Rimfire Cold Warrior

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NIGHTLORD40K

NIGHTLORD40K

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Nostramo (in absentia), Segmentum Ultima
Just when I think Im somewhat firearms knowledgeable, along comes a gun I'd never even heard of before, so, of course, I had to buy it.

20190529_030416.jpg
This one is a Romanian M69 .22lr training rifle, my particular example is stamped 1982 on the reciever. The LGS had two of them and my buddy snatched the other. His indicated 1975 production. Both were in excellent surplus condition, though his had much a much lighter colored stock- could just be the typically Warsaw Pact shellac job?

First order of business was adding a sling, as I am a firm believer all long guns should have one. The factory swivels are teeny tiny, but I had an AK-style canvas strap laying around and the little leather frogs worked perfectly.

The sights consist of a hooded front post and 3 flip-up rear notches stamped for 25, 50, and 100 meters which are dovetailed for drift windage adjustment. Interestingly, the receiver is machined for a tip-off style scope mount, but this is considerably narrower than a standard US mount and ruled out most of my available mounting hardware. Fortunately I had an old el-cheapo Japanese Tasco 3-7X Wideview with squeeze-type mounts which I was (just) able to crank down enough to grab the rail. The awkward placement of the rear sight and lack of clearance on the bolt handle neccessitated dismantling the scope to reposition the mounts forward as well:
20190529_030724.jpg
20190529_031054.jpg
Kinda goofy, but what the heck, if I dont like it, i'll rip it off and chuck it, no harm done, lol.

There is even a cute little cleaning kit in the butt-trap:
20190529_030554.jpg

Cant wait to get this Cold War plinker to the range and see how she shoots.

Cheers!
 
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The sights are dead on with Remington solids.

I spray paint mine with rustolium primer paint to keep the salt water spray, mist and fog away.

I have 4 or 5 spare clips I bought at Libertytree collectors.

The sling swivels suck pretty fast, I had Carcano swivels and just inletted them in with a Finn M39 leather sling for year round carry and use.

When I first bought it in 5he early 2000’s, I had 5 for 200$. All were very dry in the wood, so much that I had to shim the trigger guard so it would feed right. After that, never a snag.

I shoot everythin* from swimmin* Caribou, tomdowned birds, to Rabbits, Ptarmigan, etc. pound for pound, it probly makes half again more meat, by weight, than my M 39.

My son had it for 5 years that I couldn’t, and getting it given back was like finding 971A1A74-D437-42A0-AFAF-CCBE10EBBA32.jpeg an old and trusted friend.
 
caribou said:
The sights are dead on with Remington solids.

I spray paint mine with rustolium primer paint to keep the salt water spray, mist and fog away.

I have 4 or 5 spare clips I bought at Libertytree collectors.

The sling swivels suck pretty fast, I had Carcano swivels and just inletted them in with a Finn M39 leather sling for year round carry and use.

When I first bought it in 5he early 2000’s, I had 5 for 200$. All were very dry in the wood, so much that I had to shim the trigger guard so it would feed right. After that, never a snag.

I shoot everythin* from swimmin* Caribou, tomdowned birds, to Rabbits, Ptarmigan, etc. pound for pound, it probly makes half again more meat, by weight, than my M 39.

My son had it for 5 years that I couldn’t, and getting it given back was like finding View attachment 843830 an old and trusted friend.
Click to expand...
Wow, great picture!
 
I have one that was made in 1972. Mine is very accurate with Federal Champion ammo. I got mine years ago when I worked at a pawn shop, guy never came back for it
 
I’ve owned , and many a friend and daughter own Ruger 10/22s, the rear sights are the most breakable, ever.

You will appreciate the sheer durability of the sights and the rifle.

Taiwanese clips work just fine, at 1/2 the price of Romainian. Just remember to clean and lube them, the follower is steel. I live by the ocean, sand, in winter it’s condensation that rusts, here.

A Winchester model 60 or 61 would only about the only other .22 lr or mag, I would consider.....keeping your eye on the prize while cycling is an edge over bolt actions......but most jobs are one shot.....most, and a back up shot is sweet.
 
NIGHTLORD40K said:
Just when I think Im somewhat firearms knowledgeable, along comes a gun I'd never even heard of before, so, of course, I had to buy it.

View attachment 843822
This one is a Romanian M69 .22lr training rifle, my particular example is stamped 1982 on the reciever. The LGS had two of them and my buddy snatched the other. His indicated 1975 production. Both were in excellent surplus condition, though his had much a much lighter colored stock- could just be the typically Warsaw Pact shellac job?

