Yes ask a question, jump right in. Better than doing 3 posts about nothing.
In my "inexperience" of 60 hunting years, 303 was the most used, then 6.5x55 then 8x57. But that could be just a local thing. Currently I have 2, 8x57s a sporterized 1918 Danzig and a 1943 98k.
Yup, I've been hunting for a bit longer, not much, Lee Enfields, and some P14 enfields, pretty much dominated the hunting scene for the first ten to twenty years.
Fields, Marshal Wells, Hudson's Bay, Eaton's, Sears, Sidney I. Robinson, Army/Navy, Surplus stores, Pawn Shops, Herter's, and every hardware store, along with some rural grocery stores, had barrels, tables, or racks of new in grease No 1 and No 4 rifles at ridiculous prices, even for the time.
Sealed 1K containers of ammo were sometimes less than a ten cents per round, but a 10 ounce bottle of Coke was 6 cents as well.
We also saw P17s, a few 1903s in 30-06, and US Krags were also popular in some areas.
Mausers were there, but not nearly on the scale of Lee Enfields.
Many nations were still using all of these rifles as ''reserve'' weapons, all the way into the seventies, and dribbled them out as their storage facilities started filling up with modern firearms. Some nations held on to them right to present day, and even used their value to declare national worth.
