What's your perfect center fire rifle for all occasions

[DuneHopper]

Great little rifle, solid, well made, tough as hell. I keep one buried in a plastic pipe packed in grease with 200 rounds. If I ever needed it, just have to dig it up. I keep another under the hood of my truck. Same set up. Just cut the cap off and away we go! Total investment for both including ammo and the plastic pipes is only about $300 bucks. Life is surely worth a lot more then that!

I'll probably go to my death bed preaching how the SKS is the most underrated firearm by many. Most under-rate it because there are better out there. Of course there are. But at around 300.00
and the ability to do almost every task. Why true it doesn't master every task. but it does allot things average and well that many priced 10x it cant do. I like to think the SKS is the Marlin 60 of centerfire.

 

[Boboclown]

I think I should chime in here at this point with some things that I'm not sure have been considered. One; any rifle is only as good as the sights it has, and as such, i would insist on a good set of iron sights with long sight radius. Second; while a scope looks sexy, it needs to be used in addition to, rather then a replacement for irons. Scopes can get damaged pretty easy, and with out irons, you have no means of sighting targets. Third; Knowing how to use your irons. Many do not know how, or have gotten so used to optics that they forgot how to shoot "old School."

Yeup, all my ARs (whether they are 5.56 or .308) has back up iron sights on them. Though, a long sight radius isn't as necessary to me as much as having one that isn't too short. I still get hits out to 300 meters (my eyes won't let me see further) with a sight radius shorter than 20 inches.

Seen enough scopes break for me to not have a rifle without iron sights.

 

[Ura-Ki]

There are a lot of under rated rifles out there. SKS and veper being two I can think of that never get the respect they have earned. S.M.L.E. being another one. All can and do as well or better then people think they can. Range isn't really an issue, 300 meters is a long ways off!!! For hunting, a person should get a lot closer any way! I found A S.M.L.E. nickle jungle carbine years ago and had to have it. Shoots way better then people think it should and its a neat, funky rifle to have!

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Thanks Ura-Ki.
That C.Z. can shoot . The target in my pic , is 50 yards , off hand , iron sights.
Had a shoot at the club this weekend and found out that a 16oz Gatorade bottle isn't hard to hit at 150 yards either.
This was also done off hand and iron sights.
Andy

 

[Boboclown]

There are a lot of under rated rifles out there. SKS and veper being two I can think of that never get the respect they have earned. S.M.L.E. being another one. All can and do as well or better then people think they can. Range isn't really an issue, 300 meters is a long ways off!!! For hunting, a person should get a lot closer any way! I found A S.M.L.E. nickle jungle carbine years ago and had to have it. Shoots way better then people think it should and its a neat, funky rifle to have!

300 meters isn't that far tbh... Depending on what you have. For a .308, its not too far for hunting. Not that it matters, for the most part I'm stuck under 100 meters, in NC its not often that you see anything past 100 meters. Best experience I ever had was out of state.

But I've seen people hit at 300 meters with a SKS at the range. So its more than capable than what some people say. Of course, everyone I go to the range with needs glasses to shoot anything past 300 meters with iron sights.

 

[Ura-Ki]

Thanks Ura-Ki.
That C.Z. can shoot . The target in my pic , is 50 yards , off hand , iron sights.
Had a shoot at the club this weekend and found out that a 16oz Gatorade bottle isn't hard to hit at 150 yards either.
This was also done off hand and iron sights.
Andy

That's some good shootin, Well done! More then good enough to put food on the table! Also good enough to provide protection from predators, both the four legged kind with teeth and claws, as well as the two legged kind with bullets and a bad attitude! Keep practicing, and you will be way better off then most that "think" they can shoot!!!

 

[salmonriverjohn]

There are a lot of under rated rifles out there. SKS and veper being two I can think of that never get the respect they have earned. S.M.L.E. being another one. All can and do as well or better then people think they can. Range isn't really an issue, 300 meters is a long ways off!!! For hunting, a person should get a lot closer any way! I found A S.M.L.E. nickle jungle carbine years ago and had to have it. Shoots way better then people think it should and its a neat, funky rifle to have!

I'll tell ya, another nice little carbine that's underrated is the FR8 Spanish Mauser in .308, not to be confused with the small ringed FR7.
Reliable, light and loads of fun.

 

[Ura-Ki]

I'll tell ya, another nice little carbine that's underrated is the FR8 Spanish Mauser in .308, not to be confused with the small ringed FR7.
Reliable, light and loads of fun.

Yup! Forgot about those. Another good one is the C.E.T.M.E. basically the Granddaddy of all modern H-K semi autos. 7.62X51 nato round and interchanges with all G-3/P91/PTR stuff. Still pretty cheep if you can find one! They shoot very well, and with the H-K rear diopter sight, these are amazingly versatile rifles! Century arms was importing them for a while, and they worked just fine. I cut off the "legal" muzzle brake on mine and threaded it to take FAL flash hiders or a can if i wanted one!

