Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mosin Nagant question

HaHaHa, nice.........

That is one really neat rifle

Thanks Bear, it's a Finn. Model 28 or 19. I cannot remember at the moment.

It being a Finn model makes it even cooler.

I’ve got a Mosin, one of those made by Remington in 1917. It’s an interesting rifle that my dad picked out of a pile of rifles in Japan at the end of the WWII. Growing up my brother an I simply referred to it as the “long rifle” which is was compared to the Arisaka 38 and 99 with whom it shared space in the gun cabinet. It was years later that I found out what it really was.

It’s never had a blade on the front sight and in all those years hasn’t been fired. The bore looks really good. I’ll have to see if I can find a photo of it.

Never had one.Just too damn butt ugly.

Sir,

It's a Finnish M28-76, the precursor to the TKIV-85 sniper's rifle.

It does very nicely in competitions.

Josh

The Mosin-Nagant, in most of its forms, is an excellent firearm.

No, it's not refined. It's strong. The Finns demonstrated it can be precise.

The Finnish M39 (their last general-issue Mosin) had to shoot a MAXIMUM of 1.3moa with 200 grain loads in order to be issued.

Get a 91/30 with a decent bore. Regulate the sights for use without the bayonet. (Russian doctrine held that the bayonet was to be affixed at all times unless the rifle was in transport or storage, and the Mosin was therefore sighted with the bayonet affixed. Without the bayonet, the rifle generally shoots high right.)

Add a two-stage trigger, shim or bed the stock, make sure the interrupter works well, and add an HV magazine for good measure.

Handload. Graf's has plenty of 0.311" and 0.312" bullets. Go a bit heavy; the rifle was originally designed for a 212 grain bullet and has a 1:9.5" twist. When the Russians went to light ball (147 grain) they did not change the twist as the degraded precision wasn't deemed deficient enough to warrant it.

I have a 91/30, my working rifle, that is modified to the above specs. With 51.2 grains of H4350 and 174 grain SMK or Hornady Match bullets, it's sub-MOA.

Most Mosins with decent bores will shoot a maximum of 2.5moa after being shimmed, with most considerably less.

There are many design reasons for this. I'll not go into them here as this post is too long already.

Suffice to say, there is a lot of misinformation out there about these rifles. They do what they need to do, and they can do it precisely.

There's a reason they're popular beyond the cheap ammo.

Regards,

Josh

Yeah, I get that. But it's still butt ugly!

If I spend a lot of time building/refining/tuning/working up loads for a rifle it has to have pleasing aesthetics too or I won't mess with it.

"A thing of beauty, and a joy forever" only about half applies to Mosin-Nagants, IMO. (My opinion being worth a bucket of warm spit in many instances!)

And it's all good!

My biggest pet peeve in the gun world is folks who don't like a gun because of false beliefs, and/or those who repeat bad info.

This applies to the Mosin-Nagant, 1911, Carcano, etc. Heck, I've even heard some pretty dumb "information" with regard to the M1 Garand and a host of other proven US rifles.

If you don't like it just because you don't like it, it's personal preference and I'll not say boo to that!

Regards Sir,

Josh

Best regards to you, too. It is indeed all good.

the schmidt was mentioned in this thread so i thought i would throw this on here, side mount st pierre, doesn't require any drilling

another fine mil/surp, the yugoslav 24/47. these are in 8mm and basically new rifles:

"Butt Ugly" ??

I represent that.....

Don,

How's that one shoot???

Josh

I don't really like Mosin Nagants, I like 98 Mausers and Ruger #1s.

But I get most of the attention I get on the internet from modifying Mosin Nagants. A very good gunsmithing author, Harold MacFarland, wrote in the 60s that Mosin Nagants were not worth sporterizing.

This left the topic to scavengers.

I have converted to single shot 45/70, 30-30, and .223.
I have converted to repeater in 7mmRemMag and 300WinMag.
I have put a VZ59 machine gun barrel on one.

I have designed pillars for bedding that look like little Aluminum toilets in front, and like a stack of donuts curving around a Timney trigger in the rear.

I have designed a zillion scope mounts, but concluded that the scuzzy company ATI makes the most cost effective MN scope mount, but I pull the barrel and add a third 10-32 screw.
How much torque? The shallow female thread will strip, the screw will not snap off with so little engagement. The stripping will occur at 16 inch pounds waxed, 28 inch pounds lubed with oil or grease, and 34 inch pounds dry. You should derate by 25 to 50%.

I have designed a Mosin Nagant headspace gauge with an extractor notch and thicker for being backed out a turn plus a rim thickness.

I have tested various triggers. Hubber is worse than useless. Timney is great and adds a safety. Polishing does nothing, despite youtube videos with a hundred thousand views. Suckers! The cheap way out is to bend the sear/trigger spring until there is still full sear engagement, but a 4 pound trigger pull. But if you have a net worth of $10M and no mistress bleeding you, pay for the Timney.







This was inspired by Hooke's law.

Very interesting, ClarkM!

John

I've got a Mosin 91/30 1930 Izhevsk hex receiver model with all matching numbers. I paid I think $70 for it 10 years ago. Got some 174 gr milsurp ammo later for around $.08/pc.

Little over $100 in this whole package. Have shot steel plates full of holes with it.