Sporters

[Guest WWIIfanatic]

ok i do not understand the cruel horrible "art" the people call sporterizing a old firearm. what they do is they take a perfectly good historical rifle *cough cough* M1 Garand, Arisaka Type 99, Mosin Nagant 91/30... *cough cough* then remove the action and the barrel and put it in a hunting rifle stock. i will include a pic of a sporterized M1 Garand. i really want to know what are the pros of doing that, beside ruining a perfectly good rifle.

[Guest GunTroll]

Some alt make the rifle lighter and therefore easier to wield in the field for the shooters/hunters purpose. When the bulk of sportering took place 50-60's these actions were dirt cheap and abundant and sold everywhere. Also some of these military actions are bomb proof and made wonderful platforms for building a true custom rifle. I'm a fan of Mauser sporterizing. Mauser's are still somewhat cheap from all makes and I can justify altering them to be a modern hunting rifle. I'm doing one now in 25-06 ACK IMP. I can't justify buying a Win 70, Ruger M77, REM 798, or a new FN to build a gun based off of a Mauser action. Some are ridiculous I'll give you. A M1 Garand should always be in its military configuration but thats just my opinion. I'm partial to the Garand but could care less about Mosin's or Arisaka's. Opinions run rampant in the gun world.

[Chucktshoes]

As a general rule I don't care the sporterizing of milsurps. That being said I don't have too much problem with it when the barrel and action are placed in a hunting stock. What gets on my nerves is when somebody bubba's up the original stock, barrel and/or action by chopping things down and drilling holes in places they shouldn't be and makes it unable to be restored to original configuration.

[gregintenn]

Do you feel the same way about Mausers? The reason for it started way back when. You could buy a surplus military rifle for next to nothing, and turn it into a hunting rifle for a fraction of the cost of a new rifle. Money was tight, so this was an attractive option. It is also nice to have a custom rifle built just for you, so it is an art form that has stayed with us. The "Bubbafacation" of guns is another matter.

[Guest GunTroll]

Hey Gregg, I like some of those. You do them? That second one down on the bottom picture has some real nice features in the rear of the stock. What type of Walnut did you go with?

[gregintenn]

No. My father builds them. I did cut down the Mexican with the military stock. The second one in the bottom picture came as a basketcase with that stock blank included in the deal. It is a bit short, but one of the most beautiful pieces of wood I've ever seen. I don't know what variety of walnut it is. The very bottom one is a commercial sporter called a Musketeer. It now belongs to another forum member.

[enfield]

My "sporterized" M94 Swedish Mauser couldn't be legally imported without having the barrel lengthened. That operation made the original full-length stock worthless. It was worth doing to get the rifle. It doesn't look much like an M94 Mauser, but it shoots just fine.

[roverboy]

Well I sporterized a Turk 38 Mauser a few years ago but it was pretty rough when I got it. It would 've been hard to restore back. As far as taking something rare and sportering it. It irks me when I see a Garand or something else in that price range sportered. I saw a Johnson 1941 sportered on a website once. Probably done when they were more of them. There was only about 20,000 made..........

[I_Like_Pie]

Actually it sound like a question that you know the answer.

That the reason most people sporterize them is that, aside from plinking with them at the range or looking at them hanging on a wall, it actually makes them more practical.

I don't know why anyone would try to do it to an M-1 like in the photo above....simply because the grande isn't really a practical rifle to begin with

[Handsome Rob]

Ahhhhh, Sorry chief........

In my defence I didn't do it, I just bought it this way. Shoots nice though!

[roverboy]

Most of the Lee-Enfield rifles are a little more common. It just bothers me when I see something like that Johnson '41 I was talking about. The Johnson 1941 is like the Holy Grail for Mil-Surps.