I bought this rifle back some ten or fifteen years ago for about $100.00. Great rifle. Seems like new, so I imagine it came out of the factory back in 1948 (that's when this one was made), then got put right into storage till being shipped to the US as war surplus. They are today going for about $350.00.



When I bought it, I also bought two spam cans of Russian 7.62x54mmR for dirt cheap. I don't know how old it is, but the cans look pretty old fashioned, so could be pre-WWII. They are almost certainly corrosive, so I will have to clean the rifle tonight or tomorrow the latest, using water liberally, before finishing up with Ballistol.



Some more shots of the rifle:







The reason the folding bayonet is extended is because that's how you're supposed to shoot them. They were actually sighted in at the factory with the bayonet extended. They were meant to be only folded for storage or transport. Once in the field of battle, Soviet block soldiers were meant to extend them and leave them extended, unless getting into a transport of some kind.

Accuracy was damned good considering the ammo is likely pretty old. I was getting consistent sub-2 inch groups at 100 yards at will from the bench with the rear sight set to the 100 meters position (It can go up to 1,000 meters). And, as you can see, the windage was perfect. My point of aim was the bottom of the V. My first group is circled. Then I put another five shot group in the same place. All ten rounds form a group less than 2 inches in size.



I then brought the target back to the 50 yard line and tried my hand at shooting it standing and unsupported. Not bad. All roughly where they should be, other than the one that landed way up top on the seven. My fault, not the rifle's. I accidentally pulled the trigger before lowering it to the bullseye. That trigger breaks pretty light.



The Polish Mosin Nagants have among the best reputations for the model. The trigger on this one is very nice, with a 3.5 lb break that's pretty crisp and consistent after a tiny bit of stacking. It stacks to the wall, then breaks cleanly.

The 7.62x54mmR (the R stands for rimmed) is at a power level roughly like 7.62x51mm NATO. It was designed for a much longer barrel, though, so it sent a huge flame plume from the muzzle each time I fired it. Like a big plasma ball. I imagine it looks spectacular at night.

Great accuracy. I never shoot my Mosins enough. I got 3 of them. Great old rifles, and built like a tank.

Try some heavy ball ammo around dusk for some pretty impressive flame. I have a model 38 and it’s a hoot to plink with. I remember the good days 440 round spam cans for lessthan $75 delivered.

I mean they beat a sharp stick. They are indestructible and pretty accurate. But dang I just don’t enjoy shooting them. I hate that bolt handle.

Find your headstamp here: http://7.62x54r.com/MosinID/MosinAmmoID.htm

I got a couple cans of the Hungarian silver tip 147 steel core ammo. Yet to shoot it in the Hungarian M44. Bore is kinda rough. Gonna scrub and DBC bore one of these days.

http://7.62x54r.com/

Nice rifle TRH.

Yeah, the bolt handle is too short to give the amount of leverage that you'd like for its operation.

Thanks. The bore on this one looks factory new.

You are a lucky man to get a good bore. When the scroungers were importing these back in the day it was luck of the draw unless you paid for select examples.

I have a 44 also and it shoots just as well with the bayonet folded as it does with it extended.

Other MNs I shoot I put a rubber boot over butt 'cause that steel plate hurts after awhile. I had a Soviet M38 that i wish I never sold. Handy little carbine, similar to the M44 but no integral bayo.

I'll put the boot on this M44.

I’ve got a 44 and a 38. The 38 shoots really well. I’m not all that sure about the 44. I’ve shot it about twice and I can’t remember how it did.

Beautiful rifle - and nice shooting'. Good luck with it.

Nice post hawk… The nagants are a blast to shoot!

Back a decade or two ago…
Cold Duck and a hot nagant!
anonymous pictures website

Damn, you have some nice guns. That ammo is probably from the sixties or seventies. It is called "copper washed." It is corrosive, but not very corrosive.
I have even seen it advertised as non corrosive, but, it is not non corrosive.

The Commies can't put a chicken, or a roll of paper towels, on the shelves of a grocery store, but they could make good guns and ammo.

I got and M44 Polish $50 2/17/2002 1952 and have converted it to 223 with a Remington 222 take off barrel and bottom eject.


I have converted mosin nagant actions to 7mmRemMag, 300WinMag, 25 Krag Ackley, and 6.5 Vostok as repeaters and 45/70 and 223 as single shots.

Very nice. Appears to be an M44.

As Simon mentioned, ammo appears to be copper washed. What is the bullet weight?

