Good comparison. I've never done 'hand select' from any companies as I always thought it was pretty much luck of the draw anyway, but might give it a try sometime.
Personally I prefer the ones that are cosmetically bad, or even damaged. Once a rifle is damaged, it is taken out of service for repairs. If the repairs are never done, then it is never put back into service. As a result, they tend to have good bores. I have a B grade M95 from RTI, destroyed wood, but enough rifling to not keyhole. Rare to find.
My first RTI was a hand select Vetterli 1870/15 and it came in really good condition with a majority of the finish left. Think I also went for hand select on one of my 1888/95 Mannlichers and it was alright
I got a standard one also on sale at $150, I’d say it was in between these two. Had a small crack repair on the tang but the metal was clean like the hand select. Bore was decent. Dark and pitted but still decent rifling.
Oh wow your hand select looks like the first M95 they accidentally sent us an the other looks like the second one they accidentally sent. We decided to keep the first mess up because it looked so good.
I have purchased two from them, paid like 250 for a normal grade and 150 for a B grade. The B grade had the AOI stamp and was in much better external condition the normal one did have better rifling. I feel like no matter what RTI just grabs what comes out of the box.
Yeah I get that feeling generally among the "grades" that it's pretty arbitrary. I figured I'd see what hand select gets me and wasn't disappointed. Definitely better than the non hand select.
@tfusilier44 I found that buying the cheapest of their stuff is when you do the best, but as everyone says, it is luck of the draw, but I would rather not gamble 450 and lose. Hence why I won't buy any of their WW2 stuff. The reason I avoid hand select with RTI is I will never get a well taken care of rifle that just isn't what Ethiopia has.
From my understanding, hand selected ones are mainly picked by the inner barrel. But in the end, all the rifles have had a ruff life and the selection is getting lower so it will be harder to get a better one. RTI does have a video about the selection process.
@@tfusilier44 Yeah I prefer it, although I do like some carbines from other countries of Europe like the Berthier m1916 and Carcano Moschetto M91 also the M95 Stutzen wasnt so bad old production rifle which is like nowhere to be found lol
I am surprised that you got a better rifle in a hand-select with rifling/bore than I did despite what I requested, which was a sewer pipe. When did you ordered the hand-select rifle?
Oh that. Well I think I mentioned in one of your other videos but the rifling/bore came as a sewer pipe. I ordered it on May 27th along with a $100 fair condition carcano cavalry carbine and very good-excellent for $139 on Memorial (I thought it was $150 but I checked the order history to see the date) and 10 Mannlicher en bloc clips for $9.99 each. There were plenty of them at the time and asked them if they can find one with a rifling/bore for my order. It took them a month to ship. The carcanos were very good even the fair condition one. It did miss a chunk of wood coming from the right side of the tang/receiver heading towards the barrel but I think it is safe to shoot since 6.5 carcano isn't recoil heavy. But beside that, it had everything. But as for the Mannlicher, it looked very well but the moment I inspected down the barrel, it was a sewer pipe. Because it was on a Memorial Day and took a month to get to my FFL and I got to it before 4th of July weekend, I wasn't able to talk to customer service for a until that Thursday July 6th about the Mannlicher. (which I don't blame them because national holiday and relaxation). Long story short, I was able to send it back to RTI for an "exchange" but instead I was refunded with my $299.99 for the hand-select Mannlicher.@@tfusilier44
