Spanish M43: The Worst Sniper Rifle Ever Made
Bolt Action Rifles
•
10m
The standard Spanish infantry rifle from 1943 until the adoption of the CETME was the M43, an 8mm Mauser short rifle made at the La Coruña arsenal. As is fairly common, a sniper rifle variant was made form the standard rifles, with an early version made in the mid 1950s and a later model about a decade later.
The early type is a bit basic, but reasonably well constructed. It uses a Zeiss 4 power scope with La Coruña markings (either scrubbed and remarked or bought from Zeiss without and German markings). The scope mounting system is a bit odd, but again functional.
The late pattern of M43 sniper is truly awful. It uses a cheap Japanese-made 10x "Marine" scope (this being in the days when Japanese optics were very poor, unlike today). The mounts are a conglomeration of spacer blocks crudely welded to the receiver, bits of aluminum Weaver rail, and cheap thumb-screw scope rings. Honestly the worst actual military sniper rifle I have ever seen. And yet, they were formally adopted and used in Spanish military service for many years.
Up Next in Bolt Action Rifles
-
Ultima Ratio: RAID and the Founding o...
Thanks to Creedmoor Sports for sponsoring this video, and providing a couple of fine shooting mats to experiment with. Check them out for all your long range competition needs!
The Ultima Ratio was the rifle that created PGM Precision as a company. It originated with a tender for a new sniper ...
-
SSG-69: Steyr's Cold War Sniper Rifle
Make sure to also check out 9 Hole Reviews' field trial of the SSG-69 in military configuration out to 800 yards!
In the 1960s, Steyr Daimler Pusch developed a modern sniper rifle for the Austrian military (and also for commercial civilian sale). It was adopted as the SSG-69 (Scharfschützen-Ge...
-
SSG-98k: Austria Repurposes German Sn...
In the aftermath of World War Two, the Austrian Army was basically disarmed and disbanded. When it was allowed to reform in the 1950s, it needed new armaments, and in 1958 it adopted the SSG-98k as a new sniper's rifle. This replaced the leftover German K98k snipers that had been used by the smal...
