If you could own only 1 WWI Rifle?

Desert_Fox said:
I see you... and raise you the M1870/87/15 Vetterli Rifle! ;)
Click to expand...

Touche!

And did someone mention the Winchester 1895 Russian Musket?

SDC10450.jpg


Yeah.... I'm a ####. :cool:
 
Have to go with the Lee Enfield. Why? If for no other reason than familiarity. I cut my teeth on these rifles and have never found fault. Are there others as good? Probably but I am not used to them.
 
MK 3 Ross in 30-06 (yes they exist,3 to be precise)...with a weaver? Prismatic scope
Why? Because its canadian, obscure, accurate as hell, can still get the ammo, its not 303 Brit. ;)....280 Ross would be a second choice.
 
Guys, this is at once the most interesting, most perplexing and most difficult question which has appeared in this forum in some time.

I can say that because I own most of them and have shot, handled and/or torn apart nearly every other rifle which has been mentioned, including the Madsen and the Lewis.

One word crowds my consciousness when I think of the Great War: MUD. The movie "Passchendaele" gives you a HINT. You can tell that it's a movie because it is nowhere filthy ENOUGH. They drowned TANKS at Passchendaele:11-foot high 26-ton monsters with tracks all the way around, engines running slowly as they churned themselves into the mire until the bomb-roofs cleared the surface by only a couple of feet. Some of them I don't think they EVER hauled out or, if they did, it would have had to be several years later, after the drainage system had been rebuilt.

MUD. Thousands of men drowned in it, including one of my great-uncles. Thousands more were never pulled out and just were..... and are... carried as "missing".

MUD: that's the whole thing in a nutshell. Mud.

My selects: for a clear shot from 200 to 600 yards, the Ross Mark III.
For what my grandfather called "quick work" at close ranges, the old SMLE. He carried both at the same time: snipers could do that.

I have tried most of the others. P-'14 and P-'17 are wonderful, accurate rifles. Mauser 98a, G98 are wonderful rifles and they can be very accurate. Austro-Hungarian Mannlichers are light and slick. Russian 3-line Rifle is tougher than mule steak. But I wonder about the MUD. I don't think any of their magazine systems could handle it in the quantities which were available (much too readily!) at that time.

If I were feeling suicidal, I would take one of the French rifles. Lebel was a nice-looking rifle, but the tube magazine, stolen from the 1874 Kropatschek, was far out-of-date and much too vulnerable to mud. Best French rifle was the 1907/15 Berthier. Problem was lack of ammo, French troops being issued ammunition only in stingy quanities and only when it would be needed. Poor bastards were thrown away by an insane officer class and a quartermaster's bureaucratic mindset.

If I just wanted to get killed fast, I would take the Vetterli-Vitali 1870/1887/1915 conversion. Yes, I have two of them, including a ratty specimen which is what started my gun collection, back when they were advertised at $9.98 in the "True West" magazines and sold at $11.97 in Canada, shipped by steam train from Albion Knitting Mills in Peterborough, $1.30 freight collect.

So, for good days and long shots, the Ross. For anything else, the SMLE.

Sorry, but that's as close as I can come.
.
 
I'm on board for the classic. Lee Enfield No.III for all the reasons stated earlier. To find one with Canadian possession stamps and that hasn't been f%$ked over or rebuilt from parts would be my last dream rifle.
 
smellie said:
Guys, this is at once the most interesting, most perplexing and most difficult question which has appeared in this forum in some time.

I can say that because I own most of them and have shot, handled and/or torn apart nearly every other rifle which has been mentioned, including the Madsen and the Lewis.

One word crowds my consciousness when I think of the Great War: MUD. The movie "Passchendaele" gives you a HINT. You can tell that it's a movie because it is nowhere filthy ENOUGH. They drowned TANKS at Passchendaele:11-foot high 26-ton monsters with tracks all the way around, engines running slowly as they churned themselves into the mire until the bomb-roofs cleared the surface by only a couple of feet. Some of them I don't think they EVER hauled out or, if they did, it would have had to be several years later, after the drainage system had been rebuilt.

MUD. Thousands of men drowned in it, including one of my great-uncles. Thousands more were never pulled out and just were..... and are... carried as "missing".

MUD: that's the whole thing in a nutshell. Mud.

My selects: for a clear shot from 200 to 600 yards, the Ross Mark III.
For what my grandfather called "quick work" at close ranges, the old SMLE. He carried both at the same time: snipers could do that.

I have tried most of the others. P-'14 and P-'17 are wonderful, accurate rifles. Mauser 98a, G98 are wonderful rifles and they can be very accurate. Austro-Hungarian Mannlichers are light and slick. Russian 3-line Rifle is tougher than mule steak. But I wonder about the MUD. I don't think any of their magazine systems could handle it in the quantities which were available (much too readily!) at that time.

If I were feeling suicidal, I would take one of the French rifles. Lebel was a nice-looking rifle, but the tube magazine, stolen from the 1874 Kropatschek, was far out-of-date and much too vulnerable to mud. Best French rifle was the 1907/15 Berthier. Problem was lack of ammo, French troops being issued ammunition only in stingy quanities and only when it would be needed. Poor bastards were thrown away by an insane officer class and a quartermaster's bureaucratic mindset.

If I just wanted to get killed fast, I would take the Vetterli-Vitali 1870/1887/1915 conversion. Yes, I have two of them, including a ratty specimen which is what started my gun collection, back when they were advertised at $9.98 in the "True West" magazines and sold at $11.97 in Canada, shipped by steam train from Albion Knitting Mills in Peterborough, $1.30 freight collect.

So, for good days and long shots, the Ross. For anything else, the SMLE.

Sorry, but that's as close as I can come.
.
Click to expand...

I'm honoured by your comment!
 
I have narrowed the field to 2 rifles for my search and eventual acquisition:

1) SMLE No 1 Mk III: They can hold 10 rounds, love the way the wood furniture just wraps around the entire rifle, were battle tested and proved to be superb, 303 british is an excellent round, the iconic rifle of the British and her dominions, reliable, well built, solid, because I live in Canada feel a link to it.
2) M1917: Shoots my favourite ammo: 30-06, very sturdy and well built, most of US troops (dough boys) were issued these rather than the 1903 which seems to take a lot of the spot light, accurate (so I've been told), so ugly it's beautiful.

So now all I have to do is try to find one or both! lol
 
Gewehr 98, 1915 dated, sniper conversion with the scope carry case :D.

She was the rifle variant that started my collection off two years ago and is the focus of one of my restoration projects presently.

Alfonso said:
If you could only pick one WWI rifle, which would it be and why?
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom