Official Vandalism Manual
- Thread starter Hambone
- Start date
Seen a few posted over the years. So many good guns ruined.
plain old dave
Member
Well, just to be fair, in the postwar era, $20-30 for a surplus rifle, scope or sporting sights and labor as opposed to several years' wait for a Model 70 (or, if it was available, a LOT more money), was a pretty easy decision. Many men of that generation were 110% convinced that all foreign military rifles were junk, and with some work might be made into a passable (and therefore useful) hunting rifle. You still run across elderly men at gun shows that insist that "all them old Jap rifles got cast recievers and'll blow up on you", and that might explain why Ariskas have showing up in recent years in relatively unmolested condition; "Papaw" brought an old Army gun back from the Pacific and to him it was just a memento of WW2; he never shot it because, in all probability, he didn't think it was safe to shoot. And to the grandchildren, it's just an old Army gun. Mausers, on the other hand, were seen as a second-rate 1903 and were converted into hunting rifles in all sorts of calibers at a now-alarming rate.
This is why SAAMI and the American sporting firearms industry supported the Gun Control Act of 1968. Remchester saw mail order military guns as COMPETITION.
This is why SAAMI and the American sporting firearms industry supported the Gun Control Act of 1968. Remchester saw mail order military guns as COMPETITION.
Warrior1354
ax - hole
Mausers were considered second rate to 03 Springfields? The rifle that were told all the time don't shoot the low number receivers due to some being made with burnt steel and having failing issues. And the rifle that was copied off the 98 Mauser action and stripper clip feeding system that we had to pay Mauser money for. But the Mauser is second rate I think not.
Warrior1354
ax - hole
Can't agree more to that they earned those rifle 100%. And to some of them it was military rifle that they earn with their service and it was perfectly fine being made into a hunting rifle to take back home to put food on the table on their family farm.
John Strunk
Senior Member
1000% agreed....they paid the price for their bring back.
plain old dave
Member
The infringement was on the zigzag magazine spring but really, the 03 is an amalgamation of the 93 Mauser and the greatest military arm of all time, the Krag, but that'll hold for another day.
I well remember my Papaw's reaction to me pondering on buying an 8mm Mauser. He was in A Battery of the 563d Field Artillery, 89th ID, 3rd Army. Was on the west bank of the Rhine when my aunt was born. He acted like I had brought home a minority bride, and I see lower-key versions of this reaction at gun shows to this day. GIs (and a sizeable majority of modern gun show attendees) considered and consider foreign military guns junk with no value other than as mementos of the Second World War. They sporterized them without a second thought and hunted with them just as long as it took to afford a "decent" deer rifle like a Winchester M94, M70, Remington 740/760 or whatever. Then, the 'old Army gun' was parked in the closet and usually sold when the Veteran went in a rest home, or now that the WW2 Generation are dying off the sporterized rifles are coming out of the closets of the WW2 Vets that were able to live out their lives at home.
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Most of those Budda'd guns weren't "sportered" by vets who brought them home, They were whacked up by guys trying to turn a quick buck or build their own "deer rifle". I once got a bucket full of K98k parts (with some Jap, Swede, and other parts mixed in) from a basement gunsmith who made a bunch of "sporters" over the years. He burned the stocks in his fireplace.