Why do you like (dislike) Mosin Nagants?

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I like my M44 because I feel it has tremendous potential as a sporting rifle. Not a long range tack driver, but certainly could fulfill the role of a deer/boar/black bear rifle. All you need do, in fact, is remove the bayonet, and get the sights right. That's it. It's ready to go in the field, and is extremely handy, rugged and problem free rifle. Mine came with an excellent trigger. Easy to rig up for a sporting sling too. Just need a couple of leather loops for the slots. It's a dandy all around.
 
I have 3 Mosins; the M44, M91/30 and M38. Other than the bolt being not as smooth as my Mausers, I like them a lot. I like their total mechanical simplicity; they're so simple it's elegant. Even I can understand how they work. And they are surprisingly accurate. I don't shoot groups off a bench, but for handheld shots to 100 yards (the max I've done so far), they're a lot of fun. And interesting, too, what with all the WWII history. So, if inexpensive, reliable, accurate, interesting, indestructable and cheap ammo sound good to you, the Mosins may be for you.
 
Dislikes (in general)
-crappy triggers
-clunky action
-difficult to load magazine without strippers.

Specific to the carbines:
-poor accuracy
-not very well balanced

Likes-
-built like a tank
-good cartridge
-rounds can be fed directly into the chamber unlike a mauser
-cheap ammo and lots of it

Specific to the 91/30
-decent accuracy
-very nicely balanced rifle.

I always swear off Mosins and say I'll never buy another, yet they still tempt me enough to open my wallet from time to time.
 
That's one of Darrell's mounts from the Paralax boards. I had some trouble getting it on the Finnish rear mount because it was slightly different than the Soviet 91/30 standard, but I got it locked down with a few drops of silver sauder. I can pop it out of there later if I need to, but it's about the nicest balancing Mosin I've ever had with a scope on it.
 
Pros: Cheap ammo, "stupidly simple" action, freakish durability, cheap ammo. Did I mention the cheap ammo part?

Cons: Action can sometimes be "sticky", substantial recoil hurts after a while.

See this page for an AK/AR/Mosin comparison. Be amused. Be very amused.
 
Stiff action, especially with steel-case ammo
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That alone is why I stopped shooting mine, plus its less accurate then my far older and in worse condition Mauser. The action of an MN is in fact overly complicated, which apparently they did to avoid patent infringement. This doesn't appear to affect reliability.

Pluses it has far less recoil then my Mauser when I use yugo ammo in the German gun. I don't know about other ammo though.

Bottomline knowing what I know now I wouldn't have purchased it. The Enfield is clearly the king of combat bolt actions.

The Mauser is the king of dangerous game rifles. Period. I think using a Mosin on bear is inviting disaster, let me ask you this would you use that same rifle on lion or jaguar?

Anything in between those two is boring to me... sorry. Unless its an exceptional piece of craftsmanship like a Mannlicher Classic.

Took a look at that website, hilarious! :D But methinks he overrates the recoil a tad.
 
But it's fun...

Not to invite disaster on my shoulder, but putting 120 rounds through it in a couple hours at the range is way more fun than a .22, and cheap. For that once in a lifetime trip to Alaska/Africa wherever safari, this is not what you'd use. But to plink and practice and have fun, and spend half to a third less than feeding an AR, it does seem hard to beat.

On an semi-unrelated topic, how much surplus ammo do people keep around? Is there any big danger of it disappearing anytime soon? It seems silly to stockpile too much stuff, but sillier to miss out while the getting is good.
 
I once heard somebody call a Mosin "obsolete." They weren't comparing it to autoloaders, but other bolt-action rifles from the early 20th century. As LawDog would put it...

*gigglesnort* :D

I'm hoping to get a repro PU sniper some day. And yes, it's because I love Enemy At The Gates. :rolleyes: :p

One major downside, though... I have never, in my life, seen a true Mosin Nagant clip--just the POS "tool clips" that happen to work if they've been blessed by either Buddha or JMB. :banghead:
 
ghost squire said:
The Mauser is the king of dangerous game rifles. Period. I think using a Mosin on bear is inviting disaster, let me ask you this would you use that same rifle on lion or jaguar?
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Where do people get these notions? My 215 grain Woodleigh handloads would blow a jaguar into next week. It delivers up to 2,700 ft. lbs. at the muzzle with a SD of .316. With a premium bullet that will hit plenty hard. Properly loaded, the 54R out of a full size Mosin is more than enough to bring down everything up to and including brown bear. It's equal to the .30'06 or the 8x57JS.

