Musgrave 30.06 Santa Barbara aksie.

[Ferdi Bam]

Hallo Almal,

Is daar enige iemand wat my dalk meer inligting kan gee rondom die ouerige Musgrave met die Santa Barbara aksie. Ek sien dat daar n S voor die reeksnommer is? Jaartal? Ek sien ook dat die geweer nie n korrel of visier op het nie. Verder is die profiel vanaf die knox na loop dieselfde as die Ferlach lope wat Musgrave op plankgewere gehad het. Ek is bewus daarvan dat Musgrave die LP1000 en LP2000 met SB aksies deur wyle dr Lucas Potgieter verkoop is. Daar nie fout met die geweer en skiet baie mooi.

Ek probeer nou 2 fotos laai.

[Johan van Wyk]

Dit was een van Musgrave se beter pogings, in my beskeie opinie. Die Santa Barbara is op dieselfde masjinerie vervaardig wat FN gebruik het om hulle uitstekende Supreme M98 aksies te maak. Ek kan nie onthou wanneer Musgrave hulle bekendgestel het nie maar hulle is so 1980/81 van die mark af en vervang met die Model 81.

Daar was 'n model met 'n Monte Carlo-styl kolf en een met 'n klassieke styl reguit kolf. Een was die Mk III en die ander die Mk IV (ek kan nie onthou watter een was watter een nie). Korrel en visier was Williams korrels en visiere wat kon afskroef. As ek reg onthou was hulle net in .243, .270, .308 en .30-06 beskikbaar.

[swc-tr]

Johan, jy praat van die Vrystaat MkIII en MkIV gewere, Ferdi versoek meer agtergrond inligting rondom die LP1000 reeks gewere, Santa Barbara aksie en swaar loop (Ferlach Bisley profiel) sonder visiere, deur wyle Dok Lucas Potgieter geinspireer en bemark.
Blykbaar is daar info daaroor in die groenboek van RSA wapens.

Sent from my SM-A125F using Tapatalk

[Zuku]

Hierdie is inligting wat aan my gegeee is so n paar jaat tgelede to ek ook meer wou uitvind van my Musgrave.

THE HISTORY OF MUSGRAVE
06 Feb 2009 The website of Safari Action Shooting has got his interesting article on Musgrave.

Musgrave, the former state owned South African sporting rifle manufacturer had its origins in private enterprise. The founder was the well-known late target champion, a president of Bloemfontein - Benjamin (Ben) Musgrave (1900 - 1987). Ben Musgrave (snr) started participating seriously in large calibre target shooting during 1933. His then service rifle was the Lee Enfield in 303 British calibre. ‘Uncle Ben’, as he was generally known, in due course started experimenting with the accuracy of his rifle as a hobby.

These experiments were very successful and the South African target shooting fraternity flocked around Ben Musgrave to re-accurize their rifles in his spare time. This situation continued for approximately 27 years until 1950 when the demand for Musgrave’s services become so great that he could not handle it alone anymore. He canvassed the assistance of his son Trevor, which at that stage was an apprentice at Escom in Vereeniging. During 1952 Musgrave was awarded Springbok (then RSA National) colours and then made the South African target shooting team chosen to participate in International competitions in the United Kingdom. During the competition he was introduced by Arthur Ilsley of Birmingham to the barrel manufacturer WD Lain who was about to retire. Lain agreed to train Trevor in the United Kingdom for Musgrave in the use of the rifling machine he used, with the intention of selling the machine thereafter to the Musgraves.

Trevor completed his training and in early 1953 the machine was brought to South Africa. Musgrave moved to Douglas Valley and resigned from the South African Railways and Harbours were he had been employed until then. The building on the property was modified to become the workshop and barrel manufacturing started in all seriousness. Musgrave’s success in the field of target shooting rifles continued and after six years another son, Benny Musgrave jnr. also joined his father and brother.

During 1969 Armscor approached the Musgraves with the idea to establish an infra-structure for the manufacturing of commercial hunting rifles. The reason prompting the steps was the increasing international isolation of South Africa which eventually led to the United Nations arm embargo. The instructions to Musgrave was to develop, manufacture and market a production rifle. Musgrave became a subsidiary of Armscor during 1971 and the first rifles appeared on the shelves in 1972. At the same time a start was made with the building of a manufacturing facility on the Jagersfontein Road just outside Bloemfontein.

The company did well during the sanction years and manufactured around 6,000 hunting rifles per year to meet the demands of the South African hunting public. It was eventually run for the state by a man named Abie Koch, who clashed with many personalities in Musgrave’s client base. Koch was never held in high regard by the hunting public and many were greatly disappointed with his firearm knowledge.

