Thoughts on buying “Sporterized” Milsurp Rifles

[DennisCA]

Thoughts on purchasing “sporterized” milsurp rifles?
I have bought two;
One was a Remington 1903a3, which brought back to milsurp specs.
(It was a bunch of work, but worth it)
The other was a 30-40 Kraig, it was nicely done so I kept it as-is.

 

[echo1]

I currently am on the lookout for a Springfield 1903 sporter with a blown out barrel etc. I have an early 1903 with the brittle heat treat and someone broke the bottom lug. replacement receivers seem like hens teeth and welding and re-heat treating seems more expensive than a basket case sporter. I may opt for an 03A3 if that's my only option.

Please DM me if you come across something that will work for me

Forgot to mention, I bought a sport 03-A3 with a barrel chop and no front sight. I picked it up for the action to salvage a cast receiver rifle from the '50's, a Santa Fe. Hunnerd bucks for the Sante Fe, hunnerd for the sport job $75 plus the leftover guts to the smith for the receiver swap. $275 for a legit mismatched 03-A3 isn't bad. It did take 5 years to find an affordable donor. PAX

 

[C&RTrader]

I always always avoided them with the exception of a "duffle-cut" K98. i considered that modification part of the wartime history of the rifle. I guess the other major exception would be all the 91/30s that the finns so kindly sporterized into M39s.

when i was actively collecting I would see them from time to time and just sigh.

 

[FMFdevildoc]

About 20yrs ago, when I was much younger and VERY much dumber - I had a massive collection of ally / axis WW2 small arms. The milsurp were bountiful and affordable. I mean case in point - I paid $79 for my Mosin M44 and 91/30, I paid $175 for a Yugo 59/66 SKS. I paid about $225 for a PRISTINE Schmidt-Rubin, got the Garand for $800 which was a sinful amount of money at that time. I ultimately sold my WW2 collection; which included a German Luger, a TT-80 and a Nambu pistol… I sold it at an obscene profit & basically was nearly able to pay off what I owed on my then-new Nissan Frontier. 100+ years of militaría, history and tradition - gone for a 6 banger Nissan (Hey Alexa - play the nun saying “SHAME” and ringing a bell from game of thrones on a nine hour loop).

I digress - to answer your inquiry, I would stick with restoring milsurp to working order over purchasing a sporterized / altered or perhaps butchered milsurp rifle. When they were affordable & more plentiful, it was a different scenario.

I only ever sported out one old milsurp - when Big 5 Sporting goods still has Mosins for $79.99… I scored one with a good, bright bore & no erosion, it was fairly clean and shot INCREDIBLY well. I found a synthetic black stock, a downturn bolt kit & a scope mount. Mounted a 2X fixed red dot that I had. Think: scout mount / scout rifle kind of build. Inside of 200yds it would shoot “minute of Grizzly wintergreen dip can”. With the Winchester “metric caliber” white / red box 7.62x54R, it shot maybe 1/4-1/2 MOA better… Just a bit tighter. Ah, to be young, single, carefree. LOL. Took that Mosin to shoot at a friends ranch; which turned into “Do you want to fill a pig tag?” Two days later - just inside 100yds, I dropped a boar that was around 225lbs, outside of Lakeport CA. That ole 7.62x54R is a great round, drilled that hog & he died where he stood in the orchard.

Anyhow, TL;DR - if it were me, I’d focus my efforts on getting milsurps that haven’t been altered to restore to their glory.

 

[Gawernator]

If they're done well they can be fun to shoot

 

[5hundo]

Thoughts on purchasing “sporterized” milsurp rifles?
I have bought two;
One was a Remington 1903a3, which brought back to milsurp specs.
(It was a bunch of work, but worth it)
The other was a 30-40 Kraig, it was nicely done so I kept it as-is.

Krags used to be a great deal for hunters in the US when you could get them for just a few dollars. Before scopes were widely available, people would put Redfield or Pacific peep sights on them and you had yourself a VERY effective rifle for medium to large game. There are some gorgeous Krag sporters available out there. I'd never turn my nose up at one...

Some of the M1 carbine sporters by Williams Gun Sight were pretty cool too.

Sporters get a lot of hate but honestely, there's some good ones out there.

 

[shroom]

The problem with sporters is that people want too much for them. There's really no point in buying them for the shooting aspect anymore considering the cheapest rifle at sportsmens warehouse with the cheapest amazon optic will easily outshoot sporterized milsurps, while being in a readily available caliber.

The historical collectability aspect of the rifles has also been butchered in the process, so that's gone too. Back when the Vallejo gunshow actually had guns there was a guy with a table of No1Mk3 Enfields, he wanted 400-450 for one. Right across from him some old boomer had a butchered no1mk3 for 300.

 

[echo1]

The problem with sporters is that people want too much for them. There's really no point in buying them for the shooting aspect anymore considering the cheapest rifle at sportsmens warehouse with the cheapest amazon optic will easily outshoot sporterized milsurps, while being in a readily available caliber.

The historical collectability aspect of the rifles has also been butchered in the process, so that's gone too. Back when the Vallejo gunshow actually had guns there was a guy with a table of No1Mk3 Enfields, he wanted 400-450 for one. Right across from him some old boomer had a butchered no1mk3 for 300.

Smith Corona 03A4 $200


#4 MK1 $60 (I added the cheek pad, brake and hood on the Parker Hale front)


You gotta know how to shop and be lucky. PAX

 

[GAFSfiend]

Like you said, buy them and put them back to their original glory!

this is the way