Mauser vs Springfield vs Enfield

[Certaindeaf]

So I'm watching an awesomely funny and cute war movie entitled Two Men Went to War and got to musing.
Were you back in the day, and were to fight for your respective side still, and were there no logistical issues (lol), which of these three magnificent rifles would you pick to do your fighting with and why?
It's kind of a tough one but I'd go with an 03-A3 30-06 because the cartridge is awesome and so are the peep sights.. and it's the first rifle I ever bought with my own money.. (16yrs old/$80).

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[MountainBear]

Probably the P17 Enfield. Still .30-06, but slightly better sights.

 

[Jim Colvill]

Enfield. 10 round mag vs. 5 round box with everything else equal. Kind of a no brainer.

 

[MountainBear]

I believe the saying was the Germans brought a hunting rifle to war, the Americans brought a target rifle, and the Brits brought a battle rifle...

Still rather have a P17, although I have plenty of the others at the moment as well.

 

[mrblond]

heard this..don't recall where I saw it. but the Gist was..

If you were a rifle company and heard something from the hedgerow over you would shoot into the air.
If the return fire was a solid fusillade of accurate rifle fire.. they were British
If it was a solid wall of machine gun fire , they were German.
If you got 5 to ten minutes of silence then got hit with overwhelming artillery fire , they were American.

In all honesty, I favor the Mauser. The Enfield would be fantastic if I had a British Sergent Major screaming at me until I knew that rifle like me own right hand.

 

[Sgt Nambu]

Enfield, the magazine wins! I much prefer the Springfield's sights, though!

 

[ron]

03-A3 Springfield. The sights are superior. Peep sight with
windage adjustments. Mauser has a terrible front sight pyramid
with rear notch. Enfield has no windage adjustment except
for drifting the front sight. Impossible to go '1 minute left'.
Also the Enfield has the 'cock on close' design. Pushes the
rifle off your shoulder on rapid fire. I own and shoot all
these rifles in Vintage Rifle Matches.

 

[Goosebrown]

I was in the position to choose just this last week as I decided I want to shoot vintage rifle. I have or have shot many Enfields and Mausers, my hunting rifle is a 1942 Mauser sporter (No stripper clip cut - civilian model).

I went with the Lee Enfield. If you go with the #4 mk 2 I believe it has peep sights although I got a No 1, Mk III* because I always wanted one.

I went with the Enfield because of the rate of fire. I want to do the Tactical Rifle vintage matches as well as Service Rifle and even though it has cock on closing, it is the fastest of all the rifles there and I can reload without moving the rifle from the shoulder although it does wobble a bit. Also the stripper clips are VERY fast and work better than the Mauser system in my experience. Also the front sight is a dream and the blade is thin enough not to obscure the target. (hence the VERY solid wings on the front sight.)

Brits didn't drop the magazine AFIK. They were too cheap. They relied on the stripper clips so I am not going to get extra mags either.

I would like at least one of each rifle though.

PS. I did get a bayonet just in case they charge me.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Great stuff.
It's interesting that some Enfields were manufactured by Savage Arms here in the US to further the war effort.
Also, that movie I referred to is a true story (and very well done, cinematically) about two British Army dentists that go AWOL, steal a boat, cross the channel and put the hurt on dem nasty krauts all by their lonesomes! pretty crazy

 

[Deebow]

Enfield, only because of magazines.

Until a Garand came along...

 

[Hook686]

M1 Garand

 

[Certaindeaf]

M1 Garand

Oh you rascal you!

 

[JoeZeon]

Enfield.

10rd capacity with solid open sights, and the bolt really makes it easy to get off a lot of rounds.

There's a reason the British Expeditionary Force at Mons didn't get trucked by German army. Those Germans thought the Brits had machines guns up and down their lines. Came to find out it was just good ole Tommies sending 30 rds down range in one minute. Gotta hand it to the British, they always were able to punch above their weight.

 

[Medic!]

Springfield 03. Not 03A3. The five in one sights [Including peep] are more fragile. But with more BDC.

There was no 03-A3 in WWI, when these three guns first faced off.