M44 Mosin

[Case82]

I found an M44 Mosin Nagant for $75. I want to buy it but I don't know what to look for other than obvious rust or cracks? Is there anything in particular that I should look for?

Also, are any major brands (Remington, Federal etc.) produced 7.62x54R?

 

[transformerguru]

Remington only produced 91/30's, but if I'm wrong someone please correct me... I have one(M44) and it works great. If your buying it from a pawn shop I would maybe have the head spacing checked but it probably a sound rifle.

 

[w_houle]

Take out the bolt and look at the part that runs up the bottom of the bolt.
This part has a cutout where it grabs the firing pit, usually this part is misused to unscrew the firing pin and gets cracked. It usually doesn't affect anything but you can use it to lower the price

 

[Bartkowski]

Look down the bore to see its condition.

I believe winchester makes 7.62x54r. I know that Wolf and Sellier and Bellot make ammo, but you won't want to shoot the gun much at their prices. There is a fair amount of surplus for much cheaper if you don't mind a little extra cleaning.

 

[Avenger]

Winchester does sell white box ammo, I wasn't much impressed with the accuracy from it though. Plus it was pretty high up on the $$$ meter.

Basically, the main thing you need to check is the bore. Shine a light through from the muzzle end after removing the bolt. You want to see nice sharp rifling, and no blackish areas, just nice shiny metal. There isn't as much to look at externally for a shooter-grade rifle, the standard I use is, "Would I accept wood in this condition if it was a baseball bat?" LOL!
Also check the muzzle to see if has been counterbored. If you can see that the muzzle has been bored out, it's a possible sign that the barrel is getting worn, but the acid test is, again, taking a look down the bore.

 

[AZAndy]

By the way, to remove the bolt in order to act on Avenger's excellent suggestion, cock the rifle and then pull the trigger while sliding the bolt straight back. It will slide out very easily.

 

[Cmdr. Gravez0r]

The milsurp ammo is still trickling in for the Mosins. Buy cheep and stack deep.

 

[The Deer Hunter]

Winchester does sell the white box "metric" caliber 7.62x54R. It is pricey though, about $1 a round. Surplus is ok if you get it locally, if not shipping is what really kills you.

Fun gun, though.

 

[ndolson]

The milsurp ammo is still trickling in for the Mosins. Buy cheep and stack deep.

Glad I got into Mosin's 2 years ago when ammo was practically given away. Now I see $70+ for 440 rds (I know that sounds cheap compared to some ammo, but it was less than half that a short time ago) and stashed away several thousand rounds.

I'd look at the bore condition mostly. Doubt you'll ever find a "shiny" bore due to the corrosive ammo used in them for the past 80 years, but look for sharp rifle and no "frost" inside the barrel. Good blueing and nice wood. Aimsurplus.com is having a sale on laminated stock 91/30's right now for $79 (about $20 cheaper than anywhere else) and the one I bought is very nice. I need to buy another one, I like to have double of the surplus rifles...one to shoot, one to collect.

Good rifling, good metal, nice stock, good to go.

 

[transformerguru]

oops I realized I didn't read the second part of the question completely. I am pretty sure most all ammo manufactures put out 54R ammo. I bought a box of Winchester ammo when I bought mine, partly to have some reloadable brass. Surplus ammo is the way to go though, even though you need to do some extra cleaning.

 

[Vaarok]

Check the bore. Otherwise, don't question a $75 centerfire rifle chambered in a caliber that'll kill anything in North America too much, because it won't make sense to you either. But it's the truth.

 

[twinhairdryers]

run 1 patch through the bore after removing the bolt

And make sure it's mostly bright. If it has been sitting for a long time, even if the bore is good it will look black. Also, get milsurp ammo from here:

http://wideners.com/itemview.cfm?dir=18|190|191

they still have 300 round tins for cheap and i've only run into 1 bad round in about 500 round average. actually pretty accurate too.

for 75 bucks you can't even buy a decent pellet gun anymore. just check the bore and cycle the action a few times. best bang for the buck (no pun intended) I think you could go with right now.

 

[GD]

I would also look at the crown. Many mosins were counterbored which means that the bore was drilled back up to an inch to correct a worn muzzle/crown. Generally this improved the accuracy of the rifle but some collectors shun these rifles because of it. I have several counterbored rifles and they shoot fine. Headspace might also be an issue. As far as manufacturers, Remington never made M91/30's, they made the longer M91's during WW1. In addition, the U.S. company New England Westinghouse also made M91's. $75 for a M44 is a decent price - you can't go wrong. I would not worry about buying the cheaper surplus as cleaning the rifle is a snap - water to dissolve the corrosive salts and then clean as you would any rifle. A case of 440 rounds should last a while as 20 rounds per session will give you a sore shoulder to remember the fun you had.

 

[Franco2shoot]

I love mine... really cheap to shoot the corrosive stuff too! As for cleaning, I took a short section of aluminum tube (piece from an old 3 piece cleaning rod) cut it in half leaving me with a section that was about 2 inches long with the thread cut in one end. This thread will screw onto the rifles cleaning rod. Next I drilled the other end of the aluminum tube and tapped it so that I could use a cleaning jag/patch. Now when I go to the range, I have this shorty aluminum within the carry case and inside a ziplock bag with Ammonia/windex solution soaking the patch. Once we are about to leave I connect the shorty piece to the rifle's cleaning rod and swab out the barrel. I still do a full up clean once I get home, but the quick swab out eliminates any of the corrosive powder from shooting.

KKKKFL

 

[biscuitninja]

I'm about in the same situtation as you are. The mechanical look ok, but the stock has been repaired a ...few times. :lol:
Anyways good luck, i'm just gonna make mine a nice little shooter with tripod and maybe a quick optical sight.
Good luck
-bix