Best Bolt Action Milsurp

I haven't seen too many of them over the last few years, but a Spanish FR8 might be an interesting option.

Cheap and available ammunition, mauser action and aperture sights.

I love mine.
 
Claven2 said:
I'm a bit worried he may not find a nice Enfield for under $750 all in these days. Anything under that price is likely a poorly slapped together restored sporter. Sadly.
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I have to agree here. Over the past few years I've been fixing quite a few other people's bad desporterizing jobs and frankly some sellers are borderline fraudulent. If you could see what I've seen here... trigger pulls way off, buggered recoil draws (one forend was even missing both draws. Think about that for a second!)

Like others said, I think one of the few great deals which can be had now if you look carefully is a Swedish Mauser. It's about as accurate as a K31 and costs about half (again with a little luck). And a P14 in good shape could be found also for a decent price - that is a great gun.

And, of course a Mosin 91/30 should be added to your collection simply because it's the last one you still can get for $200... look for a nice bore and go play at the range!
 
The 1908 and 1909 are identical except the 1909 has an added bayonet adaptor, a hinged floorplate and is in a more obscure caliber and bore diameter.

Most shooters would be better served with the otherwise identical Brazilian 1908 in 7x57mm.
 
Go Swiss K31 or K11 or 1911, you really cant go wrong in the swiss catagory. Or if I can throw an oddball out there too, I like the M95 rifles, the ammo is epensive to buy though best to reload it.
 
BOHROK said:
Go Swiss K31 or K11 or 1911, you really cant go wrong in the swiss catagory. Or if I can throw an oddball out there too, I like the M95 rifles, the ammo is epensive to buy though best to reload it.
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The issues with the Swiss rifles, as I see them, are: 1) Ammo is one of the more difficult milsurp rounds to buy, good candidate for reloading. and 2) The mechanism isn't very left friendly in my experience (as a lefty). I find traditional bolts easier to manage as a lefty.

There is an aftermarket left handed bolt add-on for the K31, but it's hard to find and very very expensive.
 
Norwegian K98. It's the only milsurp bolt action that has remained in my locker. It's incredibly accurate, shoots commonly available 30-06, and is a K98 action!

I would also consider a Latin American contract Mauser in 7x57 pretty ideal, especially the Carbine length variants.
 
BOHROK said:
Go Swiss K31 or K11 or 1911, you really cant go wrong in the swiss catagory. Or if I can throw an oddball out there too, I like the M95 rifles, the ammo is epensive to buy though best to reload it.
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The only two issues with the M95s are they are not very accurate guns, and the ammo is expensive (8x56r) or next to non-existent (if it is in 8x50r)

Claven2 said:
The issues with the Swiss rifles, as I see them, are: 1) Ammo is one of the more difficult milsurp rounds to buy, good candidate for reloading. and 2) The mechanism isn't very left friendly in my experience (as a lefty). I find traditional bolts easier to manage as a lefty.

There is an aftermarket left handed bolt add-on for the K31, but it's hard to find and very very expensive.
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That is odd, as a lefty I find the Swiss rifles are easier for me to use than most traditional bolts (I put my hand over the action and pull straight back with the left hand). Interesting that you are having issues with it.
 
Claven2 said:
The 1908 and 1909 are identical except the 1909 has an added bayonet adaptor, a hinged floorplate and is in a more obscure caliber and bore diameter.

Most shooters would be better served with the otherwise identical Brazilian 1908 in 7x57mm.
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And, you forgot, it has a different bolt release.

If you reload, and you not only should, but you must, this is not a problem.
Take 30-06 brass and make any Mauser brass out of it (except 6.5x55).
 
BOHROK said:
Go Swiss K31 or K11 or 1911, you really cant go wrong in the swiss catagory. Or if I can throw an oddball out there too, I like the M95 rifles, the ammo is epensive to buy though best to reload it.
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Best to reload?
This round has an odd sized bullet and is more of a nightmare than anything else.
 
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Eaglelord17 said:
The only two issues with the M95s are they are not very accurate guns, and the ammo is expensive (8x56r) or next to non-existent (if it is in 8x50r)



That is odd, as a lefty I find the Swiss rifles are easier for me to use than most traditional bolts (I put my hand over the action and pull straight back with the left hand). Interesting that you are having issues with it.
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Not issues. I just didn't find it as natural. This can be a very personal thing, ergonomics.
 
polaris said:
And, you forgot, it has a different bolt release.

