Rate the main battle rifles of the main combatants of World War II . Here's my rankings:

#1 - M1 Garand. Semi-auto; reliable; excellent sights; good-for-its-day eight-round magazine capacity. The en-bloc clip isn't nearly the weakness some say it is - I suspect stories of enemy soldiers rushing at the "zing" are apocryphal.

#2 - Lee-Enfield #4. Excellent sights; ten-round mag; fast-firing bolt. Best bolt-action battle rifle made.

#3 - Kar98K. Hell-for-strong Mauser action; mediocre sights; five-round capacity. It's said of the rifles of WWI that the Americans had the best target rifle, the British had the best battle rifle, and the Germans had the best hunting rifle. The countless custom rifles built on the Mauser 98 action attest to that.

#4 - Arisaka Type 38 & 99. Unfairly maligned because of the "last ditch" guns, these are the strongest Mauser actions made. Only the awkward straight bolt handle keeps it from the #3 position.

#5. Mosin-Nagant. Rugged; reliable; smooth-as-butter bolt.

#6 and #7 - Mannlicher-Carcano and Berthier. Serviceable but unremarkable. The tiebreaker goes to the Carcano, because nobody ever killed the leader of the free world with a Berthier.

They also make good grave markers.

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Shot in the head by a Garand, - Nasty.
Shot in the head by an Enfield, - Nasty.
Shot in the head by a Kar98, - Nasty.
Shot in the head by an Arisaka, - Nasty.
Shot in the head by a Mosin-Nagant - Nasty.
Shot in the head by a Mannlicher - Nasty.

They're all quite nasty really.

Cheers (and apologies),
Adam.

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It's only the Internet.

Being shot anywhere in the body is nasty if you ask me.

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"One might as well try to charge at a wall."-Napoleon, regarding the British Infantry.

The Garand gave the average grunt FIREPOWER, something no other rifle had. It dispelled the ridiculous WW I old time belief in the steady rifleman sliding his bolt after aiming carefully across no man's land of the trenches.

A squad armed with Garands and the typical pair of BARs and perhaps a Thompson or 2 became able to move and fire in volumes unheard of with any bolt sloshing rifle.

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Have you ever fired any or all of these rifles?

The Type 99 Japanese rifle and its earlier 6.5mm cousin are really garbage guns. The action is very stiff and hard to work. The safety is impossible to set. They are clumsy and long; particularly the 7.7mm. The sights are iffy at best. There is alot of nonsense on the guns too. The 7.7mm has a monopod wire stand on it. Worthless. It sinks in soft soil and is wobbly in the best of conditions. The little flip down antiaircraft sights are absolutely stupid.
Of the group given I'd rate the Japanese gun as the worst by a large margin.

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Truth is stranger than bullshit!

Decently designed and functong Jap weapons were few and far between for sure.

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Despite being a fan of the Kar 98 k I would say the garand was the best of the lot simply because of the fact that it is a semi-automatic weapon.

I read somewhere that the japanese destroyed most of their weapons post surrender. in fact some of the surviving arisakas have had the chrysanthemum filed off in order to prevent the sacred emblem from falling into the hands of the enemy.This is why jap rifles in good condition are hard to find.

I agree with Gardener on the Japanese rifles, and I agree on your opinion about the M1 Garand.

If you had to rate the best bolt-action rifles, I would say the .303 Enfield is the best.

A note on the 'ping' noise on the M1: Many soldiers did lose thier lives because of this, particularly in the Pacific theater. I have heard stories, however, in ETO of American soldiers firing off a magazine from one squad member to make the 'ping,' and then shooting any Germans who tried to attack while the empty rifleman was reloading.

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"Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts." - Cicero

"It's called getting wounded, Private. Injured is when you fall out of a tree or something." - Sgt. John Martin, "Band of Brothers"

Why the .303 Enfield? The Garand can easily get off twice the number of shots a Enfield can give off, and is just as reliable and accurate.

