Author Topic: SHOTGUN NEWS March 1,2005 Vol, 59 Issue 7 "summary& (Read 482 times)

1911crazy · « **on:** March 12, 2005, 12:35:40 AM »

The lastest Shotgun(blues) News is pretty interesting First it compares a few semi-autos against the garand but the garand is rated the best but i find it rather odd it leaves out a few later manufactured semi-auto's like the FN49, French MAS 49, French MAS 49/56 Swedish Ljungman and the Egyptian Hakim too. I think the Egyptian 8mm Hakim is one of the smoothest functioning big bore semi auto's I have ever shot but thats my opinion. I don't want to take anything away from the Garand its an excellent war weapon and unsurpassed by anything the US has today in my opinion you just can't beat the bigger bore '06.

Also in the shotgun news in the second article for us military collectors it talks about the Canadian Military Cartridges from the 577 snider, 450 martini, .303 Mark Vl, .303 Mark Vll, .30 M2 ball, 7.62mm Nato, 5.56 C77. There's quite a bit of Canadian "bullet" history mentioned here too. You guys up in north country may want to pick up this copy of the shotgun news if you don't have it already.

If you don't get the shotgun news I think you should because it has some great articles sometimes plus the lastest gun prices too. Its good during the long cold winter nites too plus the two year old copies make great for burning by making paper logs too. BigBill

jh45gun · « **Reply #1 on:** March 12, 2005, 02:18:40 PM »

I like Shotgun News do not buy it regularly but check out every new edition and if a article catches my eye I buy it. I save mine for that reason. I like the articles because they deal with milsurps and Venturino's old west gun articles. The articles must be a good deal for them as I see the other one the Gun List has articles now too. Jim

Mikey · « **Reply #2 on:** March 13, 2005, 03:44:56 AM »

Yo BigBill - I read that article and thought it pretty good. Sometimes those artilces are good and sometimes youwonder if the writer isn't fulla schmidt. I think it was Fortier who wrote an article a couple of issues ago comparing the M44 (Moison) to the 98 Mauser, but the guy used two not so comparable rifles. The M44 was in pretty good shape and the Mauser, and I think it was a Turk, wasn't. He compared heft, field carry-ability, and accuarcy - so of course the newer M44 came out ahead. I had thought of writing back and asking why he didn't pick up a good unissued Yugo Mauser for the comparison but I figured 'what the hay', these guys never admit a mistake and never write back. At least the latest article on the Canadian ammo wa pretty good. Mikey.

kevin.303 · « **Reply #3 on:** March 13, 2005, 08:12:50 AM »

that is kinda funny, considering i've heard the Ljungmann refered to as the " Swedish Garand" and is considered equal or better than the M1/M14 rifles when it comes to accuracy. sounds like the test was pretty slanted. what where the other test rifles? if they where comparing the SKS to the Garand thats just stoopid. it's apples and oranges. even the well made Yugo M59/66 leaves a lot to be desired when next to a garnad on the firing line. i've fired Garands, FN49's, FAL's and SVT's and founds them all to be pretty sweet shooters. Canadian ammo eh? i'll have to go find a copy tomorrow, hope it's still available.

1911crazy · « **Reply #4 on:** March 13, 2005, 01:18:47 PM »

I would like to see a comparison of all of them benchrested and lets see who ends up with the bragging rights in accuracy thats were it counts. They did a comparison test of sks's at surplus rifle .com and they had a few shooters to the test. I think it was a fair test of the different sks's and the chinese edged out the others in accuracy but they were all so close it wouldn't sway me to buy either one but it was interesting to see which one was more accurate. I knew the chinese would do good but i didn't expect it to win over the russian or the other european manufactured sks's but it did. I would like to see a test of the surplus big bore semi auto's similair to that test. That new springfield armory M1 Garand in 308 there talking about is $1,200 here in a local gun shop. Right next to it is a bargain basement "No Frills or anything extra" M1a at the same price. But the M1a goes up in steps from around $1,500 next to a fully loaded one at $2,700. But yet i hear of quality problems at springfield armory with the M1a's. I also talked with others who sent there new M1a's out to be accurized too after paying big bucks up front to buy them. I'd be ripping if i paid that kind of cash and its not a good shooter right out of the box. I'm sure you would be too, but when i could take anyone of my surplus semi auto's and hit pretty much what i aim at. I hope the weather breaks soon so i can get out and shoot. I would like to benchrest some of the semi-auto's I have to see how tight they can group just to get an idea how accurate they really are. Of course it will take about a few hours for each gun taking my time to try each different surplus ammo i have to see which one shoots the most accurate too. I have a feeling the'll shoot somewhere around 2" to 3" groups benchrested without counting the occasional flyer. I wonder how accurate Springfield armory promises the M1 garand or the M1a to be when purchased. Spending $1,200 for one gun is a very hard thing for me to do. We could buy a lot of other surplus guns for $1,200?? Frugal BigBill but sometimes too frugal!!!

kevin.303 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 13, 2005, 03:11:01 PM »

BigBill, have you shot your AG42b yet? if not i think you'll be pleasantly surprised. with a well made handload it will put scoped bolt actions to shame. with surplus it groups nice and tight, but there isn't really any new commercial load that i've found thats good for it. IMR 3031 is one of the best powders for it if your gonna load, and keep the velocity around 2450 FPS.

1911crazy · « **Reply #6 on:** March 15, 2005, 01:37:10 PM »

kevin303; I haven't shot my Ljungman AG42B yet its sitting in the safe ready to go. I have swedish surplus M41B ammo, Sellier & Bellot ammo, Igman ammo and my 140gr reloads with IMR4895 which is good for military semi-auto's the burn rate is suppose to be correct for cycling the semi-auto's. I put in CCI #34 nato primers(hard primers) in the cases too for all the military semi auto's because of the floating firing pins with soft primers. I wrote down all the loads that i see posted for the swede's some of them the posters say they shot snake eyes with them. One of these days I'll have to load some up and try it. The IMR 4831 was said to be great powder for the swede bolt action along with your IMR 3031 too. I wonder if the Ljungman is as accurate as the mausers are or is it equal to the 8mm Hakim which can hold its own too even with surplus ammo.
BigBill

kevin.303 · « **Reply #7 on:** March 15, 2005, 03:36:27 PM »

i found the Igman to be really poor for accuracy. i bought some Bell ammo but afterwards realized it's the same stuff in a different box. for reloads you'll want to use FMJ or HP bullets, when it feeds it tends to mangle exposed tips like the Igman bullets have.