When I got one, at first I refinished the wooden stock and cherished the antique, but soon the iron sights were not enough so I put on a scope and so the story of modifications has started...
Soon after, I got a synthetic stock to improve accuracy on the range.
After hiking in rough Sierra Nevada mountains with this full length rifle, I realized that is it simply not practical in the thicket, boulder-and-sand, super steep mountains, so I decided to go one more step and cut it to usable size.
Many of people will cry wolf why should I cut an antique rifle, but after consideration I think that once modified, this rifle can have another lifetime of service, if left on original state, it has little value.
To all the sniper-wannabess, this rifle is NOT meant to be a long-range hitter, for that I would get a 7mm that shoots much flatter. This rifle is meant to be a handy, inexpensive gun to take to a really rough country and be able to shoot (hunt or defend from) any creature out there ( with a 203 grain soft lead bullet). To achieve that it has to be SHORT and light which the original M91/30 at 48.5 inch was not.
A list of modifications:
- ATI synthetic stock
- Timney very light and crisp trigger (had to modify the stock with Dremel tool)
- Harris Ultralight Bipod Series 1A2
- the gun was polished with hand file and sandpaper
- polished action with soft Dremel tools
- cut 18.5 inch barrel (hand finished crown)
- Birchwood Casey Super Blue finish
- reloaded ammo for light loads (target and small game)
- Brass Stacker rail (no drilling required)
- NCStar long-eye-relief scope (good scope until you want to adjust elevation)
SURPLUS AMMO:
The surplus silver-tip ammo can be both for as low as $0.18 (18 cents) per round, that puts it in .22LR range! However be careful, that ammo is a steel core bullet and it WILL CUT thru a 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) STEEL plate like it was butter at 50 yards, I learned that the hard way when I purchased my new steel gong target. If it goes thru steel plate, it will go thru wood walls for sure. At 1,000 yards it still has more knock-down power (445 fl-lbs) than .45 ACP pistol at 2 yards.
The chart below is specifically for my (short barrel) gun and it does NOT apply to original 91/30:
