Steve1871 Posted 7 June , 2019 Share Posted 7 June , 2019 I have a fair number of British rifles and Mausers, among other stuff.y favorite " family" is the M.71. (1871) Mauser. I went to this range for the first time. I was shocked to see it packed.Curious, I stopped to see what was going on. They were having a shooting competition . Any type rifle . I thought what the heck, and joined.Going to the line to set up, there were 15 or 16 of us. Being the last to join, I had an end spot. All the other shooters looked at my ancient looking ( to them) single shot M71 mauser and looked at me as if I was daft. Almost half the shooters had AR type rifles. I was hoping not to get kicked off for my ammo. The first round, simple 100 meter metal targets. Had to make 10 hits, everyone was hearing the loud, high crack of the AR rifles, which everyone expected., That was. Until I started shooting, I had 4 boxes of new black powder rounds. High pitch CRACK. CRACK. CRACK. BOOM the AR's then my old Mauser, with a good size bluish cloud drifted forward and up . The officials stopped me and asked the shooters close to me if I was hindering them with the smoke. They laughed, saying it was cool, so I got to keep going.High pitch CRACK CRACK BOOOM, I had a great time. And surprisingly, I actually beat 2 shooters. Thought for sure, I would be last . It would not have mattered. I loved it. Any of you fellow collectors have any stories you would like to share? Shooting Great War guns with your father, or those vintage gun clubs in England that I hear about ? I hope so. CHEER'S MATE'S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunner Bailey Posted 7 June , 2019 Share Posted 7 June , 2019 I used to have a firearms certificate up until the 90's but have occasionally shot with a local rifle club as a guest up to 2015. On the last trip I shot a 1918 SMLE and a M1917 Enfield (Remington). The M1917 was super accurate but had been rebored to 7.62 Nato. The 1918 SMLE was again still accurate and was grouping 8" at 300 metres. range. That's with the original barrel. The club has many members with vintage rifles and has a small group who shoot K98 WW2 rifles. There are also some with various types of NATO Self Loading Rifles from the 1970's some scoped. Despite the draconian regime in the UK vintage rifle shooting still has legs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikB Posted 7 June , 2019 Share Posted 7 June , 2019 2 hours ago, Gunner Bailey said: ... Despite the draconian regime in the UK vintage rifle shooting still has legs. Yes, I was shooting my 1917 SMLE III* till a few years back. At least it said 1917 on the wrist collar, and it looked quite presentable and shot tolerably, but it was actually a bitsa, probably assembled around 1990. And I had a .577 Snider that actually got a group once. The cubic yards of smoke always attracted attention on the firing point . I thought the sight picture looked like the Great Pyramid viewed through the Suez Canal cutting... but then that's perhaps unfair when the SMLE's looks like a pig's bristle viewed between a pair of cow horns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trajan Posted 7 June , 2019 Share Posted 7 June , 2019 Steve and all - sounds fun! I have only fired a SMLE at - I think - .22(?), that was years ago, and annoyingly missed out on a chance to try a Gew 98 two years back... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve1871 Posted 7 June , 2019 Author Share Posted 7 June , 2019 I have not shot any my rifles,sadly in perhaps 10 years,some I shot before Mauser M71. 71/84. M71 Karbine 71/daeteau, . Swed 96. No.1 mk3 no1 mk5. M/H Mk 2 and long lever4. N.Z. And R.I.C. Carbine's Gew98 K43 SVT-40 and few others, again, sadly no shoot rifles in over a decade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve1871 Posted 7 June , 2019 Author Share Posted 7 June , 2019 The one With no hand guard , got VERY cheap, many years ago, because the missing hand guard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 7 June , 2019 Share Posted 7 June , 2019 13 minutes ago, Steve1871 said: The one With no hand guard , got VERY cheap, many years ago, because the missing hand guard What a super collection of Carbines. Are the two with sleeved muzzles RIC carbines or are any of them NZ carbines? Would it be possible to see the wrist markings on these? (esp the second from left and the fourth from left) The one missing the handguard also appears to have an SMLE bolt/magazine, is it a cut down MLE? I have an RIC and a NZ but my collection is still missing a standard artillery or cavalry carbine (Metford or Enfield) In terms of shooting stories, I have basically the reverse of yours! I showed up to the local range with an SMLE and a Martini-Henry and sat down at the end of the row of folks shooting their "black rifles" - they all stood back in awe expecting smoke and thunder and were rather disappointed when all they got was a small 'crack' as I let off the .22LR (both were trainer conversions). They all wanted a go though I have shot most of my great war rifles at least once. I shoot some of my Enfields with some regularity but not competitively. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve1871 Posted 7 June , 2019 Author Share Posted 7 June , 2019 Yes Chris. 4G i have some wrist pic's and other, The carbine's left to right 1. R.I.C. Metford with sling slot 2. N.Z. Carbine 3. R.I.C. Enfield carbine 4. Last is the other N.Z. Missing hand guard. And yes, wrong magazine will try send wrist pic's today if I can Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve1871 Posted 7 June , 2019 Author Share Posted 7 June , 2019 Hey MikB I wish I had shot some of my Sniders, have a few, have 6-8 original " Kynock" boxes, unopened, so my own fault for not taking them out, I sure would love to shoot black powder rounds from Sniders, I do not think Kynock is B/P, and Snider brass/ rounds are some of the most expensive , thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve1871 Posted 7 June , 2019 Author Share Posted 7 June , 2019 Here are more pic's for you 4G. Chris I am sorry, but these pic's are mixed up, many pics I deleted, poor quality Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikB Posted 7 June , 2019 Share Posted 7 June , 2019 5 minutes ago, Steve1871 said: Hey MikB I wish I had shot some of my Sniders, have a few, have 6-8 original " Kynock" boxes, unopened, so my own fault for not taking them out, I sure would love to shoot black powder rounds from Sniders, I do not think Kynock is B/P, and Snider brass/ rounds are some of the most expensive , thanks I know Parker-Hale were advertising Kynoch Snider ammunition in the 1960s, but I had an impression (can't be sure why) that they were a 'nitro-for-black' load. I loaded my own using NDFS cases, .592 Minie bullets with a hand-turned wooden base plug and either 68 grains volumetric equivalent of Pyrodex or 13 grains of Unique with a polenta flour filler. I used the polenta because nobody in the family would eat it. The Pyrodex generated huge smoke clouds! and lots of corrosive fouling, but if you finished up with half-a-dozen rounds of Unique, it magically blew it all clean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve1871 Posted 7 June , 2019 Author Share Posted 7 June , 2019 I never had the time to learn reloading, wish I did,I shot a little pyrodex, stank like hell, guy who loaded / made ammo , for my M71 mausers used oatmeal for filler, over short time, powder settled I could actually shake the rounds and fill that crap moving inside. What I would really love. Is to load actual black powder to 90%. Simply find someone to use powder with larger/largest flakes, so no filler needed .Who knows if that will ever happen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 7 June , 2019 Share Posted 7 June , 2019 3 hours ago, Steve1871 said: Here are more pic's for you 4G. Chris I am sorry, but these pic's are mixed up, many pics I deleted, poor quality Thanks very much indeed - I am green with envy! BTW there is at least one well known picture of a patrol/guard on the streets of Dublin after the 1916 rising armed with an RIC carbine -- so not totally off topic for WWI! Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve1871 Posted 7 June , 2019 Author Share Posted 7 June , 2019 The Irish Uprising,I collect the M71 Mauser, that rich man, smuggled in M71 rifles, nick named Holworth rifles after him, very obsolulete by then. The R.I.C. Carbine's ( police carbine's ) both Enfield Metford were in .303 . And most likely used in home defence and perhaps training troops as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
depaor01 Posted 7 June , 2019 Share Posted 7 June , 2019 (edited) 9 hours ago, 4thGordons said: Thanks very much indeed - I am green with envy! BTW there is at least one well known picture of a patrol/guard on the streets of Dublin after the 1916 rising armed with an RIC carbine -- so not totally off topic for WWI! Chris I think this is he... (Source: South Dublin Library) Edited 8 June , 2019 by depaor01 Quote source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 8 June , 2019 Share Posted 8 June , 2019 (edited) Indeed! thanks for finding that. Chris PS Steve I believe the Mausers are referred to as "HOWTH" mausers, because of where the landing took place rather than who paid for them. Chris Edited 8 June , 2019 by 4thGordons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve1871 Posted 8 June , 2019 Author Share Posted 8 June , 2019 Sounds good to me, thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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