Enfield vs Mauser old school throwdown

Mauser or Enfield?

  • Mauser

    Votes: 85 27.1%
  • No4 Mk1

    Votes: 229 72.9%

  • Total voters
    314
The sights on the Mauser are utter crap. The aperture on the no4 is excellent. There is no better sight in WW2 (garand, marginally maybe) than the no4.

True the sights are nowhere near as good as the apertures of a Garand or Lee, but as leafs go they are not that bad. They just take practice and I have found it really helps to see the sights if you use a bright target. Using a near mint rifle with match ammo helps in the accuracy dept as well.

Here is a nice 5 shot group shot at 300 meters (is it funny that I shot an SS soldier target with a Jewish 98k?;) )

98k300m1_zps38d061fe.jpg


If its sunny tomorrow (fingers crossed) I will do the cgn milsurp challenge with this exact rifle and ammo combination on Sunday morning.
 
Google the Boer war and Spanish American war and you will see differently.

It can be theorized that if WW1 had not happen or had been delayed, the Lee Enfield would have been replaced by the P14 or something similar.

The Americans had their 1903 and P17, both Mauser style derivatives before and during WW1.

I'll open up old wounds with some salt with this statement but have you noticed a large number of newly made hunting rifles are built on the Mauser 98 style action to this day ? I have yet to see a newly made rifle built using the Enfield design.

Don't get me wrong, I love my SMLE and she is one quick rifle at the range.


All true; however, the lee enfield is a superior battle rifle, the requirements for a hunting rifle are vastly different and as such the Mauser pattern actions make great hunting rifles. In my humble opinion they are not as good in the role of a battle rifle as a Lee enfield pattern rifle for a variety of reasons. Those reasons in short, better sight system on Enfield, easier to access breech for cleaning, faster bolt, shorter bolt length so view on iron sights can be maintained while operating bolt ( can acquire next target while operating bolt ), larger magazine, and the bolt handle position relative to trigger allows firing of rifle without letting go of bolt.

( None of these really matter worth a damn when you're hunting a moose or a coyote though )

To those saying we were going to get American weaponry; we were going to adopt the EM2 rifle that was being developed by the British. It is a bullpup rifle in .280 british with 30 round magazines, optics, and select fire made in 1947. Canada and the UK were gung ho on it until it basically got scrapped because of Nato standardizing on the 7.62x51 as well as a party change in the UK. I like to think of the EM2 as the UK's Avro Arro. Had the US not been so stuck in the idea of a 'real powerful mans cartridge' the M16 may have never been invented.... ( seriously though, the .280 Brit is still a powerful round )
 
So if the allies had the Mauser and the nazis had the
Enfield would the war been over sooner? According to a few of you it is so superior.
 
What role did the rate of manufacture play? The mausers had more precision and milled components. Enfields have a much more simplistic construction, which helped with field armorers repairs, putting them back into service. I'm not sure the numbers of total produced enfield vs mausers.

I guess the comparison I'm try to make is the Sherman tank vs tiger/panzers. Sherman number eventually just overwhelmed the germans.

But I'll take an enfield any day!
 
The reason that the P14 was shelved was in part the performance of the No1MkIII in battle - it wasn't broke, and didn't need fixing. The Lee Enfield may not have been the perfect rifle for the colonial policing actions the British were used to, but once all out war broke out, it was the best tool for the job. The No4 rifle effectively addressed the few shortcomings of the No1 MkIII - sights, and cost of production. As far as the 'sporting rifle action' comment goes, well, it isn't a sporting rifle - it's not a particularly good target rifle unless you're familiar with the dark arts, and it's not really a good hunting rifle without work either. It is however an amazing instrument for the field of battle.
What he said!
 
I only like rifles that were used to kill nazis. Nazis are the biggest losers of all time.

What are you 12? The war has been over for 68 years, they are all dead or close to it. In this thread we are discussing rifles (inanimate objects). If you want to rant about Nazi's please start another thread.
 
What are you 12? The war has been over for 68 years, they are all dead or close to it. In this thread we are discussing rifles (inanimate objects). If you want to rant about Nazi's please start another thread.

Don't give him any ideas. He has no valid info to add.
 
If you need a shorter or longer butt on your K98, what do you do? Put on a new stock?

When you're firing many rounds in a hurry, do you put a wet rag over the barrel to damp down the heat haze?

When you come to pick up that rifle to run forwards or backwards, does it come with a glove so you don't burn your hand on the exposed barrel?

If you bash your front sight on something is there anything to protect the blade?

Can you carry a pull through and oil bottle in the Mauser?

I had a pristine laminated stock BCD42 K98. What a lump of metal that thing was. Heavy, awkward, minimal sights, I was not impressed.

The Mauser 96s are fine rifles though the safety is next to useless like all Mauser safeties (Except the P14, which also fixed the handguard and sight problems)

I'm sure some commercial 98s are beautifully slick, but they're still #### on opening for some reason unknown to me; another point the P14 fixed.

