Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting hunting with military surplus rifles

i shot 2000 rounds out of my garand in one year competing. they are fine rifles in an even finer caliber.

I have talked to older guys that said back in the 1960s
chain stores had trash cans full of milsurp rifles in the
front of the stores for sale.

At one time when I was a kid the woods were full of mil surplus rifles. This was in the 60's and 70s because until 1962 you could order nice clean surplus rifles for just a few $ so that's what a lot of folks used. I remember buying a nice 303 SMLE for $11 from a guy that worked with my dad. It had the stock cut off but it still shot OK and had been his deer rifle for years. Today surplus rifles are much too expensive and you can buy a much better sporting rifle in a modern caliber for less a-la stevens 200, marlin or mossberg and it will be drilled for a scope and handle much better than any of the surplus rifles. Having said that I have a 98 KAR in 8x57 that I would hunt with if I didn't have better rifles. The sights are pretty hard on my 55 year old eyes but on a bright day it shoots fine and a 200 yd shot wouldn't be unthinkable.

when i started the thread ,i stated i use that spanish mauser for hunting does,,, i have slug guns,nice expense rifles,, for me its a flavor type thing,,
i enjoy taking a 90-100yr old rifle that i tuned up and can shoot well enough for the task ,, for me harvasting a deer is the secondary thing,,the intial joy is using these old work horses to the extent that they are wellabove good enough to get the job done,, this spanish mauser i have shoots equal to my 308 remmy at 100-125 yards ,, maybe its me ,,saying i only have so much skill and if u put a dynomite rifle in my hands ,, the results would be no different that that spanish mauser,, when i harvest a doe with this gun,, i think about the vary times in which this gun was made then i really appriciate the moment,, this thought process is apart of my hunt every time i am successful,, and now that people like my grandfather are gone ,,and i love to hear thier stories ,, sometimes i even wonder why i do have new rifles,,cause when it comes to shooting,,i grab these era-tested guns,, i truly love them,,btw ,,today i was at a gun show and was staring down a 8mm german rifle

I shot my first deer with an as-issued springfield. I recently adopted my K31 as my preferred deer rifle. This doe was taken last summer on an agriculture damage tag.

Absolutely true. Lots of SMLE#1 and #4 lots of M93 and 96 Mausers. Some 98s. Italian Carcanos out the wazoo if anybody wanted one at @fifteen bucks a pop. Bought an Enfield #5 "jungle carbine" for $29.95. Wicked beast but wish I still had it. South American M91 in 7.65 were a drug on the market much like Mosin/Nagat 91/30 are today.

Of course dollar bills were not as easy to come by then as they are now.

BCR

Yeah, but it was the golden age of cheap milsurp rifles, regardless of how easy a buck was to obtain.

Several stores in our area had racks of the aforementioned rifles at bargain prices in the early to mid 1960s. Even two local chains that were both primarily auto parts stores, but both sold ammo and firarms. Can still recall oglin' all those old Mausers and Enfields.

Is the scope on that K31 directly over the bolt? If so, how does the empty eject. Mine is straight up like a 94.

My stand hunting is with a 30-06 Rem 700 but when I'm sneaking around on foot pushing through brushy woods I go to my Chinese SKS.
Replaced the crappy wooden stock with a decent synthetic and popped on a Square B scope mount, and threw on a decent scope.

Just a quick, cheap and easy job - It took me longer to sight in the scope then it did to put the whole thing together.
I may have gotten lucky with my particular gun as it's a tack driver out to 100 yards. Taken a few good deer with it.

Also have two Mauser's that my grandfather brought home as trophies from the war. A standard issue 8mm and a .22 cal training rifle (not an 8mm with an insert). I've never hunted the 98, way too heavy to lug around, but my father took quite a few deer with it in his youth. The .22 is ridiculously accurate and still gets a lot of use as a plinker and has seen use as a squirrel gun.

Like the others, I have better rifles to hunt big game with, but I have hunted rabits with a Spanish and Turkish Mausers in 8X57mm. With the as issued sights, I can't shoot one on the run most of the time, but I can if one is still. My eyes don't see as well as in the past. I put some bright green paint on the front sight that helps.

Naw, It's offset to the right on a standard Swiss Products clamp-on mount. The photo's deceiving. I'm a lefty so it works pretty well for me.

7x57 Mauser (My first centerfire)
03A3
M1A (not really military, but)
SKS
303


I remember the cheap surplus rifles. Montgomery Ward used to publish a special flyer that had surplus rifles listed for cheap prices.
They always listed the graduations and maximum range marked off on their battle sights.
In the 60's that really caught my young eye, I clearly remember looking at some Schmidt-Rubens cataloged with an 1100 meter sight setting. That almost exactly matched my young efforts at pacing off the yardage to the top of the hill behind the house.

are u ever in the woods and hear,, bamm,,3 seconds,, bam,bam bam bam ,, and wonder ,, (down deer)?

if i am in the woods and hear bam ,, then total silence i believe (downed deer)

1 shot= 1 deer
2 shots= maybe one deer
3 shots= no deer

M1A
SKS
AR15
1917 eddystone 30/06
98 mauser .308
98 mauser 7x57
danis Krag 45/70
98 mauser 45/70
walking through the woods ya get a starnge look some times but I am kinda starnge anyway

added a russian m44 to my aesenal today,,i didnt realize the bayonette are like machined on the barrel doesnt look like a easy off, and i read that they shoot beetr with the bayonette extended,, i hope no other hunters see my prowling wit my m44 bayonette extended in chinese military garb,,, they might think they re in korea again?

That's about the truth isn't it

+1

took my 1st Blacktail Buck with a m91 carcano carbine, took a deer with an sks one year. I carried an m1 garand one day of hunting, but did not want to beat it up in the brush, never saw anything to shoot that day.

1 buck-6.5x52mm
1 buck 7.62x39
5 deer 30-30
doe w/ 22 hornet
9blacktail bucks and 1 muledeer buck- 35 whelen
1 buck 45-70

Nice to see the 22lr wasn't included in the mix . You know how those guys from southern oregon are out in those alfalfa fields late at night