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Post by Toby Benoit on Mar 5, 2006 8:52:41 GMT 12.75
Awesome Freddie!
Those little Crickets are cute little guns aren't they? A buddy of mine I used to coonhunt with carries one at night to shoot the coon with.
You gonna get that boy practised up before next squirrel season?
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Post by Bro. Freddie on Mar 5, 2006 11:45:26 GMT 12.75
Toby,
Yep. When the season comes back in in the fall I plan on taking him. I hope to have the first one he kills mounted. But, he has to get good grades in school because his shooting is tied into grades. A's and B's mean he gets to go. Anything lower and he doesn't. Also, they cancel each other out. If he gets 2 D's and 1 B, no practicing. 3 A's and 1 F means a little practice but not too much. Hopefully this will motivate him to get good grades and get a collage scholarship and not be a dumb ole truck driver like his dad. And there is fringe benifits to this for me too. I get to take him shooting, and improve my marksmanship. and maybe not have to pay for collage ;D
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Post by Mars on Aug 28, 2006 10:37:55 GMT 12.75
Just added another SKS. This one with the bayonet and grenade launcher.
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Post by Toby Benoit on Aug 28, 2006 16:00:02 GMT 12.75
A little much for squirrels, but I bet it's fun to shoot! ;D
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Post by Mars on Sept 3, 2006 4:32:05 GMT 12.75
Squirrels? Naw. My daughter says it should be my "new" bear gun as I can shoot them or if I miss,stick'em with the bayonet.
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Post by Mars on Sept 5, 2006 9:36:56 GMT 12.75
Added a 7.62x54 Nagant to the collection today. If I can find the parts I want this rifle won't look the same a year from now. The guy I bought it from offered a Nagant in 7.62x39 that he had. With 2 SKS's in the cabinet I didn't really want a bolt action in the same caliber.
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Post by Toby Benoit on Sept 5, 2006 13:01:40 GMT 12.75
Isn't that the same rifle the russian snipers used in Stalingrad? There was a movie about them a while back.
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Post by Mars on Sept 6, 2006 23:05:12 GMT 12.75
Yep. There are literaly tens of millions of these guns that were made but "good" ones are hard to find. This one has ALOT of rust and little blueing left but the rifling is sharp and clear. I've already shot it and it works great, just not pretty. I'll clean it up,reblue and restock it. Maybe even put a period type scope on it.
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Post by shiloh on Sept 7, 2006 7:42:30 GMT 12.75
The Mosin-Nagant was only made in 7.62x54R chambering. There was an insert kit that would chamber them down to 7.62x39 Soviet but I don't know how that worked with the bolt face.
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Post by Mars on Sept 7, 2006 8:51:13 GMT 12.75
I have no idea had it came to be chambered in 7.62x39 and I didn't ask as I wasn't interested in it anyway. I would guess it could be chambered in any caliber if you really wanted to and had the skill. It's interesting though to look up all the little marks on these rifles. Mines a Finnish M91 made in 1941 and imported through Vermont. My '03 Springfield beats it though. It was made in 1905 and issued to an Army Engineer Unit.Kinda neat as I was in the Engineers at the time I traded for it from an Engineer.
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Post by Bro. Freddie on Sept 7, 2006 10:05:52 GMT 12.75
Mars, If I told you the numbers on my '03 Springfield, could you look it up for me and tell me a little of it's history?
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Post by Mars on Sept 8, 2006 1:46:49 GMT 12.75
Sure can. I would also need to know the arsenal it was made at, Springfield or Rock Island.
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Post by Mars on Sept 9, 2006 1:46:10 GMT 12.75
Bit of history about the "03.
The "03 as you would guess, came out in 1903. It was orinaly chambered in 30-40 Krag and was commonly called the 30'03 which was short for the military version of 30 caliber 1903. It was further changed to 30.03 and pronounced thirty ot 3.
In 1906 all rifles where recalled and rechambered in the new military .30 caliber round. Mine was one of these recalled rifles. The new military version called this new rifle 30 caliber 1906 and civilians called it 30.06 or thirty ot 6.
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Post by Mars on Sept 9, 2006 2:35:38 GMT 12.75
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Post by Bro. Freddie on Sept 9, 2006 11:07:41 GMT 12.75
Thanks Mars. As soon as i can get into my gun cabniet again I will look. Wife has decided to donate to a yard sale and she has a lot of hang up clothes. Guess where they are hanging??
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Post by Bro. Freddie on Sept 9, 2006 12:48:59 GMT 12.75
Mars,
I finally got in my gun cabinet!!! ;D My '06 is from Rock Island Arsenal and was made in '09. The serial number is 177132. Thats all I could find out about it. Maybe you could find something else?
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Post by Mars on Sept 9, 2006 17:05:06 GMT 12.75
OUCH! Yep,that one was made in 1909. That was a bad year for reciever failures due to the heat treatment problems they had. Fortunetly, Rock Island only had a few fail(Springfield had more). 15 failures are reported for the RI arsenal for the year 1909 rifles out of 100,000. The good news is that no failure of the reciever from any maker has been reported since 1929.No failures of RI made recievers since 1911.
Note that atleast some reciever failures were due to faulty ammo that "breached" when fired.
In short, your gun should be OK. Note that yours was made before the heat treating was changed so don't strike a metal hammer or other metal object against the reciever. It may crack it if hit hard enough.( similar to cast iron)
I cannot find an exact match to your serial number but those numbered just a few numbers higher then yours where issued to the 9th Cav., those with a lower number where issued to Troop "A" 1st MG (machinegun?) SQDN. So yours was probaly issued to one of those two units. FYI, the 9th # start at 177149 and the 1st ends at #177102.
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Post by Bro. Freddie on Sept 9, 2006 22:56:13 GMT 12.75
I guess my '03 is really just a collector item to me. See, when I went to Naval boot camp in San Diego, I was on the Crack Rifle Squad. We spun rifles as a show for graduation, and they were 'o3 Springfields. So, when I got out, I went to a pawn shop to buy a rifle for hunting and found that one for $75. Later, I bought a .270, so I put it up and haven't fired it since. No danger of hurting the reciever from me! ;D I found it interesting though that a few serial numbers before mine and a few after both went through Little Rock. Mine might have come through there too.But, i had never thought about how old my rifle was. Almost a 100 years old! Wife was amazed also. Thanks for the info.
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Post by Mars on Sept 10, 2006 8:33:41 GMT 12.75
I wouldn't hesitate a second to shoot it. Just don't use military ammo. No failures have ever been reported with civilian ammo.
Yours original or sporterised like mine? Spinning that thing must have been a chore in of itself?
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Post by Bro. Freddie on Sept 10, 2006 9:23:53 GMT 12.75
Mines original. When i bought it, it had a recoil pad on the butt. I removed it the other day and guess what I found. The original issued cleaning kit for it! It was in the butt in a recess made just for it. I have some steel jackets but have never fired them in it. I want to restore it, and out some of the ammo up with it in a display. Just never have had the time or the money. Spinning it wasn't that bad. The hard part was marching in formation 2 miles holding that heavy thing up with just your finger tips looking straight at it. But we spun them on our hands, tossed them, done it all. What is amazing is that they let 17, 18 year old kids have a rifle with a bayonet on the end We had one drill that we would act like we were shooting a bird then spin, drop to one knee and shove the rifle ( with bayonet attatched) at the leaders throat. Having 12 rifles with razor sharp bayonets thrust at your throat must have been nerve racking ;D ;D
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