The other aspects like the mag, sights, cost of manufacture, etc. have already been mentioned.

As for maintenance, if you're going to take a 98 bolt apart you'd better know what you're doing, and don't point it in the wrong direction if you don't!

The Lee Enfield has some weaknesses, but as a battle rifle it is by far the better choice IMO.

The Germans issued captured rifles to front line troops in WWI and perhaps WWII, so they obviously thought it was good enough.
 

If you need a shorter or longer butt on your K98, what do you do? Put on a new stock?

No, you don't induct the wee folk into you armed forces. Giants man railway gun.

When you're firing many rounds in a hurry, do you put a wet rag over the barrel to damp down the heat haze?

No, you piss down the barrel

When you come to pick up that rifle to run forwards or backwards, does it come with a glove so you don't burn your hand on the exposed barrel?

No, you just don't touch the warm end. The gents holding the No 5 were not issued asbestos mits either.

If you bash your front sight on something is there anything to protect the blade?

Yes, there is.

Can you carry a pull through and oil bottle in the Mauser

Can you carry a tea kettle & funnel in an enfield?

I had a pristine laminated stock BCD42 K98. What a lump of metal that thing was. Heavy, awkward, minimal sights, I was not impressed.

Heavy? Both rifles are very similar in weight & weigh nothing compared to ammo.

The Mauser 96s are fine rifles though the safety is next to useless like all Mauser safeties (Except the P14, which also fixed the handguard and sight problems)

Seriously? Who uses a safety in combat? If you think the mauser safety is bad, use a mosins sometime.

I'm sure some commercial 98s are beautifully slick, but they're still #### on opening for some reason unknown to me; another point the P14 fixed.

That is a bureaucrate's concern, real soldiers don't care which way their rifles ####. As long as theirs works and there is a sufficient quantity rubbers around, all is good.

The other aspects like the mag, sights, cost of manufacture, etc. have already been mentioned.

This one I don't understand as both rifles seem to be equally difficult to machine & both countries used the same techniques to speed up production. The enfield does have more small parts.

As for maintenance, if you're going to take a 98 bolt apart you'd better know what you're doing, and don't point it in the wrong direction if you don't!

A mental defective can take a mauser bolt apart using nothing but the rifles own stock.

The Lee Enfield has some weaknesses, but as a battle rifle it is by far the better choice IMO.

The Germans issued captured rifles to front line troops in WWI and perhaps WWII, so they obviously thought it was good enough.

Sure, they took so much territory so fast logistics couldn't keep up. The Germans probably issued slingshots if that is all they had at the time.

Folks we can be here all day going back & forth and accomplish nothing. Both are time tested designs with their strengths and weaknesses. BTW, wwII was decided by air power & industrial capacity not rifle design. I might add that with the massive numerical superiority the allies enjoyed after mid 1943, we still had a very thin time of it indeed defeating the Germans.
 
The rifle used was inconsequential to the defeat of Germany. In the west by late 1944, 91 Allied Divisions, some with Lee Enfields, faced 65 German divisions.

In the East, 560 Soviet divisions, with 5 shot bolt actions I might add, faced 235 German divisions.

Is anyone seriously arguing that it came down to " #### on close, peep sights, cleaning kits, and butt stock adjustability?
 
Google the Boer war and Spanish American war and you will see differently.

It can be theorized that if WW1 had not happen or had been delayed, the Lee Enfield would have been replaced by the P14 or something similar.

The Americans had their 1903 and P17, both Mauser style derivatives before and during WW1.

I'll open up old wounds with some salt with this statement but have you noticed a large number of newly made hunting rifles are built on the Mauser 98 style action to this day ? I have yet to see a newly made rifle built using the Enfield design.

Don't get me wrong, I love my SMLE and she is one quick rifle at the range.


You're forgetting that the Aussies love their Lee Enfields so much they are still making them. AIA. The sporterized one in 7.62x39 looks kinda badass. I believe the Rangers had looked at these rifles in .308 to finally replace their aging No.4's.
 
We argue because it's fun...duh!
It's like rooting for your sports team.
I find the #### on closing makes more of a difference than most folks think. The bolt opens faster and with superior power to extract dirty cases.
The effect req'd to #### on closing is somewhat lessened by the forward momentum on the bolt.
I've always thought of the LE as the AK-47 of the WW1 era. Inexpensive, handy and tough with an unsurpassed rate of fire from an average waddie.
 
We argue because it's fun...duh!
It's like rooting for your sports team.
I find the #### on closing makes more of a difference than most folks think. The bolt opens faster and with superior power to extract dirty cases.
The effect req'd to #### on closing is somewhat lessened by the forward momentum on the bolt.
I've always thought of the LE as the AK-47 of the WW1 era. Inexpensive, handy and tough with an unsurpassed rate of fire from an average waddie.

Agreed on the whole #### on close issue. I have a P14 and a K98. Basically the same action but the P14 is far smoother and faster to jack another round in. The Enfield may even be a hair faster than that.
 
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