NEW most accurate wwII rifle

WIN71

New member
Replace the word "developed" with government issued general use" rifle.
Out of curiosity, I was wondering which of the dozens of designs developed during WWII, which nation(s) had the most accurate rifle.

That would include "the dozen or so" designs referred to.
 

Dufus

New member
I have a M1903 still in full military dress that shoots a 150 gr Speer Hot Cor into a 5 shot 3/8" cluster @ 100 yds. My Dad bought it a Monkey Wards in 1962 for $24.95.
 

RC20

New member
I get that from what I call the RSC (Remington Receiver Smith Corona 6 grove n barrel)

Well twice! (grin). On the other hand it has a scope and a sporter stock...

Various 6/10 to 9/10 MOA when I do my end.

Not a very good trigger though working on it

For iron sights I go with the Model of 1917
 

10-96

New member
+1 on those 1917 sights. I've always wished they would have put the 1917 style FRONT sight on the 1903A3's. I think that would've been a happy combination.
 

Snyper

New member
The problem with the whole premise is thinking brand somehow determines "accuracy", when that is an individual trait of each firearm no matter what is stamped on the outside of the barrel.
 

Picher

New member
If you can "touch type", the Smith Corona rifles might work best in the dark.

(Sorry, couldn't help myself. For those younger folks who don't know, Smith Corona made typewriters. For the even younger, typewriters were the mechanical interface that directly printed keystrokes to paper, one letter at a time. Hee, hee.)
 

Bart B.

New member
The U.S. government bought then issued Win 70 Nat'l Match 30-06 rifles with Unertl scopes to the armed services. They were probably the most accurate overall. Some were used in Korea and Vietnam Nam. GySgt Hathcock used one.
 

Bake

New member
If you can "touch type", the Smith Corona rifles might work best in the dark.

(Sorry, couldn't help myself. For those younger folks who don't know, Smith Corona made typewriters. For the even younger, typewriters were the mechanical interface that directly printed keystrokes to paper, one letter at a time. Hee, hee.)

The only typewriter better than the Smith Corona was the Remington Rand (1911A1), :cool: over 900,000 of them..."And I won't leave home without it!!!"
 
Last edited:

tahunua001

New member
the following is my cut and pasted response to the old thread...
well the swedish M41 had a reputation for being the most accurate of the WWII sniper issue rifles but they had the best glass of the time paired with the best ammo production practices of the time, and they never overtly participated in WWII(though they sure did a lot covertly). the K31 is widely considered very accurate but much like the swedes they also had very good ammunition and never overtly participated in the war. the finns did a lot of refinement on the mosin nagant and turned a pike that shot bullets into a precision rifle that accepted bayonets. the 1903A3 has an excellent reputation for accuracy despite the relatively poor ammo production practices during the war while ironically the 1903A4 snipers are considered to be some of the worst sniper rifles due to the poor quality of the scopes they were fitted with and poor selection process compared to other nations. with personal experience in my personal collection, the most accurate military surplus rifle I have ever owned was a 1903A4 that I restored but went with modern optics. it was the only rifle I could consistently use out to 500 yards reliably. a close second, is ironically the Arisaka type 44 cavalry carbine followed by an M41 mauser.

now the least accurate rifles I've ever used is somewhat of a tie between an M95 mannlicher carbine and a MAS36. the mannlicher however has driftable sights so I was able to cope somewhat with its inaccuracies while the MAS36 has no way at all to adjust the sights
 

Strafer Gott

New member
Everybody's heard of the "Remington Raiders". Those Underwoods' were proud and nasty as well. Most U.S. issued shoulder fired weapons are very accurate. The typing must be perfect!
 

Picher

New member
Until reading George's "Shots Fired in Anger", I wasn't aware of the firing pin, trigger, sear, ejector, and sight problems with the 03 Springfield. Accuracy was a major problem with the scope-sighted sniper models, (due to higher expectations, of course).

According to George, the average soldier at Guadalcanal could shoot the M1 much better, due to improved sights and reduced recoil, but weight was an issue in the tropical conditions.
 

bamaranger

New member
accurate but....

AS Bart B noted, the Win 70/Unertle's heavy barrels that went to Vietnam with the Marines, were match rifles that went to war. Collectively that small number may have been the most theoretically accurate.

