military rifles

[1mathom1]

Had never really had much interest in military rifles until this Mosin Nagant thing. Now I am starting to get the itch. I realize there are million ways to look at a military collection but I am thinking bolt rifles only from about the same time frame or at least the same DESIGN time frame from the different combatants in the two world wars.

SMLE
Mausers
1903-a3
Swiss
Italian
Japanese

Thing is....I am so ignorant I have no clue to where to begin gathering information so I can narrow the field. Could not begin to afford one of every iteration from every nation.

Thoughts from you military collector types???

 

[zipty6]

You might also look into the Model of 1917. It has an interesting history. I believe that we fielded far more 1917s in WWI than we did 1903s.

 

[Perplexed]

Here's a very good site for starting off: http://www.surplusrifle.com/index.asp

In the beginning, I thought of collecting an example of a firearm from each of the combatants that took part in WW2, but realized after a while that unless I had a lot of money and patience, that wasn't a realistic goal. The problem was that I wanted to be able to take these firearms to the range; unless you reload, such a practice can be expensive and time-consuming especially when it comes to the ammo. I decided after a while to ditch the majority of my collection and focus on a limited number of calibers; even then, I've limited the number of firearms I have in these calibers, simply because it made no sense to me to tie up a lot of funds in firearms that saw little if any range time.

But that's just me

 

[been]

welcome to the surplus world.i think out of all the milsurp rifles the Mauser's would have to be my favorite.some are not expensive and all that iv shot have shot well.for collector rifles don't buy from Mitchell's Mauser's.they say collector grade but in reality have none because they have been refurbished and mismatched.a good site is misurpshooter.net its been kinda slow lately but its a good group of people with alot of information.they also have a classifieds section with some good stuff.you questions may not get answered immediately over there but you can go thru past threads and see if you can find anything.

 

[ldp4570]

Had never really had much interest in military rifles until this Mosin Nagant thing. Now I am starting to get the itch. I realize there are million ways to look at a military collection but I am thinking bolt rifles only from about the same time frame or at least the same DESIGN time frame from the different combatants in the two world wars.

SMLE
Mausers
1903-a3
Swiss
Italian
Japanese

Thing is....I am so ignorant I have no clue to where to begin gathering information so I can narrow the field. Could not begin to afford one of every iteration from every nation.

Thoughts from you military collector types???

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!! You don't want to go down this path, its worse than collecting S&W Revolvers!!!!!!!!!

By the way, you'll need an M1 Garand www.odcmp.com M1 Carbine, 1903A3-try an find a SC model as most of the Remington ones have only a two groove barrel. Careful, cause you may want to start getting matching time period sidearms to go with your rifles!!!

 

[been]

go down the path.you owe it to yourself.

 

[Perplexed]

By the way, you'll need an M1 Garand www.odcmp.com M1 Carbine

He did say he's looking at bolt-action rifles, so there's hope for him... kind of Now if he decides he also wants semi-auto's, then that shred of hope goes out the window. In which case, you could include the SVT-40 and K43, just to name a couple off the top of my head.

Tread carefully, Mathom

 

[been]

you'd need a MAS49 and a Egyptian Hakim also

 

[Perplexed]

you'd need a MAS49 and a Egyptian Hakim also

Technically, those are post-WW2 rifles. The OP is talking about the two world wars.

 

[1mathom1]

Oh. My. What have I done?