I think what you mean to say is that the '98 ACTION is the basis for many classic hunting rifles. It is an easier action to adapt to new chamberings, but that doesn't make it any stronger or better in its military configuration.
 
I think what you mean to say is that the '98 ACTION is the basis for many classic hunting rifles. It is an easier action to adapt to new chamberings, but that doesn't make it any stronger or better in its military configuration.
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I think thats fairly OBVIOUS as I never mentioned caliber factoring into the dangerous game rifle equation.

The Mauser is the king of dangerous game rifles. Period. I think using a Mosin on bear is inviting disaster, let me ask you this would you use that same rifle on lion or jaguar?
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Did you think I was saying that 8mm Mauser is the king of all calibers for cape buffalo or something? In addition theres more then one cartridge that bears the Mauser name. 9.3x62 being the obvious one for DG.

Where do people get these notions? My 215 grain Woodleigh handloads would blow a jaguar into next week.
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As will a 6.5x55.

I will repeat myself seeing as how to be fair I suppose I could have said action instead of rifle...

The Mauser ACTION is GENERALLY speaking a far better choice then a Mosin for dangerous game hunting, for a variety of reasons. The Mauser is the sacred cow of dangerous game hunting and extremely, overwhelmingly popular with African PHs for a reason. If you want more reasons why a Mauser is better for hunting DG ask one of them.

Not to invite disaster on my shoulder, but putting 120 rounds through it in a couple hours at the range is way more fun than a .22, and cheap. For that once in a lifetime trip to Alaska/Africa wherever safari, this is not what you'd use. But to plink and practice and have fun, and spend half to a third less than feeding an AR, it does seem hard to beat.
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Agreed.

PS I would want more oomph if I were going after brown bear: http://image05.webshots.com/5/8/26/14/60982614VOOEsm_ph.jpg

I'm not sure I would feel comfortable with any .30 cal. But many have been taken with them, I won't dispute that. Elephant have also been taken by the thousands with 6.5mms...
 
Properly loaded, the Mosin-Nagant is perfectly fine as a bear rifle. If you want to lug around a .375 H&H that's OK, but it's not necessary. I would also argue that the iron sighted Mosin is superior for bear protection than a fully scoped hunting rifle.

But you're absolutely correct that one of the points in the Mauser's favor is the ability to chamber a wide array of alternate cartridges in it. The Finns have created some wildcat loads for customized Mosins, but so far they haven't migrated beyond Scandinavia.
 
Huh? Where did I say scoped rifle for dangerous game. I don't think theres a PH in the world who uses a scope on their stopping rifle. I don't think I listed a lack of proper scope mounting as one of the Mosins downsides for use as a DG rifle.

Properly loaded, the Mosin-Nagant is perfectly fine as a bear rifle.
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I'm not saying your wrong, I'm just saying I would feel more comfortable with a larger margin for error (and I don't mean missed shots) for those specific brown/grizzly/kodiak bears. I believe they are all technically the same species.

I think we're generally in agreeance but had a slight failure to communicate.
 
Looks like most people either love'em or hate'em. I guess I'm in the middle since I haven't shot mine yet. Going up to AIM Monday with a buddy, might have to check out a Finn M39.
-jagdpanzer
 
Just got to shoot my 91/30

Well finally, I got the opportunity to shoot my 91/30. It was kind of a valentines present from my fiancee that I got to pick out. Dunhams was running a local "sale" and I decided what the hell. So I got it and brought it home. I cleaned it up a little and got the cosmoline off and had it sitting in my gun cabinet up until today. Its been burning my eyes out all week just waiting for me to load her up. So my bride to be on sat. went to get her fingernails done for tomorrow and I finally got my chance to go to my shooting hole. Its basically a slate corry. It didnt shoot too badly and It just felt good to be shooting the old girl. I can see its purpose for deer or possibly putting a scout scope on it that wont alter it and seeing what I can get out of it. Its a rearsenaled russian, but all and all I'm quite happy. Funny thing, I spend my last day as a single man shooting my guns:eek:
Thanks all
crow
 
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