10/2/2024 5:01:22 PM
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Section 9: Military Weapons Subject: Ever Sporterize a Military Rifle? Msg# 1212669
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The two milsurp sporters made to look like hunting rifles look nice--especially the FN. They came to you like that?
The Chinese T53 was typical in that the stocks were made from an odd wood found in Manchuria called "Chu." The same wood is used for Popsicle sticks, I think. It is crap, indeed. I had a T53 a couple decades or more ago. They were the Chinese equivalent of the Soviet M44. I actually ran across a couple of minty (surprise! ) T53s recently and I'm thinking of buying one. Not sure why. By the way, I still like the scout scope concept, although I know I'm in the minority here. I have a forward-mounted scope on my M1A. Image below from Mark Freburg - Image Title: Shooting My M1A Uploaded: undefined |
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For reference, the above message is a reply to a message where: Yeah, I have two in my collection now: a Chopped Mosin in the original caliber and an FN Mauser in .30-06. Both appear to be done pretty well. I'm particularly partial to the Mosin as the barrel was shortened and made handier. The FN Mauser also has a shortened barrel with a painted front sight that makes it easier to see. Sporterized classics Another one that I acquired was this $35 T-53 Chinese Mosin. This milsurp was so rotten, I trashed the stock entirely and made it into a poor version of a Scout Rifle. This was in the start of my early days of collecting. I no longer have this gun as it was a Turkey to shoot and wouldn't hold zero for the life of me. I took it apart and sold the barreled receiver for $100 at a gun show It was a fun project, but not something I'd do again as I generally now believe the Scout rifle is a concept that has come and gone. Technology and doctrine have caught up to it and transcended it.
Image Title: Mosin Scout
Image Info: Description: This is made from a 35 dollar T-53 Chinese Mosin Nagant. When I mailed my C&R off for this on a "why not" whim, I got back a workable rifle, but a stock that was literally disintegrating every time I handled it and a bore that might have been used as a main sewer line somewhere. So, I decided that I had a "project" gun and that there was no inherent collector value in it. Off I went. The stock became firewood. It was unuseable and was literallly rotting in all the wrong places so I replaced it with an ATI stock. I was lucky that the T-53 popped in with no modifications. I then popped out the rear sight spring and range indicator,replacing it with a Picatinney rail setup. I then added a fixed power NC-Star 2.5X handgun scope, and swapped out the bolt handle with a bent variant. Getting the bore done was the most challenging. I couldn't see down the bore at all. So, I took a rifle cleaning rod and a mallet and literally hammered it down the bore to get the beginnings of the crap out of there. Bozhemoi!!! Once I got the majority of the crud out I could see light out the end of the barrel. Thinking I paid too much for this rifle, I took some sweets 7.62 copper fouling remover, then plugging the barrel at the crown, I poured it in and waited 30 minutes. The results were STAGGERING. It helped jar loose all the crap and I could see lands and grooves. Then using the same (now slightly bent) cleaning rod, I pushed patches until the solvent was out and then poured Hot Water down the barrel. More crap gone. I then took a steel "hurricane" brush and got the rest of the crap out. No bright shiny bore, but no pitting either. Just solid lands and grooves. Yea!!!! I then checked headspace (good), and then took it to the range. It fired, I had NO idea where the rounds went. 19 rounds later, I had it zeroed. The gun shoots surprisingly well out to 100 yards. Granted, it took me a box of ammo to get it zeroed, but it does work. |