Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mosin Nagant's - New found REspect

Recently read an article about converting to a sort of hand rifle as a cheap back packing or truck gun. Definitely want to do one as a project when time allows. Strictly as a cheap survival type gun works well.

Well, IF you want a pretty handy one, get the M44 carbine. They kick like a Missouri Mule, but they sure as hell carry the mail. I NEVER laugh at Russian guns,ammunition or poison gas. They have been EXTENSIVELY field tested and always work. Seriously though a Mosin-Nagant is dang near foolproof. They had to be. The OLD Russian soldier was the poster child for ignorance and hamhandedness. About as close to indestructible as I have ever seen.

Kinda heavy for a back pac rifle. I have two a long rifle I put a scope and black stock on , it's very accurate. the other hos been bubbied up . I may see how light I can make it. would be an intersting project. I once did a 95 mauser and got it to 3 1/2 lbs. looked good and shot good, a buddy talked me out of it.

I read somewhere, probably on here, that the carbines tend to shoot better groups when the bayonet is extended. I don't know if there is any truth to that or not.

Yes, they do shoot appreciably better with the bayonet extended.

I guess the bayonet dampens the barrel?

The more I shoot older military rifles of all types the more they impress me. Moisins, Mausers, Enfields, Ariskas, Springfields, M-1s, SKS, etc.

There's a considerable difference in the quality of some but all seem to be built to a level of quality that will keep them operating effectively under the worst conditions.

Get an M-38. It is a carbine without a bayonette. It is a really nice little rifle and they shoot great. Also, there is a trick to making the safety as easy to use as any other safety. Don't use your fingers to try to turn it, it is too stout. Grasp it with the fingers on your right hand and put the butt in the crook of your right elbow and use that leverage to pull the safety. That makes it as quick and easy as any other safety. And it is a really foolproof bombproof safety as is the everything else on the rifle.

If was going to be dropped off on a deserted planet and could have only one rifle and knew that it absolutely had to last the rest of my life and could not break, I guess I would take that M-38 and a 1,000 rounds of ammunition and call it a day. I think you could beat on one for a day with a 2 pound hammer and not do much damage to it.

Inherited a badly sporterized 1938 MN from my FIL.

Butt cut at a 45 degree angle and a pad put on, front wood trimmed back.
I never thought of shooting any of the vintage Norma ammo that came with it, so it went into the safe.

Sacramento flood duty brought me to the Great American Gunstock Factory in 1997. I bought and installed an english express style walnut stock for the Mosin and put it back in the safe for my son. The old stock was burned in the fireplace.

He has been shooting it for about 3 years now. With the express stock and long issue barrel it looks like a 1900 Mannlicher .256 on steroids!

My kid (16) loves shooting the old Mosin and leaves his Browning Sako Safari in the safe. We have some good hand loads and he rings the 300 yard steel regularly. I even shoot his old "fencepost" once in a while.

They do grow on you!