After the democratization of South Africa and the lifting of the arms embargo, Koch’s management of Musgrave failed to achieve the adaptions necessary to face the competition of an influx of competitors from the United States, Czechoslovakia and a number of other countries. Musgrave was closed down, some of its tooling moved to Vektor, the state owned military small arms manufacturers, and the rest of its stock and assets sold off on public auction.

MUSGRAVE RIFLES

Musgrave rifles have their roots in target shooting and were designed and built for full bore target shooters, in an era where surplus war rifles such as the Lee-Enfield, Lee-Metford, P14 and others dominated on shooting ranges. The accuracy and performance of these rifles made them very popular and formed a great platform for the excellent Musgrave hunting rifles which followed. Due to the fact that Musgrave’s were manufactured in the RSA, were reliable, accurate and priced very competitively, many Musgraves are still carried by those roaming Southern African hunting areas. Lyttleton RSA actions are regularly encountered on shooting ranges.

Ben Musgrave & Sons was one of only a few commercial arms manufacturers in the period 1950 – 1989 in South Africa that could manufacture a firearm from scratch with parts manufactured within the boundaries of South Africa. In July 1970 the first ever self-developed hunting rifle in South Africa was handed over to then Prime Minister B.J. Vorster. These firearms played an important role in both the sport world of shooting as well as hunting African game. Musgrave rifle are still very popular in South Africa amongst hunters the top 4 type of rifles used for hunting are the same for 2007 and 2005,namely: Musgrave (18%), Brno (13%), Sako (12%), and Mauser (7%) (van der Merwe, et.al, 2007).

Although plentiful, the arms can never be replaced as Musgrave & Sons closed its doors for the last time in 1989. While I don’t collect for investment value, it is clear that one of the primary drives behind collection is to ensure that valuable or significant firearms are preserved and to ensure that the return at the end days of my collection is not less than the amount initially invested. Three models of Musgrave hunting rifles for which the RSA action served as platform were initially manufactured, namely the

"Veld Model"
"Vrystaat Model"
"Presidents Model"
There were various other models to follow. These include but is not limited to the
LP 1000
R- Santa B
Mod 80
Mod 90, Model 90 Light Rifle, Model 90 Varmint, Model 90 De Luxe Rifle
Mini Mod 90
Magnum Rifle
Mod 2000
Ambidex
K98

Custom rifles. Ben Musgrave and Sons developed, built and marketed locally manufactured rifles, including a first barrel with a 4 grooves on an original Enfield barrel which normally only had two and later a barrel with a right hand twist compared to all other manufactures with a left hand twist. In 1968 the brothers Trevor and Ben (jnr) developed a bolt action on the world renowned Mauser action which enabled them to produce a 100% locally manufactured rifle. The single shot Musgrave RSA action (sometimes marked "Lyttleton RSA") that serves as the platform for these rifles are based on Mauser's design, with positive (claw) extractor. The actions have a large flat bedding area underneath and a short case extraction port which contribute to its stiffness.

The original Musgrave target rifles were fitted with 26.5" barrels and designated "7, 62" (.308 Win or 7,62X51). Initially barrels from Ferlach (Austria) were used and the top parts of the barrels on these rifles were covered (encased) by the stock, while Parker Hale 1/4 MOA rear sights were installed. Later models were stocked with significant bulkier fore ends to allow for an open barrel with effective cooling while it still reduced potential fliers due to contact between the free floated barrel and the shooter's fingers. Accurate Musgrave manufactured cut rifled barrels (parallel nox) usually matched with these stocks and M&S 1/2 MOA rear sights were used.

Musgrave barrels manufactured later on were all button rifled and Musgrave triggers were designed to work reliably to around a minimum of 2 pounds of pressure. The completed RSA action are sometimes found with various bolt stop configurations and is extremely hard - it will damage machining tools carelessly applied. The abundance of Musgrave firearms in South Africa demonstrates the huge number of Musgrave that were originally produced in this country.

Musgrave rifles are still found from the Bisley range to the hunting areas of the Limpopo valley and the Western Cape Karoo areas. Originally designed from the German Mauser action to converting the barrel twist, the Musgrave family succeeded to build rifles that could compare with the best American and European built rifles. They are as much part of science and history as any other invention that is in common usage in South Africa today. The only Musgrave rifles built on controlled feed actions were those built on surplus K98 actions, the older Lyttelton and RSA actions and a small number of Santa Barbara actions. The Santa Barbara actions were cast copies of the forged steel K98 actions. All actions made by the Musgrave factory itself (80,83,90) were push feeds.

The serial numbers of the rifles built on surplus K98 actions usually have 98 in the number somewhere and S98 denotes a standard style stock with no cheeck piece. L98 denotes a light stock and 22 inch barrel. The 98 light rifles were very pretty in their styling, similar to the old Lyttelton Musgrave rifles, while the Standard and De Luxe models were styled by a bunny hugger