The article in question asked the question: Which were the top 10 military and sporting rifles?

They picked the Winchester Model 70 as first in the sporting class and the M1 Garand Rifle in the military category. This of course reflects nothing more than a combination of super blind patriotism and complete lack of even the basic understanding of the history of sporting and military arms. In short the article is really pretty much of a sad joke, an example of todays mediocrity in gun writing.

Lets take the M1 Garand rifle first:

Yes, it was a very good military rifle for its day but it suffered from many design defects including an en-block clip system that resulted in many unnecessary battlefield deaths. Is loud pinging ring when it was empty was a red light for the enemy, signaling that the U.S. soldiers weapon was now empty which resulted in many deaths. Also, the inability to top off the magazine resulted in many solders simply firing off the last couple of rounds so they could reload the gun with a full charge of ammo which resulted in many of them running out of ammo prematurely resulting in capture or death.

The M1 also had a gas system that often resulted in bent operating rods and it had to be used with a special water proof grease, especially when shooting in the rain and snow as the bolt would soon start to eat itself up when rubbing itself against the receiver.

Although lumping both the older military bolt guns and the newer semi-auto and full auto military guns in the same category makes it almost impossible to fairly pick a "the top military rifle of all time" the nod really must go to either the AK-47 or the German 98 Mauser as the top military rifle of all time. Both were adopted by countries worldwide and both were produced in the millions. Both were perhaps the most reliable weapons on the face of the earth. This alone makes the American Rifleman Magazines pick of the M1 Garand nothing more than a "blind patriotic fantasy".

Now lets look at the sporting rifles.

The Winchester M70 was a very good rifle but it never was able to gain world wide acceptance in the big game hunting fields. The two top rifles were as follows: No. 1 was the 98 Mauser which was, and still is, considered the most reliable hunting rifle ever made, and the No. 2 spot went to the Austrian made Mannlicher rifles that were so popular all over the world, especially in the 6.5 caliber.

Workmanship in both the German 98 and Austrian Mannlicher sporting rifles was head and shoulders over the Winchester M70.

When Winchester tried to gain a foothold in the international sporting gun market with its M70 Winchester it was largely laughed at by the well healed English sporting gentleman. The Winchesters mediocre workmanship, lack of a good gas escape mechanism and its less reliable ignition system and inferior breaching mechanism, compared to the 98 Mauser, resulted in a thumbs down by much of the big game hunters of the world by both the English and the European Continental hunters of the world, as well as hunters from India and other eastern countries.

I would say whatever the American Rifleman magazine is paying the people the wrote this article it was a total waste of money because anyone who has studied the history of the both military and sporting rifles is certainly after reading this article either scratching their heads or rolling in the aisle's with laughter.