Mosin Nagant dry firing

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tercel89

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My son has become an A/B student and is about to graduate high school and has been accepted to college and will study to be a history teacher so I am a proud daddy ! So I have given him a few presents and one is a Mosin Nagant M44 . He always liked their ruggedness and simple design . I am asking you guys if dry firing is ok for the Mosins ? I have dry fired a few of mine only to "decock" them . But will it affect or hurt the firing pins or chamber ? His is still covered in cosmoline and well preserved. He will have a time cleaning it LOL .

Any information is appreciated !
 
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Congratulations. I got my son a rifle last summer when he got his first job out of the military. He was going to school full time and work full time. You should be proud of him. The Nagant was an excellent choice. Enjoy. I dry fire mine all the time. Got an M44 and an M39.
 
Awesome . Thanks for the information ! I didnt think it would hurt but you can never be too safe . The 91/30's seem to be plantifull but the M44's seem to be in short supply . I just didn't want to mess it up.
 
Personally, I'm not a fan of the dry firing. Things are built like a tank I know but still just... always worried about having that bad luck and mine being the one that Comrade Nikolai didn't spend the time heat treating properly and boom, broken firing pin lol.

Easiest thing I've found to do with it is simply hold down the trigger with the bolt slid forward but the bolt handle in an upward position. As you lock the bolt it should decock on closing. But again, just my own personal operation preference.
 
Personally, I'm not a fan of the dry firing. Things are built like a tank I know but still just... always worried about having that bad luck and mine being the one that Comrade Nikolai didn't spend the time heat treating properly and boom, broken firing pin lol.

Easiest thing I've found to do with it is simply hold down the trigger with the bolt slid forward but the bolt handle in an upward position. As you lock the bolt it should decock on closing. But again, just my own personal operation preference.
Actually with a MN the easiest way to de-cock without dry firing is simply grab onto the cocking piece and ease it forward as the trigger is held back.
 
The Russian AK manual for unit leaders says not to let the hammer fall on an empty chamber "any more than need be". Not the same rifle but...
 
The Mosin Nagant has an extremely stout firing pin and cocking piece.

I have dry fired mine THOUSANDS of times with 0 ill effect. I have NEVER heard of anyone harming theirs from this practice either. It is a non issue as far as I'm concerned.

And even IF the firing pin breaks, replacements are so common and cheap that it's no big deal, but if you can manage to break one from dry firing then congratulations as I've never heard of this happening ever before.
 
One way to do it is to work the bolt up, back, and forward, and then slowly close it down about halfway. It will catch on something and stay at a forty-five degree angle. You can pull the trigger to release the bolt the rest of the way. I don't hear any springs snapping, so I assume it's not hurting anything as much as a dry fire would.

The firing pin on a Mosin is about as long as your leg though, and looks pretty solid. I think you'd have a very tough time breaking it.
 
If it can be easily broken, it wont be found on a Mosin.....


Dry firing to practice trigger control and breathing whilst aiming are good exercises, and so is carrying it everywhere, and hunting and plinking.... :D
 
As a rule I don't like to dry fire any gun excessively. A few times to decock it or when testing the trigger is fine other than on some rimfire guns. I just don't think it's a good idea to slam the pieces repeatedly. So cocking and dry firing repeatedly while watching TV is not something that I'd do.

Any bolt action rifle is simple to decock. Some just need to lift the bolt handle and then pull and hold the trigger while the handle is put back down. Others need to be lifted and pulled back then pull and hold trigger while cycling the bolt back forward and down.

On the Mosin another option, as mentioned, is to simply ride the tail piece with your other hand while puling the trigger. It might still snap forward with a bit of a click. But the hand holding it will damp the motion enough that it doesn't slam home.
 
Congrats to him!

Dry firing a Mosin is fine.

There are lots of historical websites featuring Mosins. If he'd like, I feature mechanical Mosin aspects on my website, and it's free to read. You and he are more than welcome.

Regards,

Josh
 
Thanks a bunch to all you guys for the information. He is loving it and appreciated it a bunch.
 
Choctaw , I had forgotten about that website !!!! I am a member there but had forgotten it. Thanks so much for reminding me !!!!
 
dry firing is fine. About the only type of gun you shouldn't are striker fire type actions hand guns.

Come again? Thousands of action pistol competitors dry fire their striker fired pistols thousands of times each per year!

A spare Mosin firing pin can easily be bought if you are concerned about breakage. They are easy to replace, especially if you have the original Russian combo tool.
 
Snap caps are cheap insurance. Milsurps are usually tough but their firing pins are treated as expendable items probably because of damage from dry firing.

A-Zoom Rifle Metal Snap Caps for 7.62x54 Russian (2-Pack) sell for around $15 or less. A two pack is also good for running function tests on the Mosin regarding loading, ejection, and testing the interrupter function which can sometimes cause feeding problems from the magazine.

BTW, you CAN break a firing pin by dry firing--been there done that. What happened on a P14 Enfield was that the firing pin tip was fine but it broke midway between the firing pin lugs at the back. You never know on old milsurps what problems are lurking. I learned two things, buy extra firing pins for old stuff when you can, and use snap caps whenever possible before dry firing.

If you reload, or know someone who does, you can used fired brass resized with a bit of pencil eraser or some use hot glue to fill the primer cup. This trick works to soften the firing pin blow like a live cartridge. It is not as durable but easy to redo as needed. I use this method on oddball types with no commercially available snap caps. Since Azoom was bought by Lymans, they dropped a lot of old cartridges from their lineup like the 30-40 Krag.
 
...I know of no military that would ever accept a design that couldn't be dry-fired.
I do, the old commie run army of Czechoslovakia adopted the VZ-52 Pistol even though the cast firing pins are liable to break after just a few dry fire cycles.

Tho Mosin Nagant is the same way, it's firing pin is prone to breakage after only a few million dry fire cycles, but it usually only happens when temperatures are -90 degrees Fahrenheit or lower.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it...
 
If anyone is worried, put your strong hand thumb on the cocking piece and ride it forward while pulling the trigger.

I don't understand why this is hard for people to understand.
 
Thanks everyone ! I forgot to tell him to try holding the bolt back when decocking . Thanks !!!!
 
The whole dry firing a weapon will hurt it is almost an old wives tale.

I can understand some rimfire firearms and the firing pin can hit the breech face.

It does not hurt centerfire firearms to dry fire them. I have been doing it for years on all my centerfire guns with no damage. The only exception was my Ruger SR9 and that was because of the stupid magazine disconnect(Ruger said dry firing with magazine inserted is fine), which I removed.
 
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