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Old November 27, 2009, 09:31 PM   #22
44 AMP
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Join Date: March 11, 2006
Location: Upper US
Posts: 28,846
You've got a pretty good list

And resposes have covered the rest pretty well. WWII era rifles are a fascinating subject, with many variations, mostly still available, but like many things, the cost is rising, and won't ever go down, and the supply is dwindling.

Quote:
Early in the war, the 1903A3 was fairly common, but later they were removed from forward units and relegated to guard duty and shipboard duty.
This is basically true, however, there were some Army units that fought the entire war with the 1903 as their standard rifle. Most units were more than happy to trade their Springfields for Garands,when they could, but not all did.

Not (much) mentioned are the lesser known (and more expensive) rifles used in limited numbers like the Soviet SVT 40, the US Johnson, and the German G41s and G 43s.

As a basic start, you should get one rifles (at least) from the major powers, and then go from there. A Springfield or Garand, a Mauser Kar98k, an Arisaka, a Moisin Nagant, and an SMLE. IF you can get rifles from the lesser powers along the way, great. Once you have that, you can start looking for the more rare guns.

I also suggest you seriously look into handloading. Not only is it a cool hobby, but when done correctly, it can make even poor shooting milsurps perform acceptably.

A lot of the WWII milsurps were shot with corrosive ammo, and care and cleaning during the war and in the 60 plus years since varies hugely. Some of the guns (especially the foreign ones) can show a large variation in groove diameter from what is "standard" for their caliber. Careful handloading (and cast bullets, sized for the bore) can allow these guns to still turn in respectable groups.
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