get trigger job, lumnious sights, muzzle thread on Mosin

[prison/con.net]

bolt bent, drilled and tapped for a scope. You'll have $700 in it, and it will still be a pos clunker bolt action! Figure another $150 if it's an Enfield or Mauser and it will still be a clunker bolt action.

for hostilities, you are NUTS to not have luminous sights, rapidfire and a silencer. Nobody can be considered to be a serious prepper without such capabilities.

 

[WinterBorn]

bolt bent, drilled and tapped for a scope. You'll have $700 in it, and it will still be a pos clunker bolt action! Figure another $150 if it's an Enfield or Mauser and it will still be a clunker bolt action.

for hostilities, you are NUTS to not have luminous sights, rapidfire and a silencer. Nobody can be considered to be a serious prepper without such capabilities.

If you have luminous sights, anyone with decent nightvision will spot you like you were wearing a glowstick.

Oh, and I can buy an Enfield for $300. I have seen some Enfields with a sporter stock and scope for less than $400. How many of those could I buy for what you have in your AR with the trigger job, luminous sights, silencer and whatever other bells & whistles you put on it?

I don't see the Enfield or Mauser as the best option for a SHTF main rifle. But if your budget it tight it is better than nothing. And less likely to need repairs.

 

[9thIDdoc]

If I could only have one rifle for SHTF it would be scoped & bolt action. They just can't be beat for accuracy, range, lethality and reliability. The last two deer I killed were with an '03 Springfield, and I have also taken deer with Mausers, a 1917 Enfield and a ,30-40 Kraig. Great guns all.

 

[WinterBorn]

If I could only have one rifle for SHTF it would be scoped & bolt action. They just can't be beat for accuracy, range, lethality and reliability. The last two deer I killed were with an '03 Springfield, and I have also taken deer with Mausers, a 1917 Enfield and a ,30-40 Kraig. Great guns all.

And if you ask anyone with combat experience, they will tell you that Murphy's Law is in full force at the worst times. Any semi-auto can jam. And the more complex a weapon is the more likely it is to have functioning problems. Post SHTF, repairs will be difficult at best, and replacement parts will be nonexistent without using another gun for parts.

A bolt action is simple, sturdy and accurate in all weathers.

 

[9thIDdoc]

 

[WinterBorn]

Yeah, the whole idea that a bolt action is not a viable weapon is ridiculous.

Senior Sergeant Roza Shanina had 59 kills with a Mosin-Nagant. And she was famous for doublets (2 targets hit by two rounds fired in rapid succession)

The top pic above is Sergeant Fyodor Okhlopkov. He was credited with 429 kills. Of course, the USSR was famous for propaganda, but if even at half that number he showed the Mosin to be deadly in the right hands.

Major Lyudmila Pavlichenko was a badass sniper. Credited with 309 kills. She is the most successful female sniper in history. Her first two kills were with a semi-auto, then she switched to a Mosin.

But for a badass with a rifle, nobody tops Simo Häyhä. He recorded 705 kills (505 with a rifle). He was known for only using iron sights, since that allowed him to keep his head lower and reduce glare that would show his position. He once took out 25 Russians in a single day. Want his totals to be even more impressive? Known as "The White Death", the winter war he fought lasted less than 100 days. Not bad for someone with a Mosin and iron sights. But he was so successful only partly because he was a helluva shot. He was also a master hunter and knew how to hide in his winter wonderland.

 

[WinterBorn]

Oh, and if you want an idea of how well a semi-auto .308 works as a sniper rifle, look up Adelbert F. Waldron. He had 109 confirmed kills in just 8 months in Vietnam. The most impressive was probably one from a boat. He was riding up the Mekong river when a sniper started shooting at the boat from shore. Everyone was trying to spot him. Waldron picked up his sniper rifle and fired one shot, taking the sniper out of the top of a palm tree 900 meters away. From a freakin moving platform! Now THAT is a shooter. He did his work with a modified M14 (designated M21).

He is also supposedly the one who coined the phrase "One shot, one kill".