Milsurp for hunting? Whos who?!

I plan on hunting this milsurplus next year. I sporterized this lee Enfield my self, an original buba i am (no rifles were harmed in the making, I built it from a stripped receiver that had the marking scrubbed off)

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bearhunter said:
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.
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Back in about 1975, I bought one at Woolworths in Stratford; $35.00. I was 14 or 15, just got my hunting license. Carried it and two boxes of ammo to the cashier, paid for it, walked out the front door with it; no box, no case, no bag.

BTW, gun crime was virtually non existent. Those were better times.
 
I want to re chamber a sporterized Lee Enfield to 7.62x39. Did a Swedish M96 (commercial husqvarna originally in 30-06) years ago and it has been one of my favourite rifles.

My buddy has a sporterized schmidt Rubin that was shortened and rechambered to 30-30 and it makes an awesome brush gun
 
Meroh said:
Back in about 1975, I bought one at Woolworths in Stratford; $35.00. I was 14 or 15, just got my hunting license. Carried it and two boxes of ammo to the cashier, paid for it, walked out the front door with it; no box, no case, no bag.

BTW, gun crime was virtually non existent. Those were better times.
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I bought my first rifle in 1963, using money from my paper route. Walked into the local Hardware Store, gave the owner $12 and he gave me a Cooey Mod 75, and two boxes of Whiz-Bangs, all brand new. Took it out on the village's main street, got on my bike, and rode home, appx three miles.

No one batted an eyelash.

Ironically, I could have bought a new in grease Lee Enfield $8 or P14 Enfield $10 for the same price and for another $2 a 48 round box of ammo.

I watched customers walk out of Lever Arms, when it was on Burrard St, around 1966, with Thompson Smgs, didn't even cover them up, just carried them to their vehicles. No one did more than glance, if even that much.

There were only 4 Billion people then, and much less mainstream media, propaganda.

We didn't have the internet, other than the local neighborly gossip clutch.

"Party Line" telephones were the only option, there was only one TV channel, which worked sometimes, and most TVs had "rabbit ear" antenneas.

Everyone knew how to manipulate them to get a clearer picture, sometimes draping them with aluminum foil for better reception.

Saturday evening, everyone interested watched Hockey Night in Canada, and Sunday evening The Ed Sullivan Show.

I remember watching the Beatles on that show, the first time they were broadcast in North America.

The CBC was an HONEST broadcaster in those days.

Once a week every political party, which qualified to be a party, was given equal free time, to get their messages out. How things have changed.

The two most watched programs, in rural areas were "Canada at War" and "The Beverly Hillbillys"

I watched a retro show from the Beverly Hillbillys" the other day, and couldn't believe we actually laughed so hard at the comedy.
 
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anglia2 said:
I'm in the same boat . I picked up a 71 from a fellow Nutter this summer . It shoots really well but groups everything about 10 inches high at 100 yards ! The sights aren't original and need some looking at . Hopefully , it'll make it out next year . It really is a nice little rifle .
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That's because they were originally sighted for 300 yards by the military. This is the usual distance most milsurps are sighted in for with standard issue ammunition.

Higher front sights used to be available for all of them, mostly long gone now, other than from special dealers
 
bearhunter said:
That's because they were originally sighted for 300 yards by the military. This is the usual distance most milsurps are sighted in for with standard issue ammunition.

Higher front sights used to be available for all of them, mostly long gone now, other than from special dealers
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Yes . These aren't the original sights though . The rear sight is an older Williams adjustable notch . It looks like someone just stuck it on there because they didn't have anything else to use . I have a two leaf , one fixed , one folding , rear sight that I will file to zero in the coming months .
 
anglia2 said:
Yes . These aren't the original sights though . The rear sight is an older Williams adjustable notch . It looks like someone just stuck it on there because they didn't have anything else to use . I have a two leaf , one fixed , one folding , rear sight that I will file to zero in the coming months .
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That means the ammunition you were shooting wasn't "regulated" for the modified rear sight.

The thing about iron sights that used to be well known was, the ammunition was "regulated" to suit the sight settings on the rear leafs or ladders.

Today, with almost all hunting rifles wearing very good scopes, ammunition can be loaded for velocity/accuracy, without major effort to modify the sights.

Traditional Black Powder shooters learn this pretty quickly.

Black Powder cartridges changed things a lot.

It was quite normal for custom gun makers to load "proprietary" ammunition for the firearms they built for their customers. They may have contracted the work out, but they kept records of the loads for specific firearms in their customer files, in case they had to change sub contractors to load the bullets.

I had a lovely Chatham built double rifle, for the 404 Jeffrie cartridge, which came with a mold and a "dipper" for FF black powder, several cartridge cases, and a Berdan primer removal tool, all beautifully made of brass and hardened steel, with walnut handles, in a steel "sea case" with padded cut out sections from a single solid walnut plank interior, to hold each item individually. There were cut outs for block lead, bullets, and a glass powder bottle as well. It could all be done after arrival or before.

I was told back in the day, this was a popular method, to regulate ammunition for the hunt at the time of year for weather differences.

There was also a small book, which was full of the information needed to send the cartridges to Chatham for those who didn't want to reload their cartridges. It contained all of the information needed to load new cartridges, which had to be purchased in 100 count, sealed "tins," with a minimum 100 day wait for shipment after the order was received. From some of the invoices in the sea case, turn around times were almost two years from Britain to South Africa. The original owner ordered 500 rounds at a time.
 
jbmauser said:
Thank god there are a lot of rifles that don’t have those features. I don’t want almost all of those in a hunting rifle. And yes, Lee Enfields misfire, freeze up, have ftf etc. I’ve hunted enough with them to never again take one out in the bush.
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You like slow clunky bolts?
 
