Chris Mace

The Luger served in both World Wars and was much sought-after by the Allies as a battle prize. Despite some strange characteristics and features from the era, some still shoot today.

For those of you who might be unaware, there is a program that sells surplus military rifles to civilians. This is the Civilian Marksmanship Program or CMP. They sell WWII era firearms primarily, most of which are M1 rifles at this point, though there are others as well.

One of the big hurdles to getting into reloading is the lack of space. And a lot of people do not live next door to a rifle range where they can easily develop their loads as necessary. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to reload at the range when testing your handloads? This article is about some solutions that would address these problems.

The Gewehr 98 Mauser rifle is one of the most historically significant and technically influential firearms in history. In one variant or another, it armed men on both sides of two world wars and continues to be seen in conflicts around the world to this day. Rifle actions are still being based on it or using its features.

This particular class was obviously not a beginner’s course. But there are plenty to choose from that are in the NRA Summer Gunsmithing Program.

This particular class is the Advanced Machine Shop class. As the name implies, it has some pre-requisites. The class is basically geared towards chambering barrels, but other projects are also permitted. I wanted to build a precision bolt action rifle. So, I spent the week blueprinting the action and doing the related barrel work. Obviously, this is not going to be an absolute guide to chambering and fitting a barrel. But I wanted to give you an idea of what it does entail.

The primary weapon of the infantryman is the rifle. Yes, at this time there were also submachine guns, pistols, anti-armor weapons, and machine guns. But these weapons were all intended to support the rifleman as he took or held ground. Interestingly enough, most of the armies in the Second World War were using either the same rifle their fathers carried in the First World War or a variant thereof.

Overall the Colt 1917 is a very interesting revolver. It was a stop-gap sidearm that ended up with American troops in two world wars. 1917 revolvers, both Colt and Smith & Wesson, can usually be found for reasonable amounts of money (especially in comparison to other US military revolvers, or WWI 1911s). They are not difficult to find suitable ammunition for, and they’re strong enough to enjoy some range time with. So if you’re looking for a WWI handgun to add to your collection, consider one of these old Colts.

Almost every shooter in the US has heard of or seen the Mosin-Nagant rifle, due to the large volume of them that were imported over the last decade or so. The WWII variant was quite readily available and inexpensive until very recently.