1895 Nagant Revolver Club

[Cosmoline]

Thanks Ronjon! I should have done that myself.

Just curious, has anybody tried to reload original brass?

Yes, quite a few of us. There are a number of techniques you can use. Lee sells a "7.62 Nagant" die set, but it's actually made to form .32-20 brass into rough shape. It takes some real trickery to make it function as a true 7.62 Nagant die set. If you look over on the Nagant forum there are quite a few threads on the subject. Here's the one re. my own efforts:

http://www.gunboards.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=187418

It's what I would call an advanced handloading exercise, with many complex steps. I would only advise trying it with a hand press, as a bench mounted or multi stage press either won't work or might break something important. I haven't had time to do many more batches like this, but it was pretty cool to have real Nagant cartridges at the end.

 

[Bacek]

Ok, I got it... I would better work harder and get "official" ammo... Reloading is not for an idiots... Hopefully Wolf is not lying about September.
Good shooting to everyone.

 

[Thirties