What are some good military rifles that can be used for hunting?
What are some military rifles old or new, any country, bolt action or semi auto that are accurate and could be used for hunting.
Tagged with: bolt action • hunting • Military Rifles • semi auto
Filed under: Military Rifles
1903A3 springfield rifle, M1 Garand rifle, German mauser, british lee enfield,russian model 98/31 or m44, SKS, just to name a few right off the top of my head.
shoot safe
M-1 girand
shoots a 30-06 round and is acurate. But they are expensive.
Lee enfield .303
I dont know if its a military rifle. But might I suggest you try out a 7mm or 7mm-08. They are very nice rifles, bolt action. I use one my self and have yet to want to change to any different gun. As well they have very low recoil
Look at the Yugoslavian Mauser’s. After that maybe a Moisan-Nagant.
The problem with these guns is mounting a scope can be problematic.
Almost any military surplus can be used for hunting.most popular these days are the mosin nagant, sks,and british 303. the mosin and the british can be used to hunt all american big game. the sks would be best suited to white tail deer or smaller game.
any mauser rifle would make a good hunting rifle, but i would stick to easy-to-find-ammo-for calibers like the 8mm or 7mm mauser. the swedish 6.x55is an excellent hunting caliber, but getting harder to find the rifles these days.
the m -1 Garand and the m-14 would also make good hunting guns, but they are very pricey compared the the others listed.
There are quite a few world war 2 (and before) era guns good for hunting-The german mauser (7mm-8mm mauser)was strong and accurate-also alot were rebarelled to fire 308 winchester (post-war) The Lee Enfield (.303 British) is widely used still in Canada as thousands were made here during and after ww2 and are a reliable hunting rifle.The Original Springfield model 1903 (30-06 Sprfld) is good too..Mosin -nagants(russian design-7.62×54-also called "308 russian" are still popluar with some hunters…Most of these guns can still be picked up if you shop around in pretty good condition for a fairly decent price….On the semi-auto side the m-1 garand (30-06) is a fine rifle as well as it’s "stepson" the m-14(308 winchester) but both of these guns are on the heavy side and unless you can pick up one that was made "offshore" aka asia most of the american-made ones are in collectors hands and the price of them has gone up a lot last 20 years..I dont consider the M-1 carbine(30 m-1 carbine) much of a hunting rifle-lacks the killing power for deer etc.I wont include other psuedo-military rifles(ak-47 variants-Ar-15 etc..) because of the cost and potential legal issues where you may live-as well as issues down the road…..One that might be worth a look though and still fairly easy and cost effective to obtain is an sks variant(7.62×39-otherwise called "30 short russian") the cartridge is ballistically similar to a 30-30 winchester with more range-however this may not suit your requirements if youre hunting anything bigger than deer,at relatively close range…
The 8mm Mauser, 303 British, 30-40 Krag, 1903 Springfield, 1917 Springfield, M-14, M-1 Garand.*~~
The sks also known as the "poor mans rifle" cheap to buy, cheap rounds, plenty of cheap after market parts. It’s semi-auto and shoots a military surplus 7.62×39.
I know guys that hunt with SKS’, AK47’s, AR15’s, Mauser’s, Mosin Nagant’s, 1903 Springfield’s, M1 Garand’s, and my Dad has even deer hunted with his old Japanese Arisaka 99. Basically, any weapon a soldier ca hunt people with, you can use to hunt game.
My personal opinion is to avoid semi-auto’s for hunting, others feel otherwise. Virtually any bolt action military rifle will be adequate for most hunting with the exception of the great bears, moose, and elk. The big issue is to find one with easily available ammunition and good sights as most "battle" sights are not made for precision (is mausers). Personally I have an M1917, and a swedish mauser.
an old mauser. simple yet dependable.