I had a Spanish FR-8 for a few years - it was interesting but heavy for what it was.
(Edit - Now that I look at the thread again, it really doesn’t fit here since it wasn't sporterized. Sorry.)
I had a Spanish FR-8 for a few years - it was interesting but heavy for what it was.
(Edit - Now that I look at the thread again, it really doesn’t fit here since it wasn't sporterized. Sorry.)
I see a lot of those old sporterized milsurps back home in WV sitting on pawn shop racks. I keep meaning to snag a bubba-fucked M1917 to turn into a 9.3x62 project... but then I remember I already have a 9.3 that shoots great.
I foolishly passed on a 6.5 1894 Swede carbine that had been partially Bubba'd, because I wanted to check Numrich for stocks.
When I came back, it was gone.
https://i.imgur.com/2wZ7zyv.jpg
FN Deluxe Mauser in 30-06 with a 24" barrel. I have no idea why I photographed it without showing the whole thing.
Reblued but polished by a master and it was very hard to tell that it had been redone. It was also glass-bedded, with the barrel free-floated, and the trigger tuned to 4 pounds with almost zero perceptible movement. 8.39 pounds as shown. It fit me perfectly for offhand and reliably held 1 MOA with cheap 180-grain WW PowerPoints at an honest 2,700 fps. It had all of the elegance of a post-war Mauser but little or no collector value so I would not have minded hunting with it. Literally everything you need and nothing you don't--one of the best candidates for a do-it-all rifle that I've ever owned.
I had to sell it during my divorce.
Okie John
Not really sporterized, aside from upgraded scope and rings, but here is a 03A3 Springfield for you. Its one of the Gibbs cobbled together parts guns. In this case, I got lucky and it got wrenched together right. Its an honest .75 MOA rifle with Federal 150 grain Powershocks. I took it out to TX a few years back and hunted hogs with it and bagged a nice fat whitetail doe last year with it. Its heavy and the metal buttplate is brutal but the only thing I felt compelled to change was the 2.5x soda straw they called a scope. Otherwise it'll stay as configured. I have other rifles for serious work and hunting, but there is just something about these old warhorses that makes me reach into the back of the safe and take to the woods with it every once and a while.Attachment 62250
I have two nicely sporterized Mauser rifles, one in 7mm and one in 8mm. I can't find the pics at the moment. I was looking for a Zastava M70 Mauser in 7x57 when I found my 7mm mauser Sporter.
I should go to my fathers and dig out the 1903 sporter I hunted with as a teen, and in my early 20's... I believe my grandfather bought the original 1903 barreled action ( two of them, actually) when the NRA was selling them sometime in the 60's. A local gunsmith did all the metal work, including re-profiling the barrel and turning the bolt down to facilitate mounting a scope. The first one was finished by the gunsmith, I believe, and has a vintage Weaver 3-9X scope on it. The second one, my father and I finished all the inletting of the stock, which I believe was a Fajen, then we finished the stock with lots of sanding and multiple coats of tung oil. Accuracy suddenly got wonky the second year I hunted with it, and we discovered the recoil lug was not properly contacting the stock. I glass bedded it myself, and after that, it was a solid 1-1.5" shooter with factory Winchester 165gr ammo. I killed several deer with it, including one my grandfather helped us butcher before he passed away.
I put that gun up when I started hunting harder, and noticed I was starting to beat up the stock, and wearing the very nice bluing. Some day maybe my kids or grand kids will get to hunt with it.
My current Savage hunting rifle doesn't have the same soul, that is for sure, but I also don't fret taking it out and hunting in a blizzard, like I did today.