 

[Whaler]

I would grab my Henry .357mag/.38sp carbine.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Yup! Forgot about those. Another good one is the C.E.T.M.E. basically the Granddaddy of all modern H-K semi autos. 7.62X51 nato round and interchanges with all G-3/P91/PTR stuff. Still pretty cheep if you can find one! They shoot very well, and with the H-K rear diopter sight, these are amazingly versatile rifles! Century arms was importing them for a while, and they worked just fine. I cut off the "legal" muzzle brake on mine and threaded it to take FAL flash hiders or a can if i wanted one!

I thought those were copies of the G3 and were the mother of all crap.
I hear that CETME has started making them again with new engineering/tooling. They are getting good reviews and no longer have the diopter rear.

 

[DuneHopper]

I would grab my Henry .357mag/.38sp carbine.View attachment 268477

Nice !!

 

[Ura-Ki]

I thought those were copies of the G3 and were the mother of all crap.
I hear that CETME has started making them again with new engineering/tooling. They are getting good reviews and no longer have the diopter rear.

Other way round. near the end of WW-2 a bunch of Mauser works engineers escaped to then neutral Spain and set up a small arms works to produce the next gen of weapons to follow after the war. After some prototype work and development they created what would become the C.E.T.M.E. it was the formation of N.A.T.O. that sealed the deal. NATO had standardized on the 7.62X51 round and Mauser had to re design this rifle to use that new standard cartridge. The Spaniards needed the contracts from selling standardized arms to foreign countries as well as its own armed forces. That is how it came to be. H-K saw a good thing and bought the rights from Mauser ( when any thing German was up for grabs) to build the G3 and others based on that design! There was a lot of very big competition at this time as this new standard cartridge required new rifles and every one had a big stake in being the "one" building and supplying them to nations and army's! This is when we see the M-14, the FN/FAL, the Cetme, The G3, and others come out and take over the armaments of nations! Some of it was political in who adopted what, and some was good sense. Germany was not allowed to produce arms during this time, so the Spanish were in a good position to supply arms. The C.E.T.M.E. it self was based on German designs during the war of the new STG-44/45.

 

[clearconscience]

Have to go with my original AR carbine.
Light weight and can hold many rounds.
Good for close range and mid range.

 

[erudne]

I'll stick w/my old 38 Cal. Rifle

 

[Bon Sauvage]

I think that the Ruger Gunsite Scout would be ideal: wish I had one.

 

[H2O MAN]

It's great that we have so many different rifles to choose from.

Another one of my favorites

 

[Velzey]

A few year back I walked in to Gunbroker Clackamas, said hey that sure is a nice looking Cetme..picked it up...Ummm this isn't a normal Cetme at all this is a MARS CETME !!!!and for the $499 price tag I didn't set it down. Its soooooo smooth like its HK smooth. Oh and it came with two original mags with it, one still in the wrap. And it had $1000 rounds of ammo with it!! WHOA what Lake City stuff..
Ok take my money. (this was about 1999 or so)

Still to this day its a rifle I cannot part with!



Imported in the 1960s and 1970s, the CETME was produced in Spain using the design of what would later be the H&K G3 rifle, due to post-World War II restrictions on arms manufacturing in Germany. Post front and 4-position flip rear sights, with a detachable flash hider, synthetic pistol grip and hardwood forearm and buttstock. The magazine well is marked "MADE IN SPAIN/Exclusively for MARS Equipment Corp./Chicago 45, Illinois. U.S.A." on the right side, "CETME "Sport"/S-025***" on the left. With Mars Equipment manual and cleaning kit in the gas tube.

 

[Ura-Ki]

A few year back I walked in to Gunbroker Clackamas, said hey that sure is a nice looking Cetme..picked it up...Ummm this isn't a normal Cetme at all this is a MARS CETME !!!!and for the $499 price tag I didn't set it down. Its soooooo smooth like its HK smooth. Oh and it came with two original mags with it, one still in the wrap. And it had $1000 rounds of ammo with it!! WHOA what Lake City stuff..
Ok take my money. (this was about 1999 or so)

Still to this day its a rifle I cannot part with!

View attachment 272165

Imported in the 1960s and 1970s, the CETME was produced in Spain using the design of what would later be the H&K G3 rifle, due to post-World War II restrictions on arms manufacturing in Germany. Post front and 4-position flip rear sights, with a detachable flash hider, synthetic pistol grip and hardwood forearm and buttstock. The magazine well is marked "MADE IN SPAIN/Exclusively for MARS Equipment Corp./Chicago 45, Illinois. U.S.A." on the right side, "CETME "Sport"/S-025***" on the left. With Mars Equipment manual and cleaning kit in the gas tube.

View attachment 272166 View attachment 272168

Never ran into of of these that couldn't shoot as good or better then the rest! Nice find, pass it on to the grand kids!

 

[U201491]

A Beecher's Bible

 

[Sgt Nambu]

A few years ago I would have chosen my M-1A or SKS. Too many issues with the old body to do that now, soooo......M-4 carbine. It's all about the weight, but its not a horrible choice. It's accurate and versatile. Did I mention it's light?