Maybe a bunch of "Second Amendment + Anime" fans can meet at a range and have some fun.
The nicest FREE ON WEEKENDS range I know of is a bout 90min from PDX, though - it's in Clatskanie OR.
Anyways, more fun with
Valkyria Chronicles and the Period Firearms Mix-n-Match game:
Look above at Alicia Welkin's rifle, and then have a look HERE:
The fantasy weapon has a finger groove forward of the bolt action, but Alicia isn't using it; she's supporting her rifle further out along the forestock. (It might be more comfy for her there, or she might be lining up a precise shot.)
The famous Russian Mosin-Nagant has the finger groove in the stock; the German rifles don't.
(Yellow ellipse above)
Next, there is a metal band at the end of the stock of Alicia's rifle, and a strange continuation of metal which turns into a slender rod and then
connects to some kind of lug right before the front sight. It's possible that that is a gas take-off which operates a piston mechanism so that her weapon is a repeater like the Gew43 at the top of this thread.
But I think it's more likely that the animators, even if they had the remote chance to
try firing a period rifle - they probably didn't have to
clean it, so they're probably less keen on detailing where the cleaning rod goes. (And really, this
is splitting short hairs...) The metal features seem similar to the bayonet lug on the end of a typical Mauser (orange ellipse) and just for more Mix-n-Match fun, they stuck a Mosin Nagant cleaning rod in the end. Note the piston-like shape in the green circle.
I included the back end of the German bayonet so you can see how it slides onto the H-shaped metal bar on the end of the Mauser rifle. The bayonet also has a long hole up the middle of the handle which is where the cleaning rod ends up.
More fans and Mosin-Nagants:
SRSLY, they are extremely inexpensive rifles and built to work and be fixed by idiots. **
Even today you can find them for less than $80. There is tons of cheap (but corrosive) surplus Soviet and Yugoslav ammo to be found on-line and at gun shows.
They are very accurate out to 200 yards, have good hitting power, and you can make just about any replacement part you need with a Dremel tool or a cordless drill. (It might take you a while. but anyone can do it.) This is why they make great tools for insurgents and resistors. They quit making them in the 1960s but they are still in use by Chechens, Afhgans, etc, even today.
** I am not calling the people in the picture idiots, I am just noting that one of the original design objectives of the Mosin-Nagant was that the parts were supposed to be so simple that even unskilled and poorly educated people could figure out how they work just by looking at the pieces as you dissasemble the mechanism. Brilliant simplicity.