First order of business was adding a sling, as I am a firm believer all long guns should have one. The factory swivels are teeny tiny, but I had an AK-style canvas strap laying around and the little leather frogs worked perfectly.

The sights consist of a hooded front post and 3 flip-up rear notches stamped for 25, 50, and 100 meters which are dovetailed for drift windage adjustment. Interestingly, the receiver is machined for a tip-off style scope mount, but this is considerably narrower than a standard US mount and ruled out most of my available mounting hardware. Fortunately I had an old el-cheapo Japanese Tasco 3-7X Wideview with squeeze-type mounts which I was (just) able to crank down enough to grab the rail. The awkward placement of the rear sight and lack of clearance on the bolt handle neccessitated dismantling the scope to reposition the mounts forward as well:
View attachment 843823
View attachment 843824
Kinda goofy, but what the heck, if I dont like it, i'll rip it off and chuck it, no harm done, lol.

There is even a cute little cleaning kit in the butt-trap:
View attachment 843828

Cant wait to get this Cold War plinker to the range and see how she shoots.

Cheers!
Click to expand...
The factory sights work very well. I tried to find mounts for mine, but gave up.
Mine looked like it was drug behind the ship that brought it over. It's still my only 22 rifle because it's so accurate.
 
NIGHTLORD40K said:
The sights consist of a hooded front post and 3 flip-up rear notches stamped for 25, 50, and 100 meters which are dovetailed for drift windage adjustment.
Click to expand...
Those sights allow for outstanding accuracy with everything I've shot through mine...from CCI Minimags to Winchester T-22

Interestingly, the receiver is machined for a tip-off style scope mount, but this is considerably narrower than a standard US mount
Click to expand...
This isn't a tip-off scope mount. It was designed to hold the receiver during manufacture
 
9mmepiphany said:
Those sights allow for outstanding accuracy with everything I've shot through mine...from CCI Minimags to Winchester T-22


This isn't a tip-off scope mount. It was designed to hold the receiver during manufacture
Click to expand...
Well that would explain it, lol. I may just run with the iron sights as they are very good, but none of my other bolt action .22s are scoped, so I kinda wanted to do something different. Im going to order up some of those mounts Odd Job suggested and see how they work. Worst case Im out $16.;)
 
NIGHTLORD40K said:
Got mine for $168 OTD, and feel like I stole it at that price. Getting military quality for peanuts reminds me of the good old days of $89 NIB SKS....:D
Click to expand...
I didn't realize they had gotten up that high in price. I paid $79 for mine...and I kicked myself for passing them up when they were $49
 
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I bought 2 about 20 years ago. Then promptly lost one of the magazines. Then I found 2 mags at a gun show in Phoenix for $5 each.

Pops taught me to shoot by shooting dead ocotillo stalks in half from about 50 yards with a 22lr.

I still have the 2 of em and won't be selling them. They're really accurate for what they are.
 
I swapped an NEF single shot 12 gauge for mine. Have about $100 bill in it. It rides in a saddle scabbard behind the seat of my pickup and has never been in my house since I swapped for it. I got it for a truck gun and it's been a good one. I use CCI mini-mags in it and they shoot to point of aim now. Had to tweak the elevation on the front sight just a bit but it will drive tacks at 50 yards now. My little Romanian has accounted for a good number of pests around the farm from crows to ground hogs. As a matter of fact, just a couple weeks ago I managed to shoot a crow with the darn thing at about 100 yards. Just flipped that 100 leaf up, held on his wing joint, and squeezed the trigger. One dead crow. The trigger took a little getting used to, but I've learned to take it up and then squeeze it. I just wish the little feller would shoot shorts! That'd be so handy.

Mac
 
LoonWulf said:
I only know I'veof one locally and the owners never letting it go, never heard of an inaccurate m69 either, Good buy!
Out of those long tubes standard Vs are amazingly quiet, and cci quiets are even more so.
Click to expand...
Gordon said:
Notice I changed my post to 11mm dovetail I don't have one of those rifles , but a friend who does says this fits . Note that apparently these rails do vary .
https://www.kwiksitecorp.com/p-296-see-thru-grooved-receiver-mount.aspx
I see Odd Job also reccommended them, at $17 not much of a loss.
Click to expand...
Odd Job said:
Try these:

https://www.kwiksitecorp.com/p-296-see-thru-grooved-receiver-mount.aspx
Click to expand...
Thanks to Odd Job and Gordon for the mounting idea- I found something similiar at the gunshow today, gave them a little squeeze in the vice and they worked like a charm.

