The Five Best Military Bolt Action Service Rifles.
All of these rifles served as the mainstays of their nation's militaries for a period of time, and that was the criteria. I excluded specialty rifles,such as sniper rifles, or anti-materiel rifles. So let's get started. First I chose an unusual entry. This is a Krag–Jørgensen rifle, specifically a United States Krag, that's chambered in .30-40 Krag. This is important because it was America's first bolt action, and first rifle to use smokeless powder. The Krag was adopted after a number of trials that deemed its loading gate, where you can top the magazine off with single rounds to be a desirable feature, which ironically led to its demise. This specific example is an 1892 model, and it came from theEvergreen Flight Museum. As I mentioned, the loading gate is a neat feature, and you can see it here in operation. The protruding bit allows youto use your fingers or thumb to pop open the gate, andthen load rounds individually, up to five at a time.
You can see the follower right here that swivels closed to spring load the rounds, to enable them to feed. This is a unique feature,and it does make the Krag look a bit different and unique. You can see here a magazinecut-off switch is in place, as was typical of rifles at the time. The safety is also a standard flag type, but it lacks the middle position that is common on rifles like a Gewehr 98. All in all the Krag's features are somewhat familiar, aside from the loading gate. So next I'll showcase how to load the Krag rifle. To do this, you open the loading gate, place your rounds in individually,so as to not get rim-lock which is not present on the Norwegian models. With the magazine cut-offdisabled, rounds will feed, allowing the soldier toengage in rapid fire. With the switch down, itshuts of the magazine, and the soldier mustindividually load rounds. Again, disabling thecutoff allows the soldier to go back to rapid fire. One last feature of the Krag that I find specifically endearing is afeature of the rear sight. By pivoting up the rearsection of the sight, it provides the shooter with a very small, unique aperture suitable for precision, or long-distance shooting. While the aperture is verysmall, it is very effective, and it is a nice touch, making the Krag one of my picks for the best military service rifles.
- So next up we have arifle that, quite frankly, if it was omitted would make this list completely irrelevant. This is a Lee–Enfield, specifically an Australian Lithgow production Enfield, and this one was bought from another TFB member in un-issued condition. Usually these rifles looklike they've been through hell and back because, quite honestly, most of them have. Soldiers of Empire carried them on almost every continent that I'm aware of, and they served manynations in the Commonwealth for years and years. As of the recording of this video they still are in limitedservice with the Canadian Rangers although a replacementrifle is being implemented. However the SMLE is serving hobbyists and sportsmen very well, asit is a fantastic shooter, and an interesting rifle. Seen here is how the Enfield functions. You can see the receiveris not quite fully bridged aside from the stripper clip guide, which doesn't quite count, butit is a cock-on-closed design which does allow the shooterto fire more rapidly. You can see I do wrestle with the bolt to get it to close all the way, and the firing pin doesprotrude from the rear as it is cocked. When you lift the handle,it does spring-load back as a result of it being under tension.
And I lift the bolt handle again here, and you can see it does not cock the rifle until you pull the boltback and push forward. The sights on the Enfieldare pretty standard for a rifle at the time. They're a typical notch and post sight arrangement. All in all not bad for whatyou get, but not exceptional, nothing like the peep sights on a Garand, or a Springfield 1903A3. So next up we havesomething I need to address about the Enfield andthat's that these rifles are not particularly strong. They do lock at the rearwith two locking lugs, one that runs the lengthof the bolt almost, and a small one below as you can see on the bottom of the bolt. This does lead to issueswith headspacing eventually as the two-piece bolt designwith a swiveling bolt head can take the rifle out of headspace and require a new bolt head. As you can see here, thebolt head does swivel. It does make disassemblyof the bolt quite easy however, but over time, withmetal fatigue and other factors that bit there shrinks,and will cause the rifle to go out of headspace andrequire either a replacement bolt head or something elseto remedy the situation. However, it doesn'tmean the Enfield is not arguably the finest bolt action rifle to ever serve in combat.
