mauser was the first gun I reloaded cartridges for too. I really liked it. Later I used a Saimese Mauser (I made and hand loaded the ammo for it) for hunting too. I liked the slide cover to help protect the action. That slide cover was handy for Elk hunting in the fall when it would freeze at night or you'd get ice and sleet storms. I later acquired a Spanish Mauser and used it a lot for deer hunting at the time. I also had a 8mm Mauser that I used too.

[northmn]

Swedes are notorious for being difficult to use with cast bullets. Long military throat I guess. Got a deer with one many years ago, when the 18" carbines were imported. Used the old Norma 156 grain round nose and they worked fine. My brother in law has shot a lot of deer with his "swede" which has been sproterized with a black stock and bolt permitting a scope. Finn Aagard considered on about the best "deer rifle" one could get. Brings back memories. So many rifles so little time.

DEP

[Diver07]

Haven't sporterized my Enfield...but man does it shoot true. I'm also working on sporterizing a K98 mauser. It was already sported..but the bore is in bad shape. Check out the thread http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...user-rechamber . Good discussion about rechambering.

[Bent Ramrod]

Among the commercial offerings, there were also the Savage bolt actions.

The Savage Model 1920 (later the Model 20) was a small Mauser action with a special bolt peep sight, sized for the .250-3000 and the .300 Savage cartridges. Kind of a dainty little thing, with a rather indifferent trigger and a terrible job of checkering on the grip. The concept of the light "Mountain Rifle" had not been run past the Focus Groups back then and the gun was expensive and faced competition from a huge dumping of military surplus bolt actions, so only a few thousand were made. Nevertheless, it is a cute little thing, much nicer than the later Model 40, which replaced it. The Model 40 was a large, clunky bolt action of no points of excellence or aesthetics whatsoever, but it did handle the .30-06 cartridge length. Owners are advised to stick to the original 2700 fps loadings for that cartridge.

The Savage Model 23 "Sporters" were a series of bolt actions offered in .22 LR, .25-20 and .32-20, and later in .22 Hornet. Anybody looking for a good .25-20 or .32-20 rifle that isn't a lever action would do well to hunt one of these up. I think the Hornet version was the first commercial chambering for that cartridge to hit the market. A scope could be mounted on this model without having to modify the bolt handle, which was unusual for the time.

[Earlwb]

I almost forgot about my old Remington Model 8 rifle in .35 Remingtion caliber. I need to take it out and shoot it some again. I do have several boxes of ammo for it. Back when we had the big ammo shortages, I still had some boxes of ammo for it, but I was reluctant to shoot it, as I might not be able to get any more. One thing though, is that I forgot how the rear peep sight works on the thing. It is stuck in the down position, but I forgot how to unlock it to move it up to its upright position. If I remember right it is a optional sight but I forget the brand, etc. Of course nowadays I am getting pretty old and maybe using a scope would be better. But I doubt that they ever made a scope mount for it. Anyway does anyone remember how the rear sight works on it?

[Four Fingers of Death]

An old SMLE No1 Mk111* it had been a target rifle when the long range guys used to shoot 303s. It is fitted with a heavy (ish) barrel and has been sporterised. It shoots pretty well and deserves a better scope. It is how I bought it. I picked it and another SMLE bubba with nice wood, but a very ordinary barrel for $150 or both of them.



A 3006 M17 with a two groove barrel. Bought in a rush of blood and paid a bit too much for it, haha;





A Parker Hale No4 Sporter. This is a factory job. They ground out the rear sight and replaced it with a Williams open sight. I'm toying with the idea of getting a scope mount for this one (three holes drilled in LH sideplate) and rechambering to 303 Epps, although the chamber should be reasonably tight (I may be dreaming, haha, probably surplus barrels as well).

[Four Fingers of Death]

I forgot about this one, a very expensive job indeed, a wealthy panelbeater had it built and I picked it up when he hung up his spurs. The stock is first class, unfortunately the scope took a hit. Strangely enough, it is built on a 1942 action, but I suppose they weren't as fussy back then. It was probably built in the 50s or 60s. Factory rifles were very expensive and SMLEs Sporters in 303 and rebarrelled to 303/25 where like posteriors, everyone had one! (even me). It has the wrong bolt in the photo, I sorted it out when I picked it up later. The old guy had two Enfields that he handed into the shop to be sold and they fitted the bolts assbackwards. All sorted now.