As for the "ping" noise...it's practically impossible to try and distinguish the "pinging" from the cacophony of warfare. If it came to that, GIs used to throw empty Garand strips to lure out foolish combatants. The Garand can be, contrary to what video games suggest, manually reloaded as well.

I can't think of anything the Enfield has that the M1 doesn't have that takes away the Garand's advantage of rapid fire.

if you read the post, it says that I was rating the best bolt action rifle when i talked about the Lee Enfield. The M1 Garand is semi-auto

PS: The stories about the 'ping' are as told by WWII vets themselves.

And the Garand can be manually reloaded, as you said, but it takes time and you wouldn't want to do it with bullets whizzing by your head.

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"Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts." - Cicero

"It's called getting wounded, Private. Injured is when you fall out of a tree or something." - Sgt. John Martin, "Band of Brothers"

Mine has suffered this fate. It is not a particularly inspiring weapon, but considering that my grandfather spent a portion of his life retrieving and bringing it home with him, it has value to me in that regard. I have only fired the German and British entries in this discussion, so I can compare it only to them...and there is no comparison.

But as Adam so succintly stated:

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Best Regards,
Not Slipdigit

Ah, I missed the bolt-action part. My bad...how do you paste those *slap-oneself-on-the-head* smilies?

-The stories of using blank clips as decoys are told by the GIs, too. So are, in fact, stories about Tigers appearing days before they actually arrived in Normandy. In other words, mostly unsubstantiated.

And of course in the heat of the firefight who has time to listen for a "ping"? Or to be able to hear one what with the distance and other sounds of battle going on for that matter? and I love this quote "It happened seldom, if at all. As Bruce Canfield put it, if one guy ran out of ammunition, several of his buddies would have been more than glad to send the German or Japanese to his ancestors."

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Best Regards,
Not Slipdigit

On the subject of the M1 Garand, yes, the clip pings, it however was never an issue under fire as far as I knew of, it was more of a problem stepping on them or bumping one on the ground with your foot and having that sound ring out where you are standing or moving.

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All the Best
Jack

How close do you have to be to hear the thing ping? At human fist length?

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There is an ass in my avatar.

good question. I have fired the Garand during weapons training and I heard the ping but it never really registered on me, except, of course that I have to reload. Still, that's on a firing range, not a combat situation.

The Arisaka action was based on the Mauser. While not as easy to work as the Lee Enfield it is similar to the Mauser and much easier to work than the Mosin Nagant.

The safety is not as easy to work as the Lee Enfield or Mauser but it is much easier than the Mosin Nagant.

The 7.7 mm Type 99 was actually shorter than the 6.5 mm Type 38 and it was similar in length to other rifles of that era:

Overall length

Japanese Type 38: 50.25"
Mosin Nagant 91/30: 48.5"
Japanese Type 99: 45"
Lee Enfield No. 4 Mk. I: 44.43"
German K98k: 43.6"
M1 Rifle: 43.5"

The Type 38 during all of its production and the Type 99 during most of its production had a ladder-type sight similar to that of the American Model 1903 ("Springfield") rifle.

The folding wire monopod was deleted early in production and the anti-aircraft sights were deleted midway through production. They folded away and did not interfere with normal operation of the rifle.

And as mentioned earlier, during testing after WWII the Type 38 was found to be the strongest and the Type 99 the second-strongest of all of the bolt-action rifles tested Japan's intriguing Arisakas | Guns Magazine | Find Articles at BNET.com

Good defense of the Arisakas, milsurp. Couldn't have said it better myself.

gotta love the Garands firepower gotta hate its lack of a detachable magazine and the fact that one could not 'top it off' after firing 3 or 4 shots. you had to fire off the remaining rounds in the clip and insert a new one or face your next adversary with a partial mag. I have to say that ANY semi-auto has a bolt action beat though. I'm not much into bolt action guns in any form though I do admire their accuracy in most cases.

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In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility:but when the blast of war blows in our ears,then imitate the action of the tiger;stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;then lend the eye a terrible aspect. William Shakespeare