Nagant Revolver

Yes, the commercial 7.62x38r Nagant ammunition is a bit anemic.

The military version was noticeably more potent.

I don’t know about yours, but mine takes two men and a boy to pull that trigger. Because the trigger action has to also push the cylinder forward to seal the Ammo.

I'm normally a fan of the Russkie stuff, but I never warmed up to the Nagant. Single action trigger isn't great, and firing the revolver DA with your finger isn't going to happen. It requires you to hitch the trigger to your truck and pull, sort of like digging out a tree root.

It also loaded and unloaded in a funny way, sort of charming and irritating at the same time in its pre-cylinder latch antiquity. If you handed me a Nagant right now, I'd have to go to Youtube and watch a video, because I can't remember how to do it.

The 1895 Nagant revolver is unique. It's just that it lacks the fit and finish of what most people today are accustomed to, is chambered in a caliber that is used in no other firearm, and probably has 10lbs of cosmoline stuffed under the sideplate.

Mosin Bubba said:

because I can't remember how to do it.

Click to expand...

The plunger unscrews and swings to the side. On most guns, it does not stop with the plunger centered on the cylinder, so some fine motor skills are required to unload/load. The plunger is not spring assisted. Shoot your seven and run because a tac reload takes minutes.

Bogeyman68 said:

View attachment 890799
My late Father in law gave me this Negant. Needless to say regardless of value it's one of my prize possessions. I purchased some factory ammo for it but seems very under powered. I didn't expect a cannon but this seems very weak.

Click to expand...

Nice revolver, glad you got it. Passed down guns are something to cherish. I wish I bought one of those when they were cheap. They have gone up in value for sure. I got to shoot one awhile ago from another guy at the range and enjoyed it. From what I remember the single action trigger wasn’t too bad. Quick question, are they safe to carry on a live chamber?

The 1895 Nagant revolver is a great piece of history! It was used by Russian and Soviet forces during WWI and WWII as well as their police and other agencies. For as intricate as the gas seal action is the revolver is extremely sturdy and made to remain functional in those frigid Russian winters!

I paid $79 for mine in the 90's during the great era of mil-surplus weapons. I think they sell for a few hundred dollars these days. The trigger is stiff but perfectly usable for real (non-puny capitalist) men! I shoot mine in double action quite proficiently. Like anything it just takes practice which can be expensive since the ammo is kind of pricey. The thing I have found in shooting my Nagant is the strong trigger / action spring makes me naturally want to release the trigger pretty quickly like I am used to with most hand guns. Releasing the trigger too quickly will open the gap between the cylinder and barrel and let the full length case expand outside of the barrel. This makes ejecting the spent cases very difficult. If you hang on to the trigger for an extra couple milliseconds the cases do not expand to any bigger than the inside of the forcing cone and they eject very easily.

The 7.62x38r cartridge is no magnum... I guess people were just a lot easier to kill back then despite their big powerful trigger fingers?

I doubt I will ever sell my Nagant... it is just too cool of a weapon!

dodo bird said:

Quick question, are they safe to carry on a live chamber?

Click to expand...

I do not believe the spur firing pin can contact the primer when the cylinder is in the back position (without the trigger pulled)... so I believe the revolver is drop safe... but I won't swear by that.

dodo bird said:

Quick question, are they safe to carry on a live chamber?

Click to expand...

I have always carried it with a round under the hammer. It has some type of integral hammer block, as the hammer wont push down onto a primer. As far as drop safe, I've never tried.

You might get a little more oomph with a .32 S&W Long. The case isn't long enough to do the gas seal thing, but that was kind of silly to begin with (unless you want to suppress it). My commercial Nagant cartridges were doing about 650fps, and .32 Long will definitely do better than that.

I had an unsolicited offer of $250.00 for mine made in 1935. The deal fell through because of shipping cost. Yes, double action is horrid. Yours is not unique. That such a system was adopted in 1895 boggles the mind. The reloading system was out of date for a couple of decades at least. I'd hate to try to reload under fire. I did find out $250.00 was a low ball offer for one made in 1925 with holster and lanyard included.

GBExpat said:

Yes, the commercial 7.62x38r Nagant ammunition is a bit anemic.

The military version was noticeably more potent.

Click to expand...

I bought a respectable amount of Soviet-era surplus for that very reason.

Makes for a relatively fun gun to shoot.

jdc1244 said:

... I bought a respectable amount of Soviet-era surplus for that very reason. ....

Click to expand...

That's the way to do it!

