Takedown Rifles (1990s)

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

Maybe some of these would interest you.

Break-open rifles do offer an easy takedown capability, it is true. And .30-06 and 12G do have wide application.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Icelander

How long would it take to go from stowed in separated form to ready for shooting?

Assuming an ordinary skill check against IQ-based Guns or Armoury+4.

Assuming it was stored all together and ready to go, a about the same as an AR/M16, perhaps a little longer (especially if the scope if detached). I'd say 10 seconds, easy, for someone with a bit of practice and the parts all to hand. If they're jumbled in the bottom of a toolbox or the like, and the user hasn't handled that model of rifle for a while, it'll be longer (I'd go with 30 seconds, with generous reductions for a good skill roll).

I'll definitely need some .308 Win rifles available.

OR any full-bore round, really. For long range precision shooting rate of fire isn't as important, and any good bolt action sporter should do, though you'd need about a 4-foot long hidey hole for that. That also opens up a wide range of different bullets and loadings for different ranges and target if the characters (or players) care about such things.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Second, they'd probably buy the action, including the receiver (in the US, the only part of the whole that is legally a 'firearm' and where the serial number is found), commercially. Good, reliable actions you can use to make accurate rifles are hard to make and it doesn't make sense for someone to spend a long time doing so if they can get the same thing from a factory.

In the 80s and even the 90s there were still plenty of old Mauser service rifles around, and their actions were very popular as the base for custom sporting and target rifles. They had a reputation for strength and stiffness (and thus accuracy). If anonymity is important, buying the rifles second hand at gun shows from private sellers would be legal in the US, and give you perfectly legal actions with the only records of them being some customs permit for import somewhere (and possibly not even that if it was a WWII souvenir or a bulk import back in the 50s or 60s).

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Rupert

In the 80s and even the 90s there were still plenty of old Mauser service rifles around, and their actions were very popular as the base for custom sporting and target rifles. They had a reputation for strength and stiffness (and thus accuracy). If anonymity is important, buying the rifles second hand at gun shows from private sellers would be legal in the US, and give you perfectly legal actions with the only records of them being some customs permit for import somewhere (and possibly not even that if it was a WWII souvenir or a bulk import back in the 50s or 60s).

That's true, the Mauser actions would be suitably anonymous. The ammo for them is rarer than .308 Win, .30-06 and even .300 Win Mag today and I suspect even then, so it would probably be advantageous to chamber them in a caliber more off-the-shell ammo is sold for, as well as having a wider selection of bullets for handloading.

What are some of the easiest rechamberings for Mauser action, for rounds popular in the US?

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Icelander

What are some of the easiest rechamberings for Mauser action, for rounds popular in the US?

I was meaning take them and re-chamber and re-barrel them. They were rechambered for all kinds of things, from normal sporting rounds like .30-06, .270, etc. to exotic wildcats.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

What are some of the easiest rechamberings for Mauser action, for rounds popular in the US?

The chamber is part of the barrel for those actions. They'll handle almost any round up to 88mm long, given an appropriate bolt head, and a little filing on the 7.92 bolt head will let it work with .30-06. The largest calibre that's been used with them is probably .500 Jeffery.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Rupert

I was meaning take them and re-chamber and re-barrel them. They were rechambered for all kinds of things, from normal sporting rounds like .30-06, .270, etc. to exotic wildcats.

Originally Posted by johndallman

The chamber is part of the barrel for those actions. They'll handle almost any round up to 88mm long, given an appropriate bolt head, and a little filing on the 7.92 bolt head will let it work with .30-06. The largest calibre that's been used with them is probably .500 Jeffery.

Yeah, .30-06 seems the most popular and useful chambering that will work in a WWII vintage K98 or vz. 24 Mauser action with minimal gunsmithing needed. Don't want to have to fiddle with the magazine any more than necessary, which argues against the .308 Win and other shorter rounds.

Easiest of all would be 7x57mm or similar, but I doubt any of them are more widely available commercially than the original 7.92x57mm Mauser.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Yeah, .30-06 seems the most popular and useful chambering that will work in a WWII vintage K98 or vz. 24 Mauser action with minimal gunsmithing needed. r.

The most minimal gun smithing needed to pull this trick is with the licensed copy Mauser action from a 1903 Springfield. Already in 30-06. From my reading Springfield actions were being "civillianized"{ as early as the 1920s. Most often this just meant puttng a new civiliani-style stock on it.

[Kale]

In continental North America, what about 30-30 Winchester? It was extremely common as a hunting caliber so it is readily available and won't raise eyebrows. There are a number of takedown rifles for the cartridge, here's a number of examples of the Winchester 55 takedown:
https://www.gunsinternational.com/gu...c571_p1_o6.cfm
And Browning makes a lightweight stainless version in a number of additional calibers if 30-30 doesn't work for you:
https://www.browning.com/products/fi...-takedown.html

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Kale

In continental North America, what about 30-30 Winchester? It was extremely common as a hunting caliber so it is readily available and won't raise eyebrows. There are a number of takedown rifles for the cartridge, here's a number of examples of the Winchester 55 takedown:
https://www.gunsinternational.com/gu...c571_p1_o6.cfm]

Those rifles are not meant for use in the Continental United States. They are meant for caches and outposts somewhere in the Caribbean, where operatives may need to travel to the country commercially (and thus unarmed) and retrieve weapons before an operation.

Of course, the largest commercial market for firearms and ammunution the outfitters have access to happens to be the US, so the odds are that anything bought in stores or at gun shows will be sourced from there.

Takedown lever-actions in .30-30 are certainly options, just not for any work requiring long-range accurcy. The poor BC of the roundnose bullet really hurts its performance at longer ranges.

Originally Posted by Kale

And Browning makes a lightweight stainless version in a number of additional calibers if 30-30 doesn't work for you:
https://www.browning.com/products/fi...-takedown.html

Unfortunately, perfect as a takedown Browning BLR would be, they didn't offer the takedown version until 2007. So, caches of weapons stored in the 1990s cannot include it.

Used rifles like the Remington 81 Woodsmaster and Savage 99 were sold as takedown models and chambered in .300 Savage (the Savage 99 was also offered in many more modern centerfire rifle chamberings, but as far as I know, not until after they stopped offering the takedown models). I will have a few such older rifles in some caches.