I have a hex receiver Russisn Ivhevsk 91/30 with all matching numbers I bought for $78 many years ago. Don't have a ton of ammo for it. Better part of 1 spam can, maybe. Steel core heavies, IIRC. I call it one of my "ally guns".

That, plus they're uglier than a hat full of ass holes and handle like a split cedar fence post. I wouldn't want one around taking up space that could be occupied by a good rifle.

147 grain. They are ugly rifles. I have a Finnish rework made by VKT in 1941, now that is a pretty nice rifle. Great sights.

Thanks for posting Hawk.

Mine shoots high with the bayonet folded.

I bought three and bought a crate of ammo, think it was 3000 rounds, great shooting through steel plate on old spar tree.

I had one of those back in the 1990s. I think I paid about the same for it. Sold it for a little more a few years later.

Mine is a 1942 Russian. I've never shot it.

I wish I had picked up one of those long Russian Mosin Nagants back when they were $50.00 apiece. Now that I'd like to have one, the nice ones (with good bores) that you see are about $400.00.

I finished cleaning it about an hour ago. What a PITA reassembling the bolt was. I finally figured it out, but I have a few more gray hairs now.

Dad and I have several. 91s, 91/30 and a 44. They range from crude to refined, relatively speaking. All are functional, reliable and accurate.

Several things about these rifles may seem less than ideal, but if you run a nagant like it was meant to be run, they are as smooth as butter. The bolt handle for instance is meant to be worked sharply and vigorously. If you pussy-foot with them, they will feel rough and slow.

One of those rifles that I wish I would have stocked up on heavily when they could be had for $100-150

Yep. I bought four Russian SKS rifles for $100.00 a pop. Sold one to my brother for the same price I paid, and sold two for $350 a few years later. I kept the best one for myself. Still have it.

I have 3 and paid about $90 for each of them back when Bush Junior was in office.
I also was blessed with getting an SVT-40. The Semi Auto version Pretty sweet Rifle.
From what I understand there are not a lot of them in the USA

My next door neighbor has one of those. I think I recall him taking it to the range with me once, and letting me shoot it. Must have been almost 20 years ago.

I sold my 91/30 and 44 Mosin Nagants last year, along with a bunch of ammo and various accessories for quite a heap of cash. It stores a lot easier. I didn’t find them all that fun to shoot, but they are guns that’ll pretty much work no matter what. A good, rugged design that would be cheap to manufacture. For what they were designed for, they’d be hard to beat. Turns out they weren’t designed to fill up my safe. Looks like you got a fine example there.

You're supposed to put 3 hotdogs on the bayonet and when you're done shooting, lunch is ready!

I remember at Big 5 sporting goods the "gun section" was empty so the guy brought out the 5 '91s they had and I got to pick one. One was a little fancier with some of the metal on the stock being brass/etc. I also bought a carbine, they were either $59 or $79 each. Also got two spam cans.

I remember the easiest way to avoid the corrosion was to use windex in the bore if you didn't have time to really clean it well.

I don't shoot mine much, but they're both wwII production and cost very little so they'll have a place in the safe(s).

Good shooter Hawkeye. You have a premium example.
Looks like that 100 yard group is as much a testimony to your vision.

Start watching at the 2:00 minute mark for some slow motion fire balls from the M44.

I was in the right place at the right time.
I pissed off a lot of salesman in the Gun shop that day.
They had a rule
When someone comes in with a consignment firearm the salesman have to keep their mits off of it for 24 hours
I walked in a couple hours after the person dropped it off for the consignment
Paid the money and then had to wait the 30 days for it to clear Commyfornia's BS and then i had to wait another 10 days for the waiting period & Commyfornia's Back Ground check.
Ya a lot of pissed off salesmen.

Back then I could walk into any of the Gun Shop Turners Outdoors man Chain Stores and they would call me by name even thou I had never been in that particular store.
The Chain sold to another Corporation and changed how they did business an screwed me for over a month & a half on a Custom order from another state.
I have not been back in the store since then.

My boy bought it for 80.00 about 9 years ago, he felt the need to give it to me when I did a bunch of work on his house for him, I let him do it, it made him feel good giving the oldman something.

I've been thinking about giving it back to him soon, we'll see.

My vision isn't near what it used to be. It stinks, actually. I make it work as best I can.

That's impressive without a scope. I figured that you must take eye supplements, eat blue berries a lot or something.

I got my 91/30 quite a while ago and had fun blasting off a few spam cans like yours over the years until I got the idea of rebarreling it. Its now a 500S&W magnum. Had to open up the receiver a bit and rework the magwell but it feeds and its a hoot to shoot.