I had originally gotten this vintage Redfield Frontier 4x from Loonwulf for one of my Savage 99s, but it didnt have enough eye relief. Its perfect for the M69, though! :D
20190714_000334.jpg
20190714_000357.jpg
20190714_000454.jpg
Found some nice reproduction grips to retire the well-worn originals on my Trooper today too:
1563079022450967686706.jpg
:thumbup:
 
Info dump on the M69

I bought one of those M69 Romanian Army Trainers Sep 2000 at a gunshop when they were 69.95. Mine shoots so well that its cosmetic challenges (ComBloc army training rifle finished as badly as the typical ComBloc SKS or Mosin) just means I can take to the mountain or to the range and use it without fretting about damaging the finish. (The M69 was deliberately left rough like the Japanese Howa M1 Carbines and the Howa stocks used when refurbishing M1 carbines for US and South Korean forces during the Korean War. The stated Howa goal was to reduce reflection from the metal and stock. I am not sure what the Romanians were thinking.)

The M69 has a 23" barrel. Most .22 LR ammo is loaded to perform well in 6" to 19" barrel lengths for use in both pistol and rifle, but starts to drop off after 18-19" of barrel travel. I would like someone to chronograph standard velocity and high velocity .22 LR from the M69 versus the typical 18" barreled plinking rifle because I suspect velocities from the longer barrel would be very slightly lower but much more uniform.

NRA ammo tests of CCI Stinger (32 grain bullet listed at 1640 feet per sec by the factory) found that velocity of the Stinger increases with longer barrels up to 26" the longest barrel they tested with Stinger. Stinger would be a bit faster from the M69 than from a typical .22 rifle with 18" to 20" barrel. Going the other way, with CCI CB Long (29 grain bullet at 720 feet per second) and CCI Quiet22 (40 grain bullet at 710 feet per second), the M79 is very very quiet (Shhhh I'm hunting wabbits).

The Taiwan-made magazine furnished with my Rumanian M69 rifle had a locking nub that was really too small. There was a lot of up and down play that affected feeding. I built the nub on mine up with hard solder and, by fit and file, contured the nub to fit without bobbing up and down in the locked position. The solder add-on surprised me by standing up over the years. Since the current folks who make new replacement magazines say they averaged the size of several original magazines to come up with their nub size, I suspect over the course of manufacture, the Romanians fitted the magazines to the rifles as they went along and there may be variations in magazine catches.

The firing pin serves as the ejector. The rim of the cartridge feeds from the magazine under the extractor as the bolt is pushed forward. The bolt stop retains the firing pin by friction as the bolt goes forward so the cartridge is not jammed by the firing pin protruding from the bolt face during the forward stroke. If the firing pin channel is really dirty or clogged with oxidized cosmoline or if the bolt stop channel is full of crud and the bolt stop doesn't put enough pressure on the firing pin or both, there is not enough friction from the bolt stop to retract the firing pin. I ended my fail to feed problem (cartridge blocked by firing pin) by cleaning both the bolt stop and its channel in the receiver and the firing pin and its channel in the bolt so the bolt stop was fully engaging the firing pin and the firing pin was free to move in the bolt. Lesson learned: Military surplus guns should be thoroughly cleaned of all preservative and the dirt attracted and held by preservatives.


I consider the M69 a historical collectible.

"In 1968 The Soviet Union sent tanks into Czechoslovakia to put down a reform movement called the Prague Spring. The Romanian government sought to generate popular enthusiasm by opposing the Soviet crackdown and encouraging the population to join the paramilitary Patriotic Guards to protect the country. Hundreds of thousands, men and women, joined and every community and factory had its own Patriotic Guards unit. The Romanian military had to have some means of teaching all these people how to shoot and the M69 is what they came up with."
from Kurt M., "Gun Review: Romanian M69 Bolt Action .22 Rifle – Content Contest", The Truth About Guns, 25 Apr 2017.
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/gun-review-romanian-m69-bolt-action-22-rifle-content-contest/

In 1989 the Communist Government of Romania called on the Patriotic Guards to put down a popular revolt. The Patriotic Guards joined the people against the government. Part of the fall of the Iron Curtain.
 
Carl N. Brown said:
Info dump on the M69

I bought one of those M69 Romanian Army Trainers Sep 2000 at a gunshop when they were 69.95. Mine shoots so well that its cosmetic challenges (ComBloc army training rifle finished as badly as the typical ComBloc SKS or Mosin) just means I can take to the mountain or to the range and use it without fretting about damaging the finish. (The M69 was deliberately left rough like the Japanese Howa M1 Carbines and the Howa stocks used when refurbishing M1 carbines for US and South Korean forces during the Korean War. The stated Howa goal was to reduce reflection from the metal and stock. I am not sure what the Romanians were thinking.)