Ungrateful said:
I want to re chamber a sporterized Lee Enfield to 7.62x39. Did a Swedish M96 (commercial husqvarna originally in 30-06) years ago and it has been one of my favourite rifles.

My buddy has a sporterized schmidt Rubin that was shortened and rechambered to 30-30 and it makes an awesome brush gun
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I've seen a few of these over the years. Most sitting near the bottom of the used gun racks; all in good shape.
 
jbmauser said:
Thank god there are a lot of rifles that don’t have those features. I don’t want almost all of those in a hunting rifle. And yes, Lee Enfields misfire, freeze up, have ftf etc. I’ve hunted enough with them to never again take one out in the bush.
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Maybe you should take better care of your firearms.

I've never had a Lee Enfield of any mark do the things you describe as long as I did my part to properly maintain the rifle and feed it good ammunition.

I've seen some of them, brought in to be fixed, with broken off firing pin tips, or tips damaged from pierced primers, and not function because of gummed up or rusty parts, almost always, rifles which had been abused, poorly maintained or neglected in some shed, because it was "only a crappy surplus rifle"
 
bearhunter said:
Maybe you should take better care of your firearms.

I've never had a Lee Enfield of any mark do the things you describe as long as I did my part to properly maintain the rifle and feed it good ammunition.

I've seen some of them, brought in to be fixed, with broken off firing pin tips, or tips damaged from pierced primers, and not function because of gummed up or rusty parts, almost always, rifles which had been abused, poorly maintained or neglected in some shed, because it was "only a crappy surplus rifle"
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Thank god there is a safe space here on cgn for me to be comfortable enough to express myself. I may have never harvested an animal but I believe I am superior to everyone on this forum because at least I am sensitive to everyone else’s unique differences and diverse needs. I am happy to always over pay for everything when people tall me completely random sob stories about why prices have to rise “with everything else”

Really though, I would recommend anyone here to buy the cheapest sporterized rifle you can find and fill your freezer with it. Your life will never be the same again.
 
anglia2 said:
Yes . These aren't the original sights though . The rear sight is an older Williams adjustable notch . It looks like someone just stuck it on there because they didn't have anything else to use . I have a two leaf , one fixed , one folding , rear sight that I will file to zero in the coming months .
Click to expand...

bearhunter said:
That means the ammunition you were shooting wasn't "regulated" for the modified rear sight.

The thing about iron sights that used to be well known was, the ammunition was "regulated" to suit the sight settings on the rear leafs or ladders.

Today, with almost all hunting rifles wearing very good scopes, ammunition can be loaded for velocity/accuracy, without major effort to modify the sights.

Traditional Black Powder shooters learn this pretty quickly.

Black Powder cartridges changed things a lot.

It was quite normal for custom gun makers to load "proprietary" ammunition for the firearms they built for their customers. They may have contracted the work out, but they kept records of the loads for specific firearms in their customer files, in case they had to change sub contractors to load the bullets.

I had a lovely Chatham built double rifle, for the 404 Jeffrie cartridge, which came with a mold and a "dipper" for FF black powder, several cartridge cases, and a Berdan primer removal tool, all beautifully made of brass and hardened steel, with walnut handles, in a steel "sea case" with padded cut out sections from a single solid walnut plank interior, to hold each item individually. There were cut outs for block lead, bullets, and a glass powder bottle as well. It could all be done after arrival or before.

I was told back in the day, this was a popular method, to regulate ammunition for the hunt at the time of year for weather differences.

There was also a small book, which was full of the information needed to send the cartridges to Chatham for those who didn't want to reload their cartridges. It contained all of the information needed to load new cartridges, which had to be purchased in 100 count, sealed "tins," with a minimum 100 day wait for shipment after the order was received. From some of the invoices in the sea case, turn around times were almost two years from Britain to South Africa. The original owner ordered 500 rounds at a time.
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Or it means someone just stuck a sight on that they had laying around . I've been loading 43s for a number of years , I bought my first 71/84 in 1978 for 75 bones that came with 40 rounds of Dominion factory ammo and have a number of different loadings , black powder and smokeless . None of them are remotely close , the black powder loads are even higher . Nothing that can't be remedied easily .
 
EnfieldKindaGuy said:
I've always been curious about taking my Nagant and sporterized enfield out in the deer woods in the fall! Who's doing that these days? I can't imagine it's too common.

I can't think of a downside to using some of those older rounds for hunting, other than finding non fmj rounds to use.

Anyway, first post. Trying to drum up a discussion I guess. Let me know if this is the wrong spot to post. Thanks!
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Ummmm it was and still is a huge thing! The old enfeild was once the go to cheap rifle for everything all over the world in the British Empire,milsurps of all different flavors all over the world still fo this duty to this day!
 
leeaspell said:
I'm gonna take out my No4 Mk1 this year for deer, and possibly for moose. Any of the common milsurp rounds are fine hunting rounds. Only downside is the price, $50-100 for a box of 303 these days. Back in Newfoundland many a moose have been taken with the old tree O tree. Moose today aren't any tougher than moose from 100 years ago
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Gotta buy online, the old standby like canadian tire are an absolute farce for ammo prices , most places online stock the common milsurp soft point for about 40 bucks a box.
 
I do have a lee speed sporting rifle i really want to take. May take it to push some bush by us for close fast shots. But other than the valley by us, she's open field, so I don't want to handicap myself.

Also have a husky in 8x57 with a 2.5x t post reticle scope. Be good for up close and personal and still do a few longer shots if need be.
 
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