WWII rifle help

[SigMan1980]

My love of fine wood furnitured rifle coupled with a recent "Band of Brothers" marathon has me wanting to get into collecting WWII rifles, American and otherwise. Shooter Grade rifles are fine with me, I just want to try to own and restore pieces of history. Does anyone have any advice for me on where to start? Good first rifles, etc? Its a pretty broad question I know but I'm just getting started, so any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[pred]

Garand
M1 Carbine
A3O3
Lots of fun there and a great place to start,
Be careful, It is addictive!
ANd DONT look at WWl or WWll 1911s!
Peter.

[indianjack]

Go here: http://oldguns.net/

[eulogyADD]

You can't go wrong with a Russian Mosin Nagant. They are cheap, accurate, in good supply, and did I mention cheap. Dunhams has them on sale every few weeks for $79, and usually a good selection. Ammo is not as cheap as it was but there is MilSurp ammo all over the internet for a decent price.

Bolt Action Prices now are:

Soviet Mosin Nagant - $80
Nazi Marked Mauser K98 - $220
UK Lee Enfield - $300
US Springfield 1903 - $600
Japanese Arisaka - $250

[brian]

My love of fine wood furnitured rifle coupled with a recent "Band of Brothers" marathon has me wanting to get into collecting WWII rifles, American and otherwise. Shooter Grade rifles are fine with me, I just want to try to own and restore pieces of history. Does anyone have any advice for me on where to start? Good first rifles, etc? Its a pretty broad question I know but I'm just getting started, so any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

good luck and get used to eating roman noodles....
the rifles themselves are a pretty pennny.
8mm just showed up agian in decent numbers and low prices, but it will not last.
.303 is not the easiest to find either.
.30-06 in surplus form has not been seen in good numbers for about a year now.
30 carbine is crazy for what it is.
a mosin rifle can be had for right around $100.
the 762x54r is just as cheap.
it's a start but the gun quality is a far cry from just about anything else that can be readily found.


BUT does'nt matter if it's pistols, rifles or carbines.....you must do your homework. getting ripped off is only a heart beat away....and it can be a matter of $100's of dollars. a few dollars here and there is one thing, but you can get super duper screwed on an uneducated buy.

there are guns that may look like like certain usgi guns, but are far from usgi quality. some might even be usgi, but have receivers that were formly demilled and then rewelded.
there is a gantlet to run.

when you start messing around with them and talk "restore" you're opening another can of worms.

[roland]

Try: www.odcmp.org

I was there yesterday for open house and had a blast. The CMP north store that is, Port Clinton, Ohio.

[elitefirearms]

I would start with a Monsin Nagant, a yugo mauser or even an Enfield. They are cheap and in good supply. If its your first restore job you dont want to screw up a garand or an O3A3. good luck.

[PA Rifleman]

First stop would be your local bookstore or library to research what was, and wasn't used in W.W.II.

I'm with most of the other posters here, start with what's cheap and plentiful now, work your way up to the more advanced pieces when you get experience. Right now you can get a decent Mosin and a lot of ammunition for under $150. K98s are seldom seen any more for under $200.

Along the way you'll be able to get a clearer idea of what *you* want, as well as spotting fakes. Generally, the higher the value the greater likelihood of fakes. Exception: US Rifle M1 "Garand", as the receivers are fiscally impossible to re-create as they were made during the war. There are post-war copies (See Springfield, et al) that use sintered metal compression technology, but the originals were all milled from a sold block of steel. Watch out for re-welds, they frequently have issues ranging from weak spots to misalignment. Avoid them.

Another pitfall is some rifles are advertised as W.W.II (example), even though they were made around 1948. Make sure you know what you're looking for.

Hang out with collectors, do a lot of window shipping at gun shows. Ask questions. Take note which sellers are doing business and which ones aren't.

Resist the temptation to buy that "minty" SS-marked K98 priced to sell at $225. If it's too good to be true, it usually is.

Also decide whether you intend to shoot or not. I do, as I want some experience. I had a couple of decent Lee-Enfields, one was a minty 1943 dated No4. Mk1. I got sick of looking for .303 all the time, and finding only crappy Pakistani lights-once-in-a-while ball. So, I sold the L-E's to a collector.

[SigMan1980]

Thanks guys, awesome advice! I have a LOT of work to do. Valley Forge Gun Show is in about a month, so that gives me a little time to research a few rifles, then hopefully I'll be able to pick up my first piece there.

[Warpt762x39]

If you're not too picky on actual WW2 service but just want a shooter that's got the WW2 look and feel I'd go for one of those Yugo Mausers and if you look around you can find a Indian Enfield 2A for pretty cheap. Plus they are chambered in .308 instead of .303. If you want to "restore" a used gun to shooter status dont be too scared of getting a semi sporterized gun as long as it hasn't been altered mechanically or anything like that. I found a Krag at the gun shop by my house in AZ with a shortened stock and worn finish for $280. I went back with the money to pick it up a week later and it was gone. Same place had a couple of Arisaka's for under $200 in decent shape. So just shop around and remember it's easy to change the stock to get a slightly modified gun back to it's original design.