The M69 has a 23" barrel. Most .22 LR ammo is loaded to perform well in 6" to 19" barrel lengths for use in both pistol and rifle, but starts to drop off after 18-19" of barrel travel. I would like someone to chronograph standard velocity and high velocity .22 LR from the M69 versus the typical 18" barreled plinking rifle because I suspect velocities from the longer barrel would be very slightly lower but much more uniform.

NRA ammo tests of CCI Stinger (32 grain bullet listed at 1640 feet per sec by the factory) found that velocity of the Stinger increases with longer barrels up to 26" the longest barrel they tested with Stinger. Stinger would be a bit faster from the M69 than from a typical .22 rifle with 18" to 20" barrel. Going the other way, with CCI CB Long (29 grain bullet at 720 feet per second) and CCI Quiet22 (40 grain bullet at 710 feet per second), the M79 is very very quiet (Shhhh I'm hunting wabbits).

The Taiwan-made magazine furnished with my Rumanian M69 rifle had a locking nub that was really too small. There was a lot of up and down play that affected feeding. I built the nub on mine up with hard solder and, by fit and file, contured the nub to fit without bobbing up and down in the locked position. The solder add-on surprised me by standing up over the years. Since the current folks who make new replacement magazines say they averaged the size of several original magazines to come up with their nub size, I suspect over the course of manufacture, the Romanians fitted the magazines to the rifles as they went along and there may be variations in magazine catches.

The firing pin serves as the ejector. The rim of the cartridge feeds from the magazine under the extractor as the bolt is pushed forward. The bolt stop retains the firing pin by friction as the bolt goes forward so the cartridge is not jammed by the firing pin protruding from the bolt face during the forward stroke. If the firing pin channel is really dirty or clogged with oxidized cosmoline or if the bolt stop channel is full of crud and the bolt stop doesn't put enough pressure on the firing pin or both, there is not enough friction from the bolt stop to retract the firing pin. I ended my fail to feed problem (cartridge blocked by firing pin) by cleaning both the bolt stop and its channel in the receiver and the firing pin and its channel in the bolt so the bolt stop was fully engaging the firing pin and the firing pin was free to move in the bolt. Lesson learned: Military surplus guns should be thoroughly cleaned of all preservative and the dirt attracted and held by preservatives.


I consider the M69 a historical collectible.

"In 1968 The Soviet Union sent tanks into Czechoslovakia to put down a reform movement called the Prague Spring. The Romanian government sought to generate popular enthusiasm by opposing the Soviet crackdown and encouraging the population to join the paramilitary Patriotic Guards to protect the country. Hundreds of thousands, men and women, joined and every community and factory had its own Patriotic Guards unit. The Romanian military had to have some means of teaching all these people how to shoot and the M69 is what they came up with."
from Kurt M., "Gun Review: Romanian M69 Bolt Action .22 Rifle – Content Contest", The Truth About Guns, 25 Apr 2017.
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/gun-review-romanian-m69-bolt-action-22-rifle-content-contest/

In 1989 the Communist Government of Romania called on the Patriotic Guards to put down a popular revolt. The Patriotic Guards joined the people against the government. Part of the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Click to expand...
Good info!

I actually found a thread on another site which detailed how to add a ballpoint pen spring to the FP/ejector channel for more positive retraction of the pin. Worked like a charm.
 
Carl N. Brown said:
Since the current folks who make new replacement magazines say they averaged the size of several original magazines to come up with their nub size, I suspect over the course of manufacture, the Romanians fitted the magazines to the rifles as they went along and there may be variations in magazine catches.
Click to expand...

I approached the mag fit a different way;

I found the Romainian mags quite consistent in make , the “no maker” aftermarket clips will widely vary, and the Taiwanese being as good as the Romy
When I received mine originally, the wood ran from blond to oak brown, the finish from near new and solid to flaking and mostly missing, from use I figure.
Using the Romanian mags I found that the mag catch and feeding positions were way off, on 4 of the 5 rifles......it was the 3 used ( but very smooth in action compared to the stiff, newer looking ones), rifles that were maligned because the wood was so dry and shrunk. After figuring this, I removed all the metal from the stock and first did a 3 day BLO oiling and they swelled it a bit, yet the trigger guard/mag well plate still needed shimming, but just a few layers of aluminum foil. I oiled untill its was full in size and not taking
The two with excellent finish were also bone dry, so I oiled the insides once and shimmed the one about 2-3 mm and the clips were a fine fit in all. Only One of 5he 5 needed no shims or adjusting at all
The unmarked aftermarket mags had bad followers that loved to tilt and jam, crazy angles for feed and varing catch hight make them a pain.
The Taiwanese made mags are much more consistent and fit perfectly, in my experience.
 
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