A bench rest works wonders if you have good trigger control etc.. It's technique as much as vision. With good technique, you can make so so vision work well enough.

3.5# Crisp break. Is that typical of these?

Don't know.

Tell us what was the break on your stepdads 98 you put all 15 shots into one hole at 100yds when you was 8..

Fuucking lying azz Stallings camper...
Fake azz leech preacher.....

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I bet the .223 is pretty neat. Have you got it drilled and tapped for a scope? a scope I've seen online where they've been rebarrelled to .444 and .45-70.

I tested with a 40X scope



The bolt is pulled back.
The lifter is raised.
The 223 round is placed on the lifter.
The bolt is pushed forward.
The rifle is fired.
The bolt is withdrawn causing the case to fall out the magazine well.

Accuracy is great.
Feeding is slower.

Pretty neat. Nothing wrong with a single shot. Did you have much trouble with the bolt face, and extractor?

I ran an end mill in the extractor relief slot in the bolt head... like a Finn converting to 9x19mm.



And the extractor drops deeper into the bolt face to grab the little 223 case head.

So, now you can reenact Biathlon like it was in 1963. Okay, it won't work in Florida because of the lack of snow. Take a look at that video when a guy named Hanno Posti from Finland approaches the line at the shooting range. He has some history as a successful 10,000 m runner.

Pretty neat and accuracy is nothing to sneeze at.

That is the most accurate Moisin I've ever seen. Well done.

I have Russian M-44 that has a decent trigger.

Yeah, it's a little odd vs other kinds of triggers, in that there's a kind of stacking feel as you approach the wall, but then the break is quite crisp and light, to the point that it would sometimes surprise me when it let go.

It's accuracy surprised the hell out of me. Even beat out my Swedish Mauser by a half inch at 100 yards.

Here's my 2.5 inch 100 yard group with my Swedish Mauser. And the lowest rear sight setting on the Swedish Mauser is 300 meters (100 meters on the Mosin Nagant), so they land quite high of point of aim at that distance. The Swedish Mauser has a nice crisp trigger too, but about a pound heavier.

Good post... thanks for sharing.

Shooting a PRS built gun well is quite easy.

Shooting a POS built gun well is not. I am happy for you.

Never mind if you cannot understand Hooke's law of spring forces, just read on.

The best trigger fix [adjust to 2 pounds trigger pull] for a Mosin is to buy the Timney for over $100.

But for free you can bend the sear/ trigger spring [4.5 pounds trigger pull and still have safe engagement].

Polishing the parts or installing a Hubber trigger have no measurable effect.

Russian sniper girl and her Mosin Nagant.

Russian copper washed. It is very good ammo.

Cool picture. I notice that the bolt handle is turned down on that one. I guess to accommodate a scope.

Yeah, that's it. I've got two like that. Good to know it's good stuff. Corrosive?

Slightly corrosive.

The snipers had a longer bolt handle welded on. The snipers were normally a very well built rifle. More time and care was gave to them compared to a average combat rifle.

Never thought of milling the slot. I know Bannerman when they converted to .30-06 went the hard way route.

This is how I normally do bent down bolt handles on Mosins. It works well and clears the receiver scope mounts too and I use the knob from the factory bolt.

Here is my Finnish rework of the M91.



The Finns took captured M91s, and put on new stocks, barrels, and sights. Really a nice and accurate rifle. This one is by VKT, remanufactured in 1941. Sako and Tikka also made reworked Mosins there in Finland.



The front sight is adjustable. The rifle was originally made in Russia in 1895. With an antique receiver, this rifle is legally an antique and not subject to Federal firearms restrictions.
By Federal law, this rifle is the same as a muzzle loader.

Very nice work on the bent bolt!

Thank you! I also drilled and tapped the receiver and installed that scope and mount that's pictured. It turned out really well.

Turned out really good.

Got my Polish 44 Carbine back when they were $79 bucks.
I was impressed with the accuracy even with the surplus ammo. They will do a number on feral hogs.

Here are more of the girls from Russia:

Bolsheviks. Soon I might have to kill their grandkids or be killed by them, not looking forward to that. So far Germany has presented itself at the "Trojan Horse" of NATO. It will be interesting to see "your hand" in this conflict.

Who would've thought Mosins would get as expensive as they have? I gave 75 bucks for my Romanian M44 and 80 for my Tula 91-30.

A timely thread.

LOL. Yep.