1917 Enfield that was done up really nice. It got burnt to a crisp though in a fire......

A co-worker was selling what he described as an "old 8mm Mauser" for $50.  It turned out to be a beat to hell, sporterized K98.  I bought it as I had already said I would (thinking it was something else ), cleaned the rust and dirt off of it, did a camo job of the stock after filling in all the chipped parts with wood filler, installed a 1" but pad and an old 24X scope I had.  It looked and shot pretty good when I was finished.

My son-in-law saw it, fell in love with it and wanted me to do the same to an old Mauser his Dad had given him years ago and he hated shooting.  His Mauser was an old VZ24 and I talked him into a trade.  He even wanted to give me a few bucks extra because the rifle I was giving him was so much nicer than that old military piece he had.    I declined and you would have thought the boy had just died and gone to heaven.  

I have two, a M38 Mosin Nagant carbine & a M1924 Yugo Mauser.  Neither has had the metal hacked thoug, just the wood.

The M1924 Yugo Mauser belonged to my grandfather.  Not sure if it was a bringback from his Euro WWII service or if he bought it after returning home.  Used it as a deer rifle for many years, as had my dad.  
The military wood stock has been carved down into a sporter (thinned down, shortened forearm, scnabel <sp?> nose, no handguard, ventilated shotgun recoil pad added, clear epoxy or plexiglass plug inserted where the firing pin takedown disc was & covering the recoil crossbolt).  The only alteration to the metal is the front & rear sights have been dabbed with orange (front) & yellow (rear) paint for better visibility.   I've bought a FN M1924 stock to return it to .mil spec, just need to get the upper & lower bands to finish her up.  I am tempted to keep it as a sporter for nostalgia reasons though.


The 1943 Izzy Mosin M38 is a bubba hack job.  The wood forearm was roughly sawed off & left unfinished, handguard tossed away & the whole stock covered in sloppy varnish.  The sloppy, runny  varnish could have been the original Soviet wartime finish  Since the stock was already fuxxored I smoothed out the roughly hacked fore end & refinished it.  If & when I find a spare .mil stock for the right $$$$ I'll probably fix her right.  

Yes, quite a few. I am ashamed I did some of the hacking myself years ago before I learned to really appreciate the character of the well used milsurp. I no longer even consider "bubba'ing" any rifle.


BTW, not all Bubbas are bad or cheap hack jobs, some are quite nice and some border on the amazing on how someone in their garage can work over an old beater and make it something on par with a modern custom rifle. I guess it is all in ones perspective.



ETA;
Would anyone here consider a Finnish M39 a bubba'd gun? After all they are all old russian nagants pulled apart and modified for the Finns.....

Quoted: ETA; Would anyone here consider a Finnish M39 a bubba'd gun? After all they are all old russian nagants pulled apart and modified for the Finns.....

No, the Finns arsenal reworked the old Russki rifles to a new, improved standard for issue.  
The Mosin M91-59 carbines made from cut down long barreled older Mosin M91 & M91-30 rifles aren't bubba'd either <Ivan'd ??>  
Same for the French MAS49-56 conversions from the MAS49.

Good quality workmanship sporters made from milsurp rifles don't really count as bubba'd IMHO.  An old Mauser that's had the military stock shaved down to sporter config with hand checkering, better sights installed & a reblue isn't in the same league as the same Mauser that's had the excess wood roughly hacked off & left undressed, the barrel hacksaw cut back with a cheap ChinaMart scope installed on a glued on (cockeyed) mount with the whole thing spray painted with Krylon camo paint.

I even hate to see ChiCom Type 56 (SKS) carbines that have been subjected to the bubba treatment.  At least the early screwed in barrel real .mil ones, the pressed barrel stamped civilian export models are different.

The real problem with bubba is that he always seems to find a rare or otherwise desireable rifle to "improve".  He never wants to buy a stripped Mauser action & assemble a sporter using a new barrel, aftermarket Bishop/Fajen stock & whatnot.  Nooooo, he'll find a #s matchingWWI M98, M1903 Springfield, Finn M39, 'mum intact early Ariska, non rearsenal Russian/Sino-Soviet or VN bringback SKS, etc to butcher.

My first centerfire rifle was a No4Mk1 that was bubba'd pretty bad.  It had the original buttstock (straight) and fore stock.  The handguards were gone, and the fore stock was cut down.  The barrel was also chopped to about 18".  It had the front sight base and sight blade on it.  There was also a bayonet lug from what might have been an 03 Springfield to act as a forward band.   It was drilled and tapped, and had a cheap bushnell scope on it.  The bore was worn pretty bad.  

I offloaded it at a gunshow in Houston.

Now, of the C&Rs I have, all of them are in their original as-issued configurations.  

I have a Savage Enfield No4Mk1*  that had been bubbafied before I purchased it. Someone had drilled it for a scope mount and ground down the side of the receiver to make the mount fit. Since it had already been trashed for collector value I went ahead and had the barrel shortened to 18 inches and put it in a aftermarket synthetic stock.

Most true Enfield collectors would call this a "Bubba hack job":



It is a Gibbs Rifle Company conversion of an Ishapore Enfield in 7.62. These were advertised by Gibbs as the No. 7 "Jungle Carbine", but in reality, they never were produced in this format by any original Enfield factory. It makes one hell of a "Truck/ATV"  rifle though!

I have a couple, a Golden State Arms No4 cut to sporter config & an Arisaka action done in 30/30.

I didn't cut either one, and they were cheap.

My brother's girlfriend has temporary custody of a thorougly butchered 1917 Enfield her uncle won in a door prize raffle in the nineteen eighties. RiffRandall is correct about Bubba's ability to find a pristine, relatively rare rife in fine shape and ruin it.

This particular Enfield had about 90% of the original finish intact. It was a nice rifle, but for the massive number of "customizations" done to it. Bubba drilled and tapped crooked screw holes for a .22lr scope. The handguard area of the stock was, of course chopped and totally reshaped. The sling loops were thrown away, though Bubba moved the nose guard down to the nose of the newly civilian-length stock.

Then Bubba chopped and unevenly recrowned the muzzle to get rid of that unsightly military front sight. The rear sight was simply thrown away. Bubba then proceeded to cut out the buttstock comb and replace it with a new piece of wood. He even was nice enough to replace the factory buttstock with an upside-down rubber shotgun recoil pad.

The only major components not "customized" are the trigger guard, box magazine, and bolt assembly. The action is slick and tight. And of course the rifle is totally worthless to anyone but a fellow Bubba. I guess the show that raffled this thing off wasn't a collector show- unless they gave it away as some sort of public service announcement against Bubba-ing or as a practical joke.

There is a U.S. ordnance proof mark on the barrel. But we can't figure out if the rifle is chambered for .303 Brit, 30-06, or reamed for a new cartridge. So it sits gathering dust in all its Bubba'd glory.

Galland

Not a bubba hackjob but check it out anyways.
Given to me by my inlaws a couple of months before the wedding.
Carl Gustaff G33/50 Swedish Mauser 6.5x55
Serials date it back to 1902 but the persons name that inspected before it left excapes me.

I have a beautiful sporter built on a 1917 Enfield action. Rebarreled to .257 Roberts with a Redfield scope from the 30's or 40's.

My grandfather bought it used in 1947 when he was 16.

It's not exactly a "bubba'ing".

Yes.  An '03 Springfield with a tired looking Monte Carlo/schnabel stock, dovetail mount for a missing scope and a new barrel.  It was "bubba'd" back in the 50' or 60's in either Germany or Switzerland.  

-White Horse

Would my 7.7mm Arisaka ( Jap rifle) count?  My father found it in an abandoned barn around 30 years ago and brought it home for me to learn how to tear down a firearm.  It had a wasp nest in the barrel and was missing its bolt.

I cleaned and cleaned that sucker (like only an 8-9 yr old with their first firearm can!!) and then found a bolt at the local gun show (back when it took SEVERAL hours to walk thru the local gun show...and even then you were missing some stuff!).

Re finished the stock and still can tear that gun down with my eyes closed!

I wonder if the Jap who carried it ever could have imagined some American kid would be playing with it some 40 years after the war!


ps...no cris...was ground off like all the rest.

None yet, but I would buy one if the type and price was right.  Don't think I'd do it to any of the C&R rifles I own.