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This is an interesting thread on a subject that is indicative of our changing times. It is a debate between those who want to preserve some of our History and Heritage, mostly an older group of people, and those of a mostly younger group who sort of reflect the views that they can do anything they wish with their property. As one of those older people who has actually lived through the heyday of the Milsurp Era, I think I am entitled to make a few observations.
First of all, back to KJOHN's original post, I think he may just be referring to a couple of Swedish rifles that I sold him. Both rifles were made by Mauser, in 1900, with serial numbers under 5000 and part of a special order Contract initiated by the Swedish Rifle Association, the SkytteOS. These rifles were made to original specifications so that the Civilian target shooters could compete with the Military, as the Swedes were re-arming their Military with the M96 rifle and had none to give to the Civilians. In fact, a lot of these were bought or donated to the Army, who proceeded to drill the stock for a disk. These 5000 rifles were originally made WITHOUT a stock disk, and now KJOHN has an original one, (one of four known original ones without an original intact stock and without a stock disk hole in it,) along with one that has had the stock disk hole drilled in it.
So, with the limited special production of 5000 rifles, and only 4 known ORIGINAL rifles of this series, does anyone really think that KJOHN should take the original rifle down to his workshop, stick a Forstner bit into a drill, and proceed to put a stock disk hole in the butt stock, or maybe cut down the original Mauser made stock, and drill holes for a set of weaver bases on it? How about cutting the barrel down to make it a lot more handy?
After all, it is HIS rifle, and he can do with it what he wants to!
SMELLIE and I took THREE YEARS in getting a Historic rifle for a Canadian Military Regiment's Museum, and only a handfull of people here know the real story of how we did it. It ended up that this rifle was donated to the Regiment, and while it did cost us a bit of cash, it did not cost them any money. This was a 1905 Ross, but the markings on the Butt Stock were that of the Regiment, and because these Regimental markings were intact and not cancelled out, it indicates that this particular Regiment was the last owner of this rifle back in 1914. Does anyone really think we should have sanded off these markings from the Butt Stock, cut down the wood, refinished, or "Sporterized" that rifle to make it look "pretty"?
As I stated, I have lived through the times when the Milsurps were plentiful. Those $9.95 SMLE rifles that were displayed in Surplus stores in a barrel, "take your pick," are now pushing the $500 range for an original one in good shape. And I have to confess that I, too, did "Sporterize" a few of them at the time. A 6.5mm Mannlicher-Schoneur Carbine in the 1960s was in the $150 range, and for a person making $1 an hour, that was a lot of money. However a Greek surplus one was less than $10 and for another $15 or so, along with some work done on the stock, a person could have a reasonable "clone" of that handy little but very effective deer rifle. And that little rifle, topped with a 2.5X scope, using readily available CIL ammunition, accounted for a lot of Deer and Game.
But Times, Attitudes and Needs change. The supply of ORIGINAL Milsurp firearms has been steadily drying up. Governments have now armed their Military with more modern semi-automatic and full automatic firearms, and these will NOT be available as Milsurps in the Future. One has only to look at the FN rifles in Canada to see this. The supply of older Milsurps has declined dramatically over the last 20 years or so, and the Moisin-Nagants of today will become as scarce as the SMLEs and Lee-Enfields of the 1960s or the Swedish Mausers of the 1980s, and no more will be made.
If we were to really think about it, you could sell an original Lee Enfield on the Equipment Exchange, and with the proceeds buy TWO of them in excellent shape with still a bit of money left over. If someone really wants to "Sporterize" a rifle, then why not start with one that has the preliminary work already done?
As TINMAN204 pointed out, I am getting a bit long of tooth and up there in age. Through Experience, you learn a lot of things throughout the years, and one of the things I have learned is that the Past can not be re-lived but can be PARTLY preserved for our Future Generations to have. When People die, or objects disappear or are altered beyond return to their original state, we lose a lot of our History and Heritage.
