Target Sports

PROJECT RIFLE: FRIENDS RE-UNITED

Created on 27th May 2009

The Vietnam War produced some sniping legends, and ROB HUNTER's out to see how they did it, by bringing together two old friends - the Springfield national match rifle and the Unertl x8 scope

I'M NOT a particular fan of old weapons. OK, they're nice to look at from a historical perspective, or as part of a collection, and if that's your thing then the Royal Armouries in Leeds is a must. It's also fine if you can afford expensive stuff to polish and hang on your wall. But just how accurate were these old rifles, compared to what we now expect from modern rifles?

Having made my usual sweeping statement, I should say that I do have a more than passing interest in the Vietnam War and its weapons. Some time ago, after reading about some of the extraordinary shots and exploits of the famous snipers from that era such as Carlos Hathcock and Chuck Marwhinny, I started wondering just how accurate these rifles were, given their age and production methods. Maybe these well-documented extraordinary shots were just truly exceptional marksman.

There was only one way to find out - build one! Or should I say re-create one to the same specification as the original sniper rifle and test it. A great idea, but naïve to say the least. I hadn't realised that the bits and pieces necessary to create this test are becoming extremely scarce.

Choose your weapons

There were several different sniper rifles used throughout the Vietnam conflict, or rather rifles that were pressed into service to fulfil the role of a sniper rifle. The adage "today's wars are fought with yesterday's technology" was as true then as it is today.

At the start of the conflict in Vietnam in 1959 there was no official sniping training program or defined weapons; everything had been mothballed after WWII and only slightly rekindled for the Korean conflict.

Shortly after the start of the war Lieutenant Jim Land managed to convince upper echelons of the United States Marine Corps (USMC) of the value of scout snipers for recognisance and harassment of the enemy on their own ground. In 1960 the first of the marine corps scout snipers graduated from the Hawaiian two-week school (one of which was a Private Hathcock). At this time there was no official issued sniper rifle and it was a case of whatever the local armourers had at hand; this inevitably meant left over and ad-hock weapons from WWII and the Korean conflict.

M1903A1 Sniper

In order to make this a tough test I ruled out the Remington and Winchesters that stayed in service throughout the major part of the war, as they are basically the same rifles that can be bought off the shelf today. And of course the semi auto rifles such as the Garand were out because our nanny state government says we can't be trusted with such WMDs. So I decided on a real tough test - the Springfield M1903A1. To be totally historically correct this rifle was getting past its sell-by-date when the Vietnam War started, having seen the majority of its use in WWII and Korea, but there are documented cases and pictures of this rifle being used in action in Vietnam.

This rifle was usually built based on or around the Springfield 30-06 National match rifle which was accuracy tested/gauged and fitted with the then new and top-of-the-line Unertl scope.

The scope

The Unertl x8 scope was based on the Unertl target scope. This was quite a bold step for the military, as standard thoughts on the use of scopes for military use were in favour of very low power: x2, x4 or at the most x6. The rationale behind this low mag was to give the shooter the biggest field of view possible. This is fine but it doesn't help the sniper to deliver pinpoint accuracy as we understand it today. The reticle is a fine cross hair which affords the user an uncluttered view and, best of all, a very fine aim point.

It's worth noting that it's only in the past couple of years that the UK forces have moved from a set magnification of a x8 S&B to the variable x12, a move that was well overdue, so you see that the US military was way ahead of its time. The Unertl scope has a few other things going for it too. The rear mount or housing has an external micrometer with ¼minute clicks for windage and elevation. This looks a bit crude but it's a very good method of making adjustments on a scope as it does away with all the very small moving parts that would normally be inside the tube. The downside is it does become a place where dirt and junk can accumulate in combat conditions.

There is still a healthy trade in second hand Unertl scopes. They have something of a cult following around the world, and the Holy Grail among collectors is a true USMC x8 sniper scope. These were stamped and serial numbered on the side of the tube, so if you have one on top of your wardrobe that a long forgotten uncle left you it's probably worth around £5,000! So to recreate the Springfield Sniper rifle the next best thing is a x8 target scope which is in effect exactly the same scope, but these are also becoming increasingly hard to get hold of - it took me the best part of year to find a good one and get it over from the US (note the original wooden box and brass fittings that these scopes were dispatched in, no cardboard here).

The other question I always get asked about this scope is "what is the spring for?" Well, the scope was designed to move within its mounts under the recoil of the rifle and the spring returns the scope to its original position, maintaining the correct eye relief.

The rifle

I started the search for a rifle about the same time as I started looking for the scope and I thought it was going to be reasonably straightforward; after all there were thousands of Springfield national match rifles made, so I started to ring around all of the dealers. I was greeted by either stunned silence, a sharp sucking in of air or just plain laughter: not an encouraging start. But one name that did crop up time after time was Andrew Kukielski of Colenso Arms. Not only is Andrew a collector of this type of rifle, he is one of the few people in the country who is regarded as an expert and is an invaluable source of knowledge about where to get the various bits and pieces. Great - I handed to the problem over to him (a problem halved), and true to his word, six months later I got a call saying he had found one in very nearly mint condition - great nick for a rifle built around the 1920s.

OK, got the rifle...got the scope...it was just a case of getting them together. Did I say just? As per usual nothing was that simple. The scope mounting blocks have to be mounted in set positions: one on the barrel, one on the action. This pre-determined distance is what sets the value for the clicks. Probably the only gunsmith in the country with such a jig to do this job was gunsmith Roger Mason of Essex, who luckily is a friend of Andrew's.

A few phone calls later and all the bits were off to Roger to be assembled. Three weeks later the woodwork on the forepiece had been altered, the scope blocks were fitted, the scope was on, and the whole rifle had been stripped, serviced and cleaned to bring it back to an as new condition. Several days later the project that I had worked on for a year without seeing the majority of the parts landed assembled in my lap. Oddly, given my former indifference towards old military rifles, I fell in love with this rifle as soon as I unwrapped it. It's light, well balanced and comes up to the shoulder really well. Andrew had even managed to get me a leather sling to finish it all off. However, the point of all this was not to stroke it but to find out what it's capable of.

Feed me

Luckily there's lots of loading info out there for this rifle and a search on the net throws up loads for everything from 155gn to 220gn bullets. I had plenty of 155gn and 168gn Lapua match bullets. In order to give the rifle its best chance I gave it the best equipment to work with: Lapua brass and Redding competition dies and, in order to be gentle on the bore, I molly coated the bullets. I ran two test batches and both had similar promising results; interestingly the best groups were 48.5g of N140 = 2650fps both showing five-shot touching groups. I took the two best and ran the same test at 300yd. The 168s really came into their own, making a 10-shot group of 2¾", or sub MOA.

Just as a comparison I shot a friend's Sako TRG with an 8x32 Nightforce scope and the Springfield at the same distance of 300yd. The Sako does have smaller five-shot group of 3" which was only to be expected, but the old rifle put up a good show on the day of 3¾".

This was not very a scientific experiment but I did wind the power down to x8 on the Nightforce to make it a level playing field, and it does show what this 70-year-old rifle can do. I would go further by saying with some more load development and in more experienced hands than mine I'm sure that this rifle could do much more.

In conclusion

At the beginning of this article I asked "how accurate were these rifles?" The answer is more accurate than I ever imagined at sub MOA. And no, before you ask, it's not for sale!

Andrew Kukielski can be contacted on 01787 224900, Roger Mason on 01268 781573.