Seems like I read somewhere that Hathcock's CO (Lamb?) was quoted much later as stating that he thought the GYSGT's rifle was capable of 2MOA, which in these days is not considered exceptional at all. But Hathcock was grim death itself with that degree of precision.

It was a long time before I realized that the M70's in 'Nam were chambered in '06.
 

Buzzcook

New member
The U.S. government bought then issued Win 70 Nat'l Match 30-06 rifles with Unertl scopes to the armed services. They were probably the most accurate overall. Some were used in Korea and Vietnam Nam. GySgt Hathcock used one.

That raises the question of whether other nations issued commercial sporting rifles?
 

Picher

New member
A 2-min rifle will put about 66% of it's rounds about 3/4 min. from group center. That will kill a lot of people out to 500 yards or beyond.

As a teen, I killed a lot of small game with my first semi-auto Stevens before ever shooting a group with it. I was appalled at how lousy it grouped, but couldn't argue with it's effectiveness on critters and plinker targets.
 

kraigwy

New member
We are mixing sniper rifles with service rifles.

Of course the Model 70 target rifle will out shoot any of the service rifles used in WWII, and I'd say they can hold their own with the modern sniper rifles we have today.

But 70 years ago????? The Unertl scopes were too fragile and had too much power for most conditions.

The Commandant of the USMC, Lt Gen. Alexander A. Vandegrift (who commanded the ground forces during the invasion of Guadalcanal Campaign ordered the Unertl contract canceled and the marines were issue the Army's M1903A4s. They were much more effective in jungle warfare then the Marines M1903A1s with the Unertl.

It should mean something that there were about 1800 a1's with Unertl's adapted vs. about 24,000 "A4s.

Yeah you hear about some extreme long range sniper shoots but they were rare as hen's teeth. You don't hear about the misses...........people don't brag about misses.

In reality, in SE Asia (Vietnam) the average sniper shot was less then 400 yards. It was the same in the South Pacific in WWII..........AND.......if you read of todays sniper's its the same in Iraq and Afghan.

The problem with WWII scopes is they weren't sealed. They would fog if care wasn't used.

If interested, Joe Poyer put out too books, "Collecting the American Sniper Rifle 1900-1945" and "Collecting the American Sniper Rifle, 1945 to 2000".

Excellent reads.

As to service rifles, that being Arms Room Guns you will find at the unit level; I am convinced the WWII guns are more accurate in the "as issued" condition then todays "as issued" M16/M4s you find in the arms rooms today.

I think the A3 and Garand are the most accurate. In pure accuracy the 'A3 has the Garand beat, but the sights on the Garand give it the edge. I would classify the M14 with the Garand. Not the M1A, because there are no M1A arms room guns.

But as a combat rifle, its hard to beat the M16 series, if one learns to use them they are accurate, but when it comes to firepower, they have the A3 & M1's beat. Not to mention the cost, today you couldn't build a Springfield or Garand as cheap as you can M16s.
 

James K

Member In Memoriam
IIRC, the minimum acceptable standard for accuracy of the M4 is four inch groups at 100 yards (expreessed differently but that is what it amounts to).

That was the same standard in WWII. And WWI. And the SAW. And the Civil War with Springfield rifle muskets. So we are making fabulous progress.

One hopes that more M4's meet the acceptable standard than .58 rifle muskets did, but I won't bet on it.

Jim
 

tahunua001

New member
that may very well be the minimum acceptable but what is the average with all those weapons? I have no doubt that an M4 can shoot better groups than an 1863 musket any day of the week. and I am fairly certain that most 1903A3s were capable of way better than 4 MOA.
 

Bart B.

New member
Few M1903's shot perfect scores with 20 shots on the NRA long range military C target with a 36" five ring with the best lots of National Match ammo available. People felt good if half of those shots went into the 20" V ring.
 

Jimro

New member
Long range shooting relies a lot on how well the shooter can read the wind.

Of course I also think that it's kinda using the wrong measuring tool by which general purpose infantry rifle is more accurate at 1,000 yards.

None of the sniper rifles in WWII were chosen based on their 1000 yard performance. Group size at 100 for five shot groups seems to have been a pretty common acceptance standard.

Jimro
 
Top