That is one reason why I did not buy a ~$100 Nagant back in ~2001 (I got mine, LN, for $128 in Summer'13 from SOG ... yeah, SOG ... I lucked out. ). Everyone was charging an outRAGeous amount of money for the ancient chlorate-primered 7,62x38r milsurp ammo. At a time that we could buy all of the quality 7,62x51 NATO milsurp ammo for, like, 15¢/rd (and I bought thousands of rounds of 7,62x39 &7,62x54r milsurp ammo for no more than ~10¢/rd) but they would not part with the Nagant milsurp for less than, like, 20¢/rd.

At about the time that I bought my Nagant someone (here?) pointed me to a SUPER sale and I loaded up on fresh, n/c Fiocchi & PPU weak commercial ammo at about the same price point at which they used to offer the old, corrosive-primered milsurp ammo.

I am setup to reload the used cases but just haven't yet gotten around to that project.

The surplus ammo is about twice as fast as the ppu stuff. I reload the ppu brass to around 1100fps with my cast 98gr 32cal bullets.

GBExpat said:

That's the way to do it!

That is one reason why I did not buy a ~$100 Nagant back in ~2001 (I got mine, LN, for $128 in Summer'13 from SOG ... yeah, SOG ... I lucked out. ). Everyone was charging an outRAGeous amount of money for the ancient chlorate-primered 7,62x38r milsurp ammo. At a time that we could buy all of the quality 7,62x51 NATO milsurp ammo for, like, 15¢/rd (and I bought thousands of rounds of 7,62x39 &7,62x54r milsurp ammo for no more than ~10¢/rd) but they would not part with the Nagant milsurp for less than, like, 20¢/rd.

At about the time that I bought my Nagant someone (here?) pointed me to a SUPER sale and I loaded up on fresh, n/c Fiocchi & PPU weak commercial ammo at about the same price point at which they used to offer the old, corrosive-primered milsurp ammo.

I am setup to reload the used cases but just haven't yet gotten around to that project.

Click to expand...

Haha, I have the first generation die set from Lee, basically a bastardized 32-20 set. I have to use the bullet seater twice to get the bullet into "uncircumcized cartridge" position. The first seat with the seater in the correct position to get the bullet straight in the case, the second time upside down to push far enough in with the flat of the seater. Crimp just enough to allow the cartridge to clear the forcing cone (can you call it that on a Gas seal revolver?). Otherwise the case neck splits early.
I load 110 grain M1 carbine bullets for cost, will probably go to half-jackets when i run out. or cast some more 85 grain bullets I used to load in the tokarev.
I prefer PRIVI to fioccchi due to less crimp on the initial loading, I've had case necks split on the first firing of Fiocchi.

Cool old gun man and thanks for sharing. I had notions of owning one at one point, but never did bite the bullet.

I had one for a little while and traded it away due to the horrid trigger.

I'm pretty sure that mine would shoot 32 S&W long ammo, which is not necessarily hard to find.

Yes they will shoot S&W long, but sometimes split the cases. I don't shoot mine very much. I put maybe 100 plus rounds through it. I'm going to probably sell it at a gun show.

shinyroks said:

Haha, I have the first generation die set from Lee, basically a bastardized 32-20 set. I have to use the bullet seater twice to get the bullet into "uncircumcized cartridge" position. The first seat with the seater in the correct position to get the bullet straight in the case, the second time upside down to push far enough in with the flat of the seater. Crimp just enough to allow the cartridge to clear the forcing cone (can you call it that on a Gas seal revolver?). Otherwise the case neck splits early.
I load 110 grain M1 carbine bullets for cost, will probably go to half-jackets when i run out. or cast some more 85 grain bullets I used to load in the tokarev.
I prefer PRIVI to fioccchi due to less crimp on the initial loading, I've had case necks split on the first firing of Fiocchi.

Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing this info!

I have always planned on annealing the brass (primarily the casemouth) to minimize work-failures due to the rather extreme & repetitious reshaping that occurs.

Some day. So many fun projects, so little time ...

Find some 32 h&r mag, pretty plentiful in the cowboy action crowds. These can actually be reloaded if you are using the Nagant dies to do it, so you aren't expanding and compressing the brass repeatedly. The H&R is just long enough to get some neck tension on the bullet in the tapered cylinder.
The problem I have found with shooting the 32, 32 long and 32 H&R is that the gun get dirty in places its not designed to due to the shape of the cylinder face. Its not really designed with a flash gap in mind. I have not found any accuracy problems (+/- 2"@50yd) with any of the smith cartridges, but the cylinder seems to funnel the gasses into the cylinder pin and foul that up. Be sure to include cleaning the cylinder pin and center of the cylinder. Don't lose the little spring inside the cylinder, makes the gun run a little stiffer than normal lol.

I had 2 of them and found that I had more fun shooting them with black powder cartridges I whipped up. Decided to thin the collection (still have a ways to go) and sold them both off. Can't say I miss them..........