If you reload, and you not only should, but you must, this is not a problem.
Take 30-06 brass and make any Mauser brass out of it (except 6.5x55).
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Yes, cosmetically it is different as one forms part of the charger guide (the 1909).
 
Guys,are you serious about Czech and Yugo crap?Believe me:as far as I know,and I know a lot about any firearms which were used on the eastern front(I mean exactly Russian territory where I am from),because since I remember myself I was excavating them on the battlefields and repaired them-and believe me,I have restored hundreds of them,and also some of them I just registered for myself-and they were the best among all other similar guns with worse condition,history and all other things-so I left for myself only 5 of them and all the rest,which were counted in hundreds were sold or presented or sold after deactivating and even "died" during my experiments and crush-tests.And as for me-the best of bolt-action were my very first gun which I found and restored by myself-and which somehow appeared to be also the most accurate gun among all the guns which I ever seen and shot and this is a sniper modification of Mosin.Believe it or not,my best shot was when I shot a beer cap from the distance of 1700 metres(more than a mile),with the first bullet after adjusting to this distance with 5 rounds.This is incredibly accurate,but this is only because it was a sniper modification(and also thanks to the intact bore which came in totally perfect condition)-so the regular Mosins never show such a surgery-they were made in 150 times bigger quantity then sniper ones and in much less precision way,so if the sniper ones are able to put the bullets in such a miserable dispersion that doesn't exceed the size of a beer cap at the distance of one mile,but the regular ones are incapable to put all 5 of 5 rounds in a watermelon from 400 metres no matter what scope you will mount and how are your shooting skills.So take a look at the sniper Mosins if you'll find such ones,and about the second bolt-action which I also registered for myself was off course Mauser,which I used to take with me for hunting,shooting and self-protecting during excavations(an encounter with the boar or moose or the bear in the worst case is not too rare in the forests and fields which we excavate-and without being armed I would have been already 5 to 10 times killed during these excavations)and it surprisingly never failed,though when I actually only repaired this one(honestly assembled one out of two damaged ones-with repairable barrel but crushed receiver and damaged bolt and another with absent magazine and cut by shrapnel barrel,both in the 3- out of 5 overall condition)I thought it will explode after several shots because the barrel had almost mint bore and intact chamber,but had an awful and scary absent piece of metal which was destroyed by the remaining piece of wood near the muzzle end and this "wound" was more than half of the thickness deep-so I first shot it with a motorcycle helmet and Kevlar gloves in attempt to show my friend how it explodes!And after shooting two 350 rounds each belts for mgs and becoming sweaty as much that I was ready to throw up I decided that it is indestructible and thrown away the helmet which I hated like hell.And we took the remaining couple clips and tested it's accuracy in conclusion-and it also surprised us when we hit some glass bottles from 400-500 metres with open sight-and since that time I used to rely on it,by the way after that I shot it many thousands times thanks to a lot of ammunition we excavated and shot after a quick cleaning-so now I know how reliable those German Mausers are,but don't mistake that those Yugo and Czech pieces of junk are even close to that!They are not only ridiculously less accurate and comfortable-they are also not even one tenths off it's reliability!I need to warn you about them-once I witnessed with my own eyes how the guy which just repaired ####ing zb24 which was found in nearly mint condition and had only millimetre or 2 pittings in some places,so the guy ignored all our precautions and after less than ten rounds this piece of #### explodes in his hands and he luckily survived,but was taken to hospital with serious injuries among which he lost 6 front teeth when the bolt hit his face and also damaged by shrapnel and with minor burns on hands and face as well.That is how zb24 works!Even when the experts were on the place,the most experienced of them first of all said when saw the remainings of this junk the expected phrase:"damn,another dude unluckily found Czech instead of normal one-that should be so easy to determine them by the outside differences and throw it in a junk pile or deactivate and sell as a toy?",and then asked the rest of experts to finish the paperwork and then read the long lecture to us which briefly mean that the Mauser can be only German excellent gun with many advantages and so on or it can be dangerous if made anywhere else!And as for you-you can just simply compare it's sound to the sound of the German one!It is 2 times louder or more!So never be fooled by bull#### that zb24 or m48 or any other piece of junk equals the German one if you don't want to replace your teeth,fingers or eyes!The only Mauser is made in Germany and nowhere else!
 
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