which rifle would you carry to battle? Western front, 1944? you only have around 100 rounds.
mosin 5x20
k98 5x20
enfield 10x10
m1 8x12
g43 10x10
For acuracy i’d say the enfield but as an overall weapon it has to be the Garand, brilliant piece of kit, good rate of fire, easy serviciblilty.
The Garand with no doubt.
Only thinking that he fire half automatic…
I have to go for the garand as well. For the reasons stated above.
I vote for Enfield, although I don’t know how much better is the garand but a 10 round would be better, you have to reload less…
G-43 10 rounds ,thats in clip ,thats all you need.
Can I have my Mauser with a Trench magazine?
Even without the Trench magazine I’d take a Mauser. I am most familiar with the characteristics of the 7.92x57mm cartridge.
Having fired all of the rifles in question, I feel that I can speak with some authority.
The main concern for a battle rifle is the ability to maintain rapid, accurate fire. Given that all the rifles in question have acceptable battle accuracy and acceptable reliability, then the order of preference would unquestioningly have to be:
Garand, G43, Enfield, K98, Mosin-Nagant
The Garand beats the G43 because although the magazine only holds 8 rounds, it is significantly quicker to reload than the G43 (The G43 comes with 3 10-round magazines, and when these have been exhausted the reload is done with 2 5-round stripper clips. In any case, inserting a new 8-round clip into the Garand is significantly faster than changing the magazine on the G43, let alone putting two stripper clips in.).
Of the bolt-actions, the Enfield is the fastest by far and does have the added advantage of the 10-round magazine. The K98 is marginally faster than a Mosin-Nagant.
Of those that I’ve fired during a mad minute (one minute of firing, unlimited rounds), I’ve fired 25 rounds out of the Enfield in a little under a minute (I ran out of ammo) and I’ve had 17 out of the Mosin-Nagant.
Man of Stoat, what’s the servicibility like on these weapons? Are they easy to learn on?
My vote goes to the M1 Garand, one pull on the trigger guard and the rifle is ready for cleaning. I would hate to be down range to any of these rifles but the Garand is tops in my book.
my late neighbor, a ww2 army ranger, told me about hiscombat experience in normandy. He was a rifleman, and he qualitfied well with the m1 rifle. He grew up around firearms.
but in hissubsequent actions in the war, he told me he almost never really aimed at the enemy. All he did was fire off the 8 rounds as fast as he could pull the trigger in the general direction of the enemy targets. In his first action, he told me that he expended almost all his ammunition and hit nothing. He ended the war not even knowing if he killed or wounded anybody!
a fallshirmager maxim: Those who fire needlessly to comfort themselves are men of straw and not worthy of a parachutist.
my grandfather handled a k98 occasionaly in combat (his main weapon was an MP) and he hated it. “Too much exposure to hazardous elements… with dissappointing results” as he said. I guess he wasn’t a good shot either.
They’re all servicable. The semi-autos are obviously far more complex than the bolt-actions. Mike M. is being overly simplistic about the Garand. Small Arms of the World illustrates 12 different steps to field-strip the Garand (a couple of which aren’t really necessary in the field). Compare this to the single step to remove the bolt of a bolt-action to ready it for cleaning. Does that answer your question? If not, please expand on it.
M-1 Garand. Secondarily, anything semi auto. Bolt actions of any brand were so WW I and totally eclipsed by semi auto fire that could be laid down.
k98 handsdown
If anyone is interested one of my modules on my course this year is entitled ‘how weapons work’ a real spotter course, anyway from it I was told of this website which has the training/servicing manuals on a large number of weapons including the Lee Enfield and the Garand.
Have a look;
From having a Mosin Nagant I would say its not the greates to have as far as recoil but that is the carbine (M1944) and also a very big flash. Also I have fired the lee enfield and I liked very much especially the bolt. So hands down I chose the Lee Enfield.
Why do you say that Stalingrad ?
I’m really curious why the folks are voting bolt action when the Garand has the same or better stopping power and is semi auto? I have a K-98 and there is absolutely no advantage to bolt action in modern combat.
I think the question was set in 1944.
The major advantage of a good bolt over a semi would be accuracy, but as we’re only considering battle rifles it’s pretty academic.
A K98 has more power. Well at least the FPS is higher. A 30-06 has about 2500-2600 (I’m at school right now and can’t check my gun book for the exact number) while 7.92 is 2850 (if you use surplus Turk ammo it’s about 3000+ sometimes).
Snipers on the field of combat usually use a bolt action because they are simpler than an automatic. The shooter can also control when the round is extracted for even more stealthiness.