How To Convert Military Rifles (Pics heavy!!)

I have a quick question for you guys. Or maybe not so quick as the case may be. There is much talk of how sporterizing a milsurp is blastphemus and abhorrent. Now I don't wish to bring down the wrath on my head here, but why is it such a tragedy/is there not a time and place? As a newby to shooting, and even newer to milsurp ownership, I ask out of ignorance not an opposing opinion. Now I agree, there are many that have significant history and many that are simply in great condition and look good, work good. But say there is a very run of the mill old rifle that has no matching parts, crudely repaired stock, and rusted parts. Wouldnt it be better to reblue it, polish it, and custom fit it into some good looking new wood, thereby giving it a new lease on life rather than sitting in storage until your grandson sells it for beer money?

Help me understand!
 
That rusty mismatched gun might turn out to be a 1907rv carbine. A gent here spent good money putting a scope on a p27 because the bolt was mismatched. That turned a $400 (min) gun into a good source of parts. I had a 1894 mosin 91 with a flat rear sight, no crossbolt sitting in the original stock that some bonehead cut the last inch off the stock & removed the sight adjuster. It survived 75 yr of hell only to be taken out by some guy with dull saw cause it was ugly & missmatched & rusty. Might be 1000 of those left out of a production run of about 700 000. There is no such thing as a run of the mill milsurp. They all have something to say, you just might not like what its trying to tell you.

Edit. BTW most sporters just get neglected after they get cut down & hacked. How many rifles have I seen in my scant 8yrs of milsurping get "improved" just to end up on the ee in less than a year?
 
Mmm I would agree certainly that most sporters are not done with much care and attention to detail. And I should think that anything that old has a history. But arent there some variations that are common to the point of boring? And if a gun was abused by a previous owner doesnt that make it a suitable for sporting in most cases? Again, just asking from a point of ignorance (I Promise, I will never butcher the nice Mannlicher M95 Stutzen I got my hands on).
 
GotAmmo said:
Mmm I would agree certainly that most sporters are not done with much care and attention to detail. And I should think that anything that old has a history. But arent there some variations that are common to the point of boring? And if a gun was abused by a previous owner doesnt that make it a suitable for sporting in most cases? Again, just asking from a point of ignorance (I Promise, I will never butcher the nice Mannlicher M95 Stutzen I got my hands on).
Click to expand...

If its abused, whats the point in sporterizing? Are you going to rebarrel, reblue, drill, tap, bend bolt, custom stock only to make a rifle you could have bought that way for $500 less? It would make about as much sense to full stock, add military sight, put a bayo lug & re-barrel to 8x52r siamese a browning a-bolt.
 
Ahhh, point taken. Its only the nice ones get the ax and thats a dam shame. Add to that the fact a lot of times they are also quite rare, and I suppose blastphemy is no longer pure hyperbole. Thanks desporterizer.

Edit. Actually I met a guy just two weeks ago that does exactly that. He has made a hobby out of rechambering and sportering milsurps. Some of them look ok too. But if I knew what half of them were I would find the whole thing distasteful. You all would be horrified I'm sure. I recognized an M95 Mannlicher, and a few enfields, and he pointed out an arisaka.
 
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Hey, things haven't changed a bit. :D See a lot of guys out to mutilate their SKS. There was a day when you couldn't buy one for love nor money . Still remember how privileged I felt when I scored a battle scarred old Viet Nam vet, or the incomplete Czech M52 I bought from Allan Kerr. I'll bet 50 years from now, our grand kids will be whining about butchered SKs. :)

Grizz
 
Can't most of that tapco junk be simply swapped? Like, surely these folks are hanging onto the original stocks so they can retain their historical value. There are lots of non destructive scope mounts too. So long as the person doesnt hacksaw or drill something, im not sure I see the harm. Of course, with tapco, I don't see the appeal either...
 
Was going through some of my books and found this lol. So I though this thread was the place for the pictures. Poor carbines never had a chance :( lol

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Cheers
Joe
 
You have to take this stuff in the context of the time. For that time and that place, sporting a milsurp was the thing to do. There was freekin millions of them and they sold for 10 bucks a pop or less. There were people that had gone through 2 world wars and had seen nothing but army rifles for most of their lives. I'm 60 years old and I must say I never thought an old beat up Enfield was a thing of wonder when I was 20 years old.
I bought mjy first one out of a huge pile for $12.50 and that wasn't really a good deal.
NOW they are rare becaus of all this sporting. NOW it would be a shame to modify them. It wasn't then so don't grind your teeth over it.
 
Sportyizing, or how to turn a $500 rifle into a $100 one.
I picked up an NZ carbine (150 made) from a local pawn shop years ago. Bubba had chopped the forend and ####canned the handguard and nosecap. Now I am talking about a CARBINE! So he saved a few ounces! Took me a couple of years to get it restored.
 
I think a point being missed is, it is BECAUSE of Bubba that the original Milsurps have the value they do now.

Imagine if you will, if NONE got bubba'd. that would mean there are millions of original full stocked Milsurps laying around, and would probably be standing up in bins in Cabela's or WSS with a $29.95 price tag hanging off them....

it is because of the rarity that they are valued.... not so much that they were anything special, save a few models made in small numbers.
 
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