Comments on: 5 Military Surplus Rifles For Deer Hunters

By: Poison

Poison — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:01:15 +0000

I bought my wife a Mosin/Nagant to learn to shoot high power with,now afttaking Deer,Antilope and many smaller game(if wild boars are smaller) she loves that old iorn sighted rifle. And yes she can out shoot my friends 7mm mag at 250 yards. And if you look around there are a wide field of ammo for it.

By: Gator Weiss

Gator Weiss — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:00:08 +0000

For a light easy to handle backup hunting rifle, the Mosin is definitely a wonderful piece of machinery. The carbines are great. Many cut them up and sporterize them. I wont do it. I prefer my military guns intact. On the mosin carbines I simply take the bayonet off, and keep going. The iron sights on the Mosin are perfect for hunting deer, and you cant beat that cartridge. Easy to find. Many companies make them. Plenty of energy and accuracy is good enough. I see these rifles for 81 bucks all the time, and many have not had much use. Crisp rifling, sometimes the bores are a little dark, but they clean up nice if you know how to clean them.

By: Gator Weiss

Gator Weiss — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:55:32 +0000

I own or have extensively shot every rifle he has mentioned. I have two SKS rifles that are as accurate as my German 98 Mauser at 150 yards. I also own enfields, arisakas, carcanos, mosin nagants, jugoslavs, brazilians, spanish, and one very good argentine mauser with a 4x scope on weaver mounts attached. The Argentine has a nice thick barrel wall, and very decent rifling. The steel that the Argentine is made of is superior to the steel in the 98 mausers. In the hands of a shooter that knows what he is doing, the Argentine and the German 98 Mauser are going to be the two most accurate weapons, hands down. Calibers in these two weapons are perfect for black bear and dear. The Mauser JS round is powerful enough for Grizz, though there are better cartridges out there. 7.65 Arg ammo is too pricey, though it is one of my favorite rifles. Get yourself a good condition German 98K, and use softpoints loaded to JS loadings. You are ready for anything that walks the North American continent for under 400 bucks. If you use American loaded 8mm Mauser, the loading is very weak because of all the nuts out there that will try to stick the round in the 88 commission rifles. Buy European hunting ammo for the 8mm loaded to the JS capacities. It is available mail order at decent prices. You can put it alongside the 30-06 any day in hunting performance and find it is just as powerful.

By: Greg Morris

Greg Morris — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 18:28:11 +0000

With response to your Q&A regarding FMJ ammo. It is precisely because FMJ does NOT main [at least in comparison to a half-jacket or a hollow point] that the Geneva Conventions require its use.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 02:00:58 +0000

30-40 Krag is near impossible to find now. So is just about everything not .223. The Krag shouldn’t even be on this list. They were first surplused in the 1920′s Even sporterized ones are going for $400 dollars and unaltered ones that look like hell people are asking $1000+ for. The remaining ones should be left alone unless they are sporters beyond salvaging.

FMJ is required by international treaty. Although it is the military standard it is actually less lethal. The military supposedly found soft-nose projectiles to be inhumane because they caused more trauma and amputations however, the thinking is that a wounded soldier takes one or more out of combat to care for him so in fact using FMJ in combat is thought to be an advantage. Many states do not allow if for hunting. Most FMJ is solid core so a through-and-through shot is also possible.

Mosins are currently the cheapest rifle in this class and I agree should be at the top.

There are still some cheap SMLE around and .303 has been an available hunting round in the US and Canada for years.

Cheap Mausers still show up from time to time from places where they were not particularly well cared for.

If I was looking for a cheap military deer rifle now I would look for an 03 Springfield in .30-06 that someone has already sporterized. These are in the $250-$300 range for well done ones. Sporting ammo is easy to find anywhere for these.

By: JR

JR — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:29:44 +0000

Everything 30-40 Krag can be found at: http://www.midwayusa.com

By: andy

andy — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:13:42 +0000

the 30-40 krag is damn near impossible to find ammo for.

By: Todd

Todd — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:11:57 +0000

DO NOT TAKE THIS ARTICLE AS GOSPEL!

For example, the SKS has plenty of power for killing deer, but if anything accuracy is dismal. Mounting a scope on it is a joke, every possible way to mount one is shaky.

Where is the Mosin Nagant 1891/30? This gun should be number one hands down, cheap and powerful!

By: nagant77

nagant77 — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:56:32 +0000

u forgot 1 gun that is a damn gooooood hunting rifle! the moson nagant i feel is pretty good for deer and it is cheap 2! i paid 150.00 for it at a gun show & another 65 for a good black stock! i put an 8 power scope on it and guys its a damn good deer rifle and yall can add that 2 the list boys

By: Charles Dowell

Charles Dowell — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:06:30 +0000

I have read your articles and comment with much to say that I agree with most of what you are saying. I have started deer hunting with military surplus rifles because I have found that for me there isn’t as much challenge in using a scoped rifle any more. Where I hunt shots are usually not over 100 yards so I use the military surplus rifles with either peep or open sights. Personally I have used M44 Mosin, a No.1MK3 SMLE, and a K31 Swiss. Though this year I used an odd thing, it has a Mauser action and a Remington barrel in it that had been short chambered in 308 that I paid 159.00 for. And speaking of rifles that were forgotten, the K 31 Swiss is a fine and accurate rifle, and you also forgot the M96 Mauser in 6.5X55. Either of those are fine rifles, I paid 122.00 for my K 31 Swiss and at 100 yards with the open sights it will shoot under 2 inches with handloads my dad worked up.