But let's see what's up next shall we? Of course next I've chosen the Swiss K31. K31's are very well knownfor their reliability and above all, their accuracy. The Swiss are very well knownfor their craftsmanship, albeit with a high cost,as the cost of labor on most of their firearmsresults in a very high price, even for their modern commercial arms. However their surplus riflesare reasonably priced, and I would recommend that you pick one up should you see one availableat your local store. The receivers are brilliantly machined and everything about theserifles screams quality. Sometimes the stocks are a little beat up, but you can always remedythat should you so desire. As I spoke about thereceiver craftsmanship, it's simply unparalleledwithin surplus arms. You have what's known as the, "Beer keg," as the bolt handle. Instead of having to rotate a bolt, you simply pull back and pushforward to cycle the action. This results in anunusually fast follow up, and a fantastic action tojust play with and cycle. The ring on the backalso acts as a safety. The trigger is also spectacular, and is the two-stagedtrigger from the factory. Something unusual to note about the K31s is the quality or lackthereof of their equivalent of a stripper clip whichwould be more appropriately called a charger. These fiberboard chargersare filled with six rounds and orient to be disposableso they're quite rare to find in good condition. However they do do the job, and top off your magazine with six roundsof 7.5 Swiss ammunition which is available andpriced very reasonably. All in all the K31's a fantastic rifle, and if I were shooting a match, I would probably take that overall the rifles in this list.
- next we have an unusual entry that many people mightnot be familiar with. This is a French MAS-36 rifle. Some people refer to it asthe ugliest surplus rifle on the market, but I thinkit's a little endearing. It actually doesn't look too bad I think. It's very utilitarian,and the full length wood is kind of unusual in a military rifle in that it is quite bulky witha very squared-off receiver. What divides a lot of people is the placement of the bolt handle. It's located very rearward,but it's swept forward to enable the user to cyclethe action appropriately. Another nuance about this rifleis it does lock at the rear which some people deride,however there is some debate about if this really affects the strength of the action or not. I personally do not believe it does, and I've consulted someother, well, experts, which I am not, and theywould argue that the action is stronger than previously believed. Another feature of theMAS-36 that I really like is the way the bayonet functions. It's a spike bayonet that hidden within the rifle, and the Germans even copied this design in their FG 42 paratrooper rifle. The problem with bayonets isthat they're always loaded, and I'm exponentially more afraid of them.
Then I am firearms, so handling them always puts me on edge, although the design of theMAS-36 makes it well concealed within the gun, and therefore I'm not as worried as I normally would be.
The Achilles Heel of thisgun to me is the sights. While the rear aperture is quite nice, instead of having a sightlocated on the middle of the gun, in front of the receiver ring, there is one very gaping problem. The way you adjust forwindage is you actually go to the armorer after shooting a group, and get a new rear sight leaf. Elevation is adjustable here as seen, just pretty typical of anyother rifle of the period, but up next you can see a sight leaf. I noticed one day at therange that I was shooting on a paper and it was grouping very low, so I had to purchase anadditional leaf to replace. The one I'm holding here onthe left is the factory one, the one on the rifle is theleaf meant to accommodate for the windage. All in all the MAS-36 is a great rifle. If it had a windageadjustment, I would place it probably nearer to the top, as the penultimate, or ultimatebolt action military rifle. Unfortunately it doesn't, but it still earned a place on the list.
- next is the king of bolt action rifles. This is of course a Mauser 98, specifically a K98k variant. All Gewehr 98 variants, including the Karabiner98a's, the b's and so-on and so-forth are fantastic, however many people regardthe K98k to be the highest evolution for one reason or another. The Mauser 98 simply is theperfect bolt action rifle. It reigns supreme for a number of reasons, and the action is legendary. Nearly every bolt actionrifle today copies this action or at least mini-elementsof it, to produce a sporting rifle or, well,whatever the purpose or intent may be. You can see here theaction has a full bridge. It's machined very well. The bolt has two frontal locking lugs, including a massive large extractor claw that almost never fails andresults in controlled feed. There's also a rear safety lugshould both front lugs fail, that will prevent the gun,or excuse me, the bolt, from ejecting into the shooters face.
It has that famous Mauserthree position safety. In the middle it will notfire, but it will allow the user to empty the magazine or cycle the bolt. Pushing the flag all the way to the right locks the action shut anddisables the firing mechanism. All the way to the left makesthe rifle ready to fire, and the user can engage. This action is simply perfect,and I really can't nitpick it too much and it's stillsoldiering on today in many designs. Of course safety was a big part. These two holes are to ventgases away from the shooter in the event of a rupture. The sights are pretty standard for rifles of the time, they're a simple notch and post, and there's not really much I can say, negative or positive, as they do the job, but the front does have anice cover to reduce glare and aid in target acquisition. All in all the Mauser 98 isthe king of bolt action rifles, it's strong, robust, andthey're still making rifles with this action today. In fact, the Mauser company has just entered serial production of the 98 Magnum.
0 Comments