Swiss girl;



Hungarian shorty;

[W.R.Buchanan]

FFOD/Mick: Yes that scope will need to be rezeroed!

Your Parker Hale rifle is a "#4 Custom." and is a pretty desirable rifle as far as PH Enfield Based Rifles go, and definitely a nice shooter.

My gun shown above started as a "PH Standard Sporter" which essentially was a#1 or #4 with the handguard and front sight protector removed and the Fore end trimmed to behind the barrel band. Usually these had decent barrels, and mine is excellent. I refitted a upper handguard, sight protector, barrel band, added a decent 1907 sling, and then adapted a Redfield Olympic rear sight to it. It is a great shooter. I was going for the L39 target rifle look with mine.

My other gun which started as a #4 Mk1* Long Branch was converted by PH to be a "Deluxe Sporter" which meant it had the barrel cut to 22", a new Front Sight soldered on, and the fore end trimmed back and rounded to be more cosmetically acceptable. The reason the barrels were cut was generally because the muzzle was damaged which usually occurred from over or careless cleaning of the barrel thus ruining the muzzle. Cutting it back got rid of the worn area of the barrel.

Mine had one of the stupid two groove barrels and now it is .35-303 which solved that problem.

See the pics below from a PH Catalog. Yours was probably the nicest one they offered until they started making Mauser based guns. If you blow up the pics you can read the specifications of each model.

Randy

[Four Fingers of Death]

The Deluxe No4 that you picture still uses the standard peep sight, mine has a Williams folding open sight). I remember looking at one of these in the 70s and my friend the gun shop owner said that they were manufactured on good actions using new barrels, sights and stocks. This was just before PH bought out the Midland Sporting rifles using Springfield bolts that PH acquired a warehouse full of after the war.

They were $175 from memory, which was a lot of money, but new rifles were expensive at the time. I couldn't afford one so passed, only to find this one which appeared unfired in 2005. It came from a collection which included many military rifles (of which I ended up with a few (minty P14 fatboy, albiet a repaired stock, 1924 .303 SMLE No1 Mk111 (no star, issued to a country cadet unit as new) in excellent condition and a few others that I can't remember.

I wish mine had the peep sight as I have a spare Singer Sight downstairs ready to give the kiss of life to a battle sighted No4! HaHa!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Mick: the "#4Custom" model had a Williams Open Rear Sight and probably had a new barrel as well.

Both mine,, the Standard and Deluxe were the cheapies I think they were priced at $75 and $100US when the Custom was $175. They both had the Mk2 L shaped Peep Sights with 300 and 600 yards apertures. I bought a Ladder Sight for my Long gun when I refurbished it, but changed it out for a Redfield Olympic on a mount I made. I repeats a little better than the WWII ladder sight.

That gun looks like this now. See pics and the other one has Boyd's furniture and is a work in progress.

Randy

[Four Fingers of Death]

As you can see, they have really done a number on the PH, shown next to a standard No4;



To improve the Singer Sight, we drill through the sight so that a grub screw can be placed on the detent, allowing it to be tightened up. Which makes a huge difference.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Wow: they did get serious with that one!

Randy

[Frank46]

I've a Long Branch #4 MKI* (think I got that right) that is a Parker Hale sporter. Two groove bbl at 22" with a PH ramp taking the enfield style sight blades wood was cut back and butt plate is the older brass one. Haven't shoot it yet but should be a shooter. Been thinking about getting a commercial rear sight rather than using the issued sight ladder. Frank

[Four Fingers of Death]

If you have the Singer sight or pop up ladder sight, I think short of a target peep sight, you'd be hard pressed to improve on it.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I've a Long Branch #4 MKI* (think I got that right) that is a Parker Hale sporter. Two groove bbl at 22" with a PH ramp taking the enfield style sight blades wood was cut back and butt plate is the older brass one. Haven't shoot it yet but should be a shooter. Been thinking about getting a commercial rear sight rather than using the issued sight ladder. Frank

Frank: My Long Branch was the same gun as yours when I started out. except it had the L shaped Mk2 rear sight with 300,600 yard apertures. Mine had an aluminum Butt Plate and was finished in a maroonish color.

Here's a not so good before picture. But pretty sure it's the same gun as your is. PH Deluxe Sporter. See catalog Pics in post #33.

Randy