What if they were still made?

N

Nightcrawler

New member
What if some commercial company decided to produce brand new versions of classic rifles, like:

Mauser 98 and variants;
M1 Garand
Enfield No 4. Mk. 1

And so on, and stayed true to original manufacturing quality, with forged parts and so forth, but improved with modern metallurgy? How much do you think these rifles would cost?

Quite a bit, I should think. They really don't make 'em like they used to.
 
G

Gewehr98

New member
Lithgow of Australia (yes, THAT Lithgow)

has been making Garand receivers of late, too. Rumor is they've tooled up to remake the No1MkIII SMLE for the commercial market.;)
 
S

Stephen Ewing

New member
As a matter of fact, Mauser does make the 98 again. Sporterised more than a little, and the calibers are plain silly for most of us, but the $9,500 SRP is more than a little silly itself.

Steve
 
C

cracked butt

New member
Why worry, there are some really great rifles on the market for cheap yet. 98/29 Persians and 96 Swedes are superbly made rifles and can be had for around $200. If these were manufactured as new, they would no doubt run in the thousands.

BRNO has been making 98's for a very long time, I've seen articles about their sporter rifles on the market- run of the mill 98 action in a synthetic stock for a very reasonable price. I just don't see how they could make the same military rifles that they made in the 20's and 30's without charging much more though.
 
F

foghornl

New member
I am not, nor do I claim to be, an M-1 Garand expert **. From what I have seen, though, the Lithgow M-1 receivers are..well, less than desireable. I have looked at re-weld jobs that were better. Not stronger, but the rails did all line up, and were evenly cut.

** expert "ex" is a has-been "pert" is a drip under pressure.
 
K

Kernel

New member
Rifles with complicated forged & machined receivers, like Garands and Lee-Endfields, would be very expensive to make today. I'm guessing $2,500 to $3,500 each if production numbers were low (like for civilian customers) and made in a First World country.

That's why all the modern faux M1s use cast receivers and the small bits are refinished parts that are 50 to 60 years old. There are no "new" M1s. Nothing even close - not SAI and not IAI. They both use mostly refinished surplus parts to make their rifles.

Mausers were designed to be easier to make. Not nearly the same amount of machining. If a modern Roo-Rem-Chester costs $400 then it's probably $1,500 to make a 98k true to the orignal prewar finish. -- Kernel

Old Thread.
 
D

Deadman

New member
There is one company making brand new Enfield Jungle Carbines chambered in 7.62x39 - http://www.lawranceordnance.com/rifle-m10.html
5.56mm and .308 versions will follow shortly afterwards.

And while that webpage doesn't have a picture, I can assure you that the exhibition models looked damned nice.

I'm not sure which company exactly is making them, but I'm sure they're being made in the U.S., and I also recall someone stating that they saw the 7.62x39 Jungle Carbines on display at the last Shot Show.

The 7.62x39 version uses SKS mags, the 5.56 version will use Mini14 mags ( why not AR-15 mags? I have no idea ) and the .308 version will use M14 mags.

Bear in mind that the $895 listed on the webpage is in Australian dollars, which would be roughly $450 dollars U.S.
 
B

BigG

New member
Any industrialized nation could build those things if there were a market for them.

The Mauser 98 is being built virtually intact by CZ right now and you can get a forged and machined weapon with the profiled barrel for the sight bases (like a pre-64 Mod 70) for cheaper than a mass produced RemChester sans sights.

The Garand (M1 Rifle) is a design that has seen its better days. The AK style short stroke piston Dragunov (SVD) is a better, cheaper, simpler design than the .30 M1 which was PDG in its day and still is, but overly intricate. Nonetheless, a good industrial concern could produce machined forged M1 rifles if there were a market which there obviously is not since they are still selling surplus and even more would flood the market if they could be imported from all the corners of the world that they have been distributed due to the largesse of our profligate gomit.
 
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