Globco 555 Mohawk?

hayday

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Eastern Ontario
Got a "Globco"/ Global Firearms Company 555 Mohawk (or had one)?

How did your work and shoot?
Any reloading tips (maybe hotter powder to compensate for the short gas system etc.)?
What do you know about where they were made and when?
 
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Made in Ottawa at the now defunct Globeco shop.... usually butchered finn capture SVT's, not very well done, should probably be checked over by a gunsmith before firing.
 
Were the mags also modified to work with the .303 British? Curious ,did they remove the chamber flutes from the original barrels on conversion? Harold
 
I wonder how many of those SVT-40's were actually rare SVT-38 conversions?

"Hey hold my beer and watch me turn this $2000 historic gun into a $300 piece of poo"
 
Were the mags also modified to work with the .303 British? Curious ,did they remove the chamber flutes from the original barrels on conversion? Harold

Mags were cut down to 5 rounds, barrels if I remember right were NOS No1Mk3 barrels they fit.
 
I bought one years ago, and still have it. It looks decent but I've never worked up the courage to actually fire it. It is more of a novelty or curio. As tootall put it, I wonder how many nice rifles they actually buggered up.

Jeez, I went down to the gun room and looked at mine. Shouldn't have done that. It has the side rails milled out to accept a sniper scope mount.f:P:

Can't see any marks on it to say it was a Finn capture. Good heavens...:(

Edit: Looked again. No "notch" at the back of the receiver. Phwew!
 
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I wonder how many of those SVT-40's were actually rare SVT-38 conversions?

"Hey hold my beer and watch me turn this $2000 historic gun into a $300 piece of poo"

Its hard to say what would have happened to those Finn-captured SVT-38 and SVT-40s. If Interarms hadn't bought them, brought them to Canada and sold them to Globco, they probably would have been destroyed anyway as happened to the vast majority of captured guns.

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There's a reason we used to call these 555's "Crapco" back in the 70's.;) Most were pitiful, but every now & then, folks would get one that actually functioned well. It was really hit & miss with these buggers.:eek:
 
I knew one old fella that had one that actually worked well . He used nothing but Imperial 215 gr Kling Kores in it . He used it to drop a few Moose over the years . Out of about ten I've seen over the years , with the Imperial ammo reference , you know it's quite a few years , that was the only one that worked . The rest all seemed like a potential nuclear facial , abysmally bad firearms ............... but I'd love one that worked , just because .
 
I knew one old fella that had one that actually worked well . He used nothing but Imperial 215 gr Kling Kores in it . He used it to drop a few Moose over the years . Out of about ten I've seen over the years , with the Imperial ammo reference , you know it's quite a few years , that was the only one that worked . The rest all seemed like a potential nuclear facial , abysmally bad firearms ............... but I'd love one that worked , just because .

I think that the difference between the stories about how great they are and how crappy they were are distinguished by cleaning. The crappy ones would be those which were used to shoot surplus corrosive ammo then left uncleaned in a cupboard until someone shot them years later - grenading the gun. Those which never shot corrosive ammo or were kept up can be good shooters - as long as the owner matches loads to the adjustable gas system. I own such a gun. No issues.

If you search the web there are Americans and and Aussies, etc. who have posted that they would pee their pants to get one of these guns (supply and demand, I guess)
 
I think that the difference between the stories about how great they are and how crappy they were are distinguished by cleaning. The crappy ones would be those which were used to shoot surplus corrosive ammo then left uncleaned in a cupboard until someone shot them years later - grenading the gun. Those which never shot corrosive ammo or were kept up can be good shooters - as long as the owner matches loads to the adjustable gas system. I own such a gun. No issues.

If you search the web there are Americans and and Aussies, etc. who have posted that they would pee their pants to get one of these guns (supply and demand, I guess)[/QU

You may be right . You wanna sell yours lol .
 
I think that the difference between the stories about how great they are and how crappy they were are distinguished by cleaning. The crappy ones would be those which were used to shoot surplus corrosive ammo then left uncleaned in a cupboard until someone shot them years later - grenading the gun. Those which never shot corrosive ammo or were kept up can be good shooters - as long as the owner matches loads to the adjustable gas system. I own such a gun. No issues.

If you search the web there are Americans and and Aussies, etc. who have posted that they would pee their pants to get one of these guns (supply and demand, I guess)

You may be right . You wanna sell yours lol .

I'm keeping mine, but I know where you could get one without a magazine and missing the extractor - and probably the retaining pin (if any) and extractor spring for $100. I guess a SVT40 extractor would get it going. Bren mags go for $20 and I think could be modified to fit. That would be fun.
 
From what I've read they were made from Finn captured svt-40s that globeco tried to sell but the market wasn't there and nobody wanted to buy them as the caliber wasnt very popular in Canada at the time. Globeco sporterized them and converted them to a caliber everyone had which was the .303 and they were available with 5round or 10 round mags. Most problems I've read about come from the shortened gas system and my guess would be corrosive ammo. I own one and its still pretty new to me but it cycles fine, gas system is no problem and the bore is beautiful with strong rifling.... But it has a headspace issue. The barrel heats quickly and starts stringing and I'm still trying different ammo through it to find one that works best. I do know that my impatience at the range and having a semi-auto .303 leads to a hot barrel and the headspace issue gets drastically worse the hotter I shoot it.
 
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This was my grandfather's hunting rifle from the 60s which was passed to my mother after he passed away and now it is mine so it will be staying in the family. I wanted to add a scope but didn't want to dump a whole lot of cash into it, luckily I stumbled past corwin-arms svt-40 rail which was reasonably priced around $115. The scope definitely helps the usability of the gun.

It is a fun gun and as long as you can let it cool down it shoots fine. Maybe not the safest gun, definitely have bystanders watch from the left as brass goes to right and if you're pulling the trigger as fast as possible then its anybody's guess.
 
Went to the range today and played around with a good variety of factory loads. so far Remington core-lokt 180grain is a definite winner. Winchester super-X 180 grain gives major issues with brass and risk case-head separation. PPU 180 grain will jam after firing and the case gets stuck in extraction process. Federal 150 grain weren't terrible but cases did expand a bit and stringing of shots occurred more. The Remington core-lokt 180grain i had was actually old ammo possibly decades old that buddy of mine had sitting in safe for a long time. It shot well, didn't show signs of expanding cases save a tiny ring and didnt string shots. Unfortunately at this point the cheap scorpion scope I had on the rifle crapped out and the reticle started going sideways so I couldn't truly see how well the core-lokt shoots. Maybe next weekend I'll get out again and put my backup bushnell on it and buy a current box of Remington core-lokt to see if its anything close to core-lokt of the past.
 
Went to the range today and played around with a good variety of factory loads. so far Remington core-lokt 180grain is a definite winner. Winchester super-X 180 grain gives major issues with brass and risk case-head separation. PPU 180 grain will jam after firing and the case gets stuck in extraction process. Federal 150 grain weren't terrible but cases did expand a bit and stringing of shots occurred more. The Remington core-lokt 180grain i had was actually old ammo possibly decades old that buddy of mine had sitting in safe for a long time. It shot well, didn't show signs of expanding cases save a tiny ring and didnt string shots. Unfortunately at this point the cheap scorpion scope I had on the rifle crapped out and the reticle started going sideways so I couldn't truly see how well the core-lokt shoots. Maybe next weekend I'll get out again and put my backup bushnell on it and buy a current box of Remington core-lokt to see if its anything close to core-lokt of the past.

I have the above mentioned Corwin-Arms rail for my standard SVT.

The rail itself is solid, but the action of the SVT is pretty violent, even with the gas dialed all the way down. It will not suffer cheap scopes, it has rattled a vouple of mine to bits in short order.

Even though .303 has abou 10% less power than 54R, that heavy bolt slamming back and forth so rapidly can be the death of a lot of optics.
 
Went to the range today and played around with a good variety of factory loads. so far Remington core-lokt 180grain is a definite winner. Winchester super-X 180 grain gives major issues with brass and risk case-head separation. PPU 180 grain will jam after firing and the case gets stuck in extraction process. Federal 150 grain weren't terrible but cases did expand a bit and stringing of shots occurred more. The Remington core-lokt 180grain i had was actually old ammo possibly decades old that buddy of mine had sitting in safe for a long time. It shot well, didn't show signs of expanding cases save a tiny ring and didnt string shots. Unfortunately at this point the cheap scorpion scope I had on the rifle crapped out and the reticle started going sideways so I couldn't truly see how well the core-lokt shoots. Maybe next weekend I'll get out again and put my backup bushnell on it and buy a current box of Remington core-lokt to see if its anything close to core-lokt of the past.

Lots of posters report violent extraction, damaged cases, etc. I haven't played with the gas system on mine 'cause it is fine with the lighter loads I shoot. Since this is one of the few sporting type semi autos which has an adjustable gas system, why not set it to the setting which give the least gas thrust, start with recommended 303 loads less 15% and see what you get. Then adjust your gas port opening up and/ or your loads up until you get a satisfactory level of performance?

I wasted lots of time trying to get a Remington 7400 and a Rem 750 sorted out. Neither ever really performed reliably. I got my last deer with the 750 in 30-06 - on the first shot. Good thing because it failed to cycle properly - no second shot would have been available. I consider these popular - but deficient - Remington SA things to be basically single shot guns with a lot of extra junk added-on - that doesn't do anything useful.

Semis which have a military heritage (like the SKS, Norinco M305, the Mini 30 and the Globco Mohawk 555) should always have a reliability edge - as long as you do your bit. I say that, in the case of the Globco, make sure you have a good one in the first place and dial it in.
 
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