Century Guns/Cartridges

[canid]

I didn't appreciate all these classic, once cheap firearms until one day I noticed that I can't readily afford an smle, sks, m1 rifle or carbine, 1903, 91/30, k98 or most of the other 'flyer surplus' small arms that used to be everywhere and that I never broke down and purchased. My kids might be inheriting history and a love of firearms at the same time if I'd given it the thought some of you have found obvious for two generations running.

[kyratshooter]

Many of the countries attempted to convert existing rifles to .308 but few were successful.

The conversions that worked best were the nations that changed Mausers to 308. All they had to do was change barrels and do a simple magazine modification.

The Enfield was really not strong enough to handle .308 and Britain held out until 1958 when they went to the FN. The .308 Enfields that were converted were almost all for the Indian Army. They scare me. There were so many Enfields built in so many different arsenals over a 70 year lifespan I always wonder about the strength of parts, how much stress they have seen and such as well as the jump from an 40,000cpu cartridge to a 50,000cpu bullet.

Every army that used the M1 Garand tried some way to convert to .308 from the Italians rebarreling rifles to the U.S. forces using the chamber insert. There were just too many of them to throw away! By 1950 the platform was obsolete and better things were available. Our attempt to transition with the M14 was a pitiful effort and an incredible waste of taxpayer dollars.

While we had stolen away Germany's rocket scientists while the Soviets whisked off the German small arms engineers. A fellow named Schmeisser was hauled away to an arms factory in the area around lake Baikal and told to build a better rifle than the SKS.

He took the M1 Carbine, turned the action upside down, put it into a stamped sheet metal frame, hung a pistol grip under it and chambered it for the dandy new 7.62x39 Russian cartridge. Not many folks realize that Shcmeisser was in charge of the factory that made the first run of AK rifles or that the rifle was intended to be made from stamped parts from the start.

The AK, RPD, and all those dandy toys of the late 1940s and 1950s were hardly the efforts of a genius tank Sargent. But you simply can not name the rifle you are putting into the hands of every Russian soldier a Schmeisser! Not right after WW2 anyway.

So while we were walking on the moon, and have not been back for some time due to no immediate need, the Russians were building and equipping half the world with the best individual combat weapons system ever seen on the face of the earth.

Sorry fellows, I own several AR platforms and love to shoot them, but if things were to get down and dirty I want my AK.

[randyt]

Parker Ackley performed a series of blowup tests on various military bolt actions. He wrote about it in one of his books. The strongest action tested was a well made arisaka action.

[M118LR]

"The right arm of the Free World" FN FAL : "Churchill and U.S. President Harry Truman in 1952 that the British accept the .30 Light Rifle cartridge as NATO standard in return for U.S. acceptance of the FN FAL as NATO standard. The .30 Light Rifle cartridge was in fact later standardized as the 7.62 mm NATO; however, the U.S. insisted on continued rifle tests. The FAL chambered for the .30 Light Rifle went up against the redesigned T25 (now redesignated as the T47), and an M1 Garand variant, the T44. Eventually, the T44 won, becoming the M14. However, in the meantime, most other NATO countries were evaluating and selecting the FAL."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_FAL)
There is a strong conversation that can be made for the FN FAL, even if America didn't accept it while everyone else in NATO did.

But as I'm a made in the USA guy, if things got down and dirty I'd be snuggling an M14. Seems that the M14 was designed well enough to make a come back in I/A, but that might just be due to the shortcomings of the 5.56 NATO round in the AR platform.

[kyratshooter]

Parker Ackley performed a series of blowup tests on various military bolt actions. He wrote about it in one of his books. The strongest action tested was a well made arisaka action.

I read that test and it was one of those enlightening things one reads and starts calling BS on the mythology from that point on. The victims of gun blow ups invariably leave some of the facts out, usually their own stupid actions.

I also saw a blip in a old American Rifleman magazine back in the 1960s in one of those "I have a Question" columns they do each month. Some guy sent in a cartridge, a recovered fired round and pictures of his rifle, with the comment that My rifle is kicking real hard, what is the matter with it?"

What was the matter was that he was firing 7.7 Jap rounds out of a 6.5 Jap rifle!

The recovered FMJ bullet looked like it had been squeezed out of a tube of toothpaste and how this guy had gottten the bolt closed on the round was a mystery, but some guys will work until they make it happen.

The amazing thing was that the pre-war manufactured 6.5 had held together with no apparent damage.

In the early 1980s I made a bench gun from an Arisaka action someone threw in as boot on a trade and that thing has a lot of beef in it. They are huge actions and I am sure you could make a single shot "anything you want" out of one.

Design wise it appears to be a cross between the Mauser and the MN with that huge round disk on the striker for a safety knob. Really ugly action.

They were selling for $25 down in Tennessee back in 1990 when apparently a boat load of them arrived in the area. Every one of them looked like they had been chewed up by porcupines.

[randyt]

The arisaka may also be the weakest action too lol. I have a old hook safety jap that I was told in no uncertain terms by granddad to never, never ever shoot it. I ended up with a few arisakas, I think there may be one that was re-chambered to 30-06.

[kyratshooter]

The late Jap war production, just like the late German production, is often questionable.

I had a Chec Bruno Mauser in 8mm that was a late run rifle.

It still had the machine marks in the barrel fro a dull lathe cutting tool.

The action was unpolished and had forging lines intact.

All of the hardware was stamped thin sheet metal. The barrel bands looked like they were made from a tin can lid, the Trigger guard and mag floor were about the weight of galvanized roofing and that trigger guard was big enough to shoot the rifle while wearing mittens.

The stock was Plywood. I will not give it the honor of being called "laminate", it was closer to construction grade plywood.

The stock was finished out with a brown varnish and the metal hardware, barrel and action were painted with black enamel.

After saying all that I must admit that I shot the crap out of that rifle and it functioned flawlessly, except on occasion it would split some of the cases on one 1937 run of surplus ammo I acquired.

[alaskabushman]

I recently read an article on the Austro-Hungarian rifles they converted to a squeeze bore in The Great War. Captured Mosin-Nagants were chambered for the 7.62x54R, but the Austro-Hungarians commonly used the 8x50R. The huge amounts of the 7.62x54R being captured made some sort of conversion practical but the Austro-Hungarians wanted to still shoot the 8x50R. Some rifles were re-bored, but this was too slow. As I remember it they decided to simply ream the chamber with extra free bore, and call it good. The intention of course being to shoot the 8mm bullet down a 7.62 barrel. YIKES! Apperently is worked better than one would expect. Just imagine being the soldier these were issued to, that first trigger pull would be the worst.

These squeeze bore rifles are extremely rare today since the rifles were converted again at the wars end.

A great testament to the strength of the Mosin-Nagant...

[alaskabushman]

Ah! Found the article!
http://gunsmagazine.com/the-first-squeeze-bore/

[randyt]

When I think of squeeze bores, I think of the myra extruder. Starts out as a 22 lr and ends up as a 17 cal.

That old hook safety is from ww 1, I've been told the action is cast iron, not sure though.

[alaskabushman]

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found this 30-06 case in an informal rockpit range. Wish I knew the story behind it. I keep it by my reloading bench to remind me of what the consequences of mistakes are.

[crashdive123]

Somebody made a decorative vase out of a shell casing.