surplus bolt action rifle

[Dan 177]

Hi All, Maybe someone can help me out here.

 

I'm looking for a surplus military bolt action rifle, a shooter, not a collector's item.

 

I've researched to the point where I believe I would be happy with a K98, Springfield, or Mosin. The Mosin is attractive because of cheap surplus ammo (7.62x54R. The K98 is attractive as well, as 8mm Mauser ammo is fairly affordable. The springfield seems good also... but .30-06 from what I can tell is hard to find deals on (not much surplus around anymore). Any of these rifles re-chambered for .308 would also be great.

 

Now.. my challenge is finding a shop in NJ that stocks these rifles... in shooter grade. That is I'm not interested in matching numbers or special editions, etc. Does anyone have any recommendations on where I could go in NJ to check out some "shooting quality", that is decent condition that still has plenty of fairly accurate life left. I'm not interested in ordering one , as I'd like to check them out before purchase.

 

Thanks for your help!

Dan

[civictuner04 6]

dan welcome to the addiction....as for shops im down south jersey and its very hit or miss and the hits are usually very over priced. you best bet will be either valley forge gun show or order them off the internet and ship to a nj ffl. centerfiresystems.com has mosins for like 80 or 90 bucks and all the other guns at very reasonable prices. since your not looking for a collector that is gonna be your best.

 

 

good luck,

 

george

[Malsua 1,422]

Tony usually has Mosins, doesn't he? He's a regular here on the board and if you're a member of CJRPC he's not far away.

 

http://njgunforums.com/forum/index.php?/user/1533-tj462nj/

[Dan 177]

dan welcome to the addiction....as for shops im down south jersey and its very hit or miss and the hits are usually very over priced. you best bet will be either valley forge gun show or order them off the internet and ship to a nj ffl. centerfiresystems.com has mosins for like 80 or 90 bucks and all the other guns at very reasonable prices. since your not looking for a collector that is gonna be your best.

 

 

good luck,

 

george

 

Thanks for the reply George. Yea, thats been my very experience... hit or miss, and way overpriced stuff. I'll check out Centerfiresystems, thanks for that site.

[Pew Pew Plates 358]

SARCO in stirling has all the rifles you mentioned. As with everywhere in the state, a little overpriced but you get to check out all of the rifles you mentioned.

[civictuner04 6]

i would also recommend buying from one of the forum vendors...they are all great people (that i have met)

[Regulator72 80]

Tony @ TJ's just got a few Mosin Nagants in, 91/30's.. I saw a few of them the other night, they looked pretty nice... I think he also has a spam can of ammo for it as well.. I bought mine from him, cleaned it up and it's a fun, cheap rifle to shoot...

 

oops sorry Malsua, just noticed your reply...

Edited November 28, 2010 by Regulator72

[usnmars 136]

I gotta second SARCO, they have an awesome deal on yugo capture k98 mausers right now. they normally have a bunch of mosins too. If you want to meet up and go one day let me know and I will help you shop.

[Malsua 1,422]

I gotta second SARCO, they have an awesome deal on yugo capture k98 mausers right now. they normally have a bunch of mosins too. If you want to meet up and go one day let me know and I will help you shop.

 

What's the awesome deal on the Mauser?

[Blcklightning 11]

I'm looking for a surplus military bolt action rifle, a shooter, not a collector's item.

 

Hi Dan. When I was at the Sportsmens Center in Bordentown on Friday, getting my dad set-up with a new crossbow, I saw that they had decent collection of surplus rifles. I have to admit that I didn't pay that much attention to what exactly they had ( I was in hunting mode), but they did have more than what I've seen them have in the past. I know they had at least 2 M1 rifles. One was a Springfield and they had it for $950. Yes not bolt action, but they also had Mosins and I'm sure they had a 1903A3 as they always seem to have them. It may be worth checking them out. Sarco as mentioned always has what you are looking for, but they are expensive. Checking out a PA gun show is also a very good option. There are also several PA gun shops that carry a good selection surplus guns as well. Eagle Arms which sponsors many of the gun shows is a great shop to deal with. I have bought 4 rifles from them this year at shows and their shop.

 

Now if you are looking for "shooters" I have to plug myself as I have 3 surplus guns in the Marketplace that I really want to sell(hint, hint ).

WTS: Steyr-Mannlicher M1895 Carbine, Enfield No4 Mk1 and Yugo M24/47

The Yugo M24/47 Mauser could be a very good option for what you are looking for. 8MM, very similar to the K98, but less expensive!

Good luck buying a military surplus rifle as they have a tendency of multiplying fast!

[usnmars 136]

Sarco has yugo capture k98's for $200 right now. (or at least last time I was home)

[Dan 177]

Excellent information everyone, thank you so much. I'm going to look into all of the suggestions. I'm especially interested in SARCO, haven't been there before. usnmars , I may take you up on your offer.

 

Dan

[Dan 177]

Hey guys, My father pulled out an old Westinghouse 91 that he had and gave it to me. He never shot it before.

 

Its in good shape, besides the barrel. Looks pretty bad in there when i hold it up and look at the light. I cleaned (brush/swab) with traditional bore cleaning solutions like no tomorrow, still looks bad.

 

I'm letting the bore soak in some Bullfrog rust remover. So far after a few hours, I flushed it with simple green/water and ran some patches through. Black residue is coming out. I'm not sure if this is rust, or just baked on crude that my normal cleaning fluid is missing. I'm going to do a few Bullfrog/flushes to see if there is improvement.

 

Otherwise what do you guys think... would it be dangerous to run a few rounds through it in hopes of the bullet / barrel friction removing how many untold years of neglect? Structurally from the outside things look fine.

 

edit: its a Westinghouse Mosin 91 with "1915" date mark.

[halbautomatisch 60]

Hey guys, My father pulled out an old Westinghouse 91 that he had and gave it to me. He never shot it before.

 

Its in good shape, besides the barrel. Looks pretty bad in there when i hold it up and look at the light. I cleaned (brush/swab) with traditional bore cleaning solutions like no tomorrow, still looks bad.

 

I'm letting the bore soak in some Bullfrog rust remover. So far after a few hours, I flushed it with simple green/water and ran some patches through. Black residue is coming out. I'm not sure if this is rust, or just baked on crude that my normal cleaning fluid is missing. I'm going to do a few Bullfrog/flushes to see if there is improvement.

 

Otherwise what do you guys think... would it be dangerous to run a few rounds through it in hopes of the bullet / barrel friction removing how many untold years of neglect? Structurally from the outside things look fine.

 

edit: its a Westinghouse Mosin 91 with "1915" date mark.

I think it is extremely dangerous and you should sell it me immediately! :icon_lol:

[Pew Pew Plates 358]

I think you may want to invest in/make an electronic bore cleaner. A quick google search will yeild all info about that. I have one, its awesome

[Dan 177]

Welp, spent another hour and a half on the bore. Seems the bullfrog softened up quite a bit of fouling. I've been using my batch of Ed's Red, a bronze brush, and patches. Distusting black fouling kept coming out. I gave up for tonight a) wore the brush out, B) i'm cold working in the garage.

 

Letting it soak overnight with a bore foam in it, then will go at it again with a new brush tomorrow.

 

I'm pretty religious of cleaning my other firearms everytime after going to the range...I'm new to surplus rifles, i've never encountered anything this fouled up before. It still looks terrible in the barrel, even though my garbage can is full of black patches.. :0

[usnmars 136]

sometimes, you just have to shoot it out. Believe it or not it does really help. Get the bore clean enough so you can shoot it. Go to the range shoot it a bit, get it hot and clean immediately at the range while all the crud is still warm and soft. It will work miracles. If you lived by me i would say bring er by and i would have the bore sparkling

[Dan 177]

sometimes, you just have to shoot it out. Believe it or not it does really help. Get the bore clean enough so you can shoot it. Go to the range shoot it a bit, get it hot and clean immediately at the range while all the crud is still warm and soft. It will work miracles. If you lived by me i would say bring er by and i would have the bore sparkling

 

Will try that out. I'm open to anything that would help..and I get to fire off a few rounds which is always a plus. Can't get to the range for a few weeks, but will keep you posted once I get there.

 

Looke like you're 1:30 out. bit far there, but thanks for the offer!

[usnmars 136]

Stevens firearms manufacturing facilities were turned over to New England Westinghouse which produced 750,000 Russian Mosin Nagant rifles because the Russians couldn't keep up with small arms production. You have a somewhat rare Mosin, and should try to keep it as original as possible. Please dont be butchering or refinishing it. Take a close look at it and look for an "screaming eagle" stamp which means it was carried by US troops, or an [sA] stamp which means it was captured or sold to Finland. If it has those stamps it goes up in value considerably. It cost the us Gvt. about 30.25 to produce a Mosin, after the war many were sold off brand new for $3.75 for just the rifle, or $4.00 with 1,000 rds of ammunition.

[Dan 177]

Stevens firearms manufacturing facilities were turned over to New England Westinghouse which produced 750,000 Russian Mosin Nagant rifles because the Russians couldn't keep up with small arms production. You have a somewhat rare Mosin, and should try to keep it as original as possible. Please dont be butchering or refinishing it. Take a close look at it and look for an "screaming eagle" stamp which means it was carried by US troops, or an [sA] stamp which means it was captured or sold to Finland. If it has those stamps it goes up in value considerably. It cost the us Gvt. about 30.25 to produce a Mosin, after the war many were sold off brand new for $3.75 for just the rifle, or $4.00 with 1,000 rds of ammunition.

 

Thanks for the info. I read up a bit on it as well. It has a bow+arrow mark indicating Izhevsk Armory in Russia. It also has the SA markings indicating it was captured and reworked by the Finns. Unfortunately , looks like the stock was refinished before . Its also down to bare metal, there's zero blueing on it. I was thinking of cold blueing it once I'm done cleaning out what appears to be 80 years of barrel crud.

 

$4.00 with 1K rounds. Great deal! That would be like $43 today according to interweb inflation calculators.