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.

 

[five.five-six]

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

 

[five.five-six]

Avoid like the plague unless its bottom of the barrel cheap. Maybe if a bubba'd rifle is like 100 bucks it could be worth restoring.
Otherwise you're pretty much always better off searching for an unmolested example.

I'm going against my own self interest posting this but that's not true anymore. The original examples are drying up. the bubbas are becoming more expensive. CMP is now selling "reclaimed" receivers FFS. By all accounts the are stronger than original but these are de-milled drill rifles which they fixed.

 

[echo1]

Cost, it's all about the initial cash out lay. Then can it be saved? I had an Arisaka T99 converted to .30-06, no irons, period correct Weaver, Boyds Monty, hunnerd bucks (no picts ). Turned it into 2 Chinese SKS rifles. Another time, I picked up the remnants of an estate sale, the stuff the family that raped over the dead guy thought was junk. 9 rifles and a pile of wood, including a complete 1917 furniture set $450. Took 4 years to find the right donor Eddystone. Was cruising the usual LGS haunts and came up on a Smith-Corona 03A3 that was so well done I thought it was G&H handy work, $200 bucks. I sent pictures to the G&H archivist, and he kindly pointed out the differences but did comment on the excellent craftsmanship. Next, I found an Enfield #4 MK1/2 with only the wood butchered, $70, easy cost-efficient save. Another Enfield came my way, #4 MK1, but the hack saw found the barrel, $65 (one of the last cash & carry buys before the regs changed). I did what I could to make it presentable, brake, hooded ramp Parker Hale, 5 round mag, cheek pad. Safariesque. Ishapore 2A1 that came in an ATI Monty, $C note. I had furniture from the estate but, but I did what I could with what I had on the shelf, big illuminated Cheapanese glass (50X), 5 round mag, Blackhawk cheek pad, doesn't offend me so I let it be. Consistent groups if you go slow. Then there were a couple dozen SKS salvages from the days of rampant Bubbafacation of the platform. All bought for dirt, all saved all moved for 2X to 4X what I had into them . PAX
The estate bundle

Smith-Corona custom work

Donor Eddystone and Enfield #4 MK1, Have the bits but I'll get to them when I get to them

Enfield modded for Safari camp meat-was going to clone a #5, have a receiver, but too much work

7.62X51 (.308) '67 Ishapore 2A1

 

[H. Bowman]

My Dad left me a sporterized and shortened Schmidt-Rubin 1911 straight pull re-chambered in 308, sweet shooter.

It even came with a "Oswald Scope" (4x Hollywood brand telescopic sight).

That would be awesome. Common cheap caliber in a cool historical fun to shoot rifle!

 

[shroom]

I'm going against my own self interest posting this but that's not true anymore. The original examples are drying up. the bubbas are becoming more expensive. CMP is now selling "reclaimed" receivers FFS. By all accounts the are stronger than original but these are de-milled drill rifles which they fixed.

It all depends on price. If it's cheap enough then sure. But if some old boomer is selling his MUH DEER RIFLE butchered milsurp for 300-400 bucks then you will literally pay more trying to restore it than just going on gunbroker, being patient, and getting an unmolested rifle.
Replacement stocks, and replacement hardware have a cost to them as well. You should see what Arisaka stocks can go for online.

 

[DennisCA]

Here’s my sporterized rifle I bought;
The first two is my Remington 1904a3 (before and after photos).
The stairs photo is the 30-40 Kraig, which I left as is.
Thought would share them with all of you.

 

[ZeroFoxGiven]

I don't own any, but I like them tbh. That is old world repurposing at its finest.

 

[doggman61]

That's a pretty rare and interesting beast. What caliber is it? I know they were made in .30-06, .270 Win and the Chileans produced their variant in 7x57mm Mauser. Also, have you tried searching for a stock on any foreign sites, Chile, Philippines, Netherlands, etc.

This one is a .30-06. At the time my uncle was working at a gun shop and the owner bought it off a guy for $150 he told me about it and I ended up getting it for $200. Shot it once to make sure everything worked and she has lived in the C&R safe ever since.
I have not! any recommendations on foreign sights to check out???

 

[echo1]

A Russian sks that you could pick up for around 500 with the only bubba'd aspects being a polymer stock and maybe bayonet removed .....

As long as the numbers matching receiver cover is present you can live with mismatched or scrubbed wood. PAX

 

[Coolguy]

I like them because rifles are tools, and tools are meant to be used. I think sporterized milsurp hunting rifles are great to use if done well. To me having a milsurp rifle that just sits in the safe and collects dust is kind of a waste unless its a rare, valuable piece of history and using it will decrease its value.

 

[FunGun]

The problem with buying a sporterized milsurp to restore is that most of the sellers want the same or more money than an original milsurp. They used to be less but in the last 10 years the sellers keep asking for more and occasionally they get it. Then the other sporterized owners think their gun is more valuable than it actually is.

 

[shroom]

Was at the Vallejo gunshow sone time ago. Guy with a table had something like 5-6 no1mk3s. He wanted 4 or 500.
Across from him at another table an older gentlemen had a sporterized (read: bubbad nearly beyond recognition) no1mk3, wanted 300.

 

[FekTok]

I avoid any sporterized stuff. At one time, when parts and stocks were cheap, you could put in the effort to convert them back to original configuration but now, to me, it's not worth it.

 

[Bruceflinch]

9/10 of them aren’t worth the trouble of restoring imo. Often when the sights are removed for a target sight or tapped for a scope it becomes too much work just to end up with a forever marred rifle, plus when you buy up parts you support people taking apart perfectly fine rifles and parting them out to sell piece by piece.

Maybe it’s my luck but in my time I haven’t come across many bad sporter jobs outside of one ratF-ed mosin. They make good shooters when you can find them for a reasonable price.

There used to be a one handed guy who would go to every gun show close to the Bay Area who was trying to sell his collection of sporter mausers for thousands of dollars each and he would tell me that they are worth that much because they are “ marked” (as if that is rare lol) and the stocks he handmade for them were just that fine. To me it looked like a bright yellow 4x4. Wonder if he ever sold them

Sounds like Lefty Curtis. About two years ago I saw him at the Antioch gun show. He only had about a dozen rifles for sale.

 

[five.five-six]

9/10 of them aren’t worth the trouble of restoring imo. Often when the sights are removed for a target sight or tapped for a scope it becomes too much work just to end up with a forever marred rifle, plus when you buy up parts you support people taking apart perfectly fine rifles and parting them out to sell piece by piece.

Maybe it’s my luck but in my time I haven’t come across many bad sporter jobs outside of one ratF-ed mosin. They make good shooters when you can find them for a reasonable price.

There used to be a one handed guy who would go to every gun show close to the Bay Area who was trying to sell his collection of sporter mausers for thousands of dollars each and he would tell me that they are worth that much because they are “ marked” (as if that is rare lol) and the stocks he handmade for them were just that fine. To me it looked like a bright yellow 4x4. Wonder if he ever sold them

I’ll buy that stuff but for really cheep. Prices that would make a low baller blush. They do sell on gun broker … I’m at $1-200 under those prices.

 

[KingRansom]

Since the Russian ammo ban Milsurp rifles are a thing of the past at least for me. The rifles have become ridiculously expensive and so has the ammo. If I'm going to pay that much per round I'm going to go with a more available caliber that's a little bit cheaper like 308

 

[Forkknifegamer67]

Sounds like Lefty Curtis. About two years ago I saw him at the Antioch gun show. He only had about a dozen rifles for sale.

Haha thats him! Interesting to talk to but he is smoking some real good (or bad) if he thinks his m98k in a stock made from the old PG&E plant timber is worth 4k. I swear he has the same guns for sale every time i saw him.

Once at the Antioch gun show he tried to sell me what is possibly the universe's loosest Rossi gallery gun missing its tube for 300, saying he was going to raise the price once he got a replacement in (at the time sportsmans had them for 350 new). I left and drove out to Hook, Line and Sinker and bought a JC higgins 31 for the same amount

 

[Forkknifegamer67]

I’ll buy that stuff but for really cheep. Prices that would make a low baller blush. They do sell on gun broker … I’m at $1-200 under those prices.

yeah most of the time sporterized guns are done well enough and they make perfectly fine shooters- but i am not ever going to pay much more than a couple hundred for one

 

[shroom]

Don't think the guns have any value as just shooters. If a shooter was all I wanted then I would go to the closest big box store and buy one of the $300 rifles on the rack and slap some cheap amazon optic onto it. Would outshoot any milsurp bolt action out there.

 

[CaptainLevi]

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.

Good luck getting your hands on the ammos lol. Its good to collect and admire, but shooting a rare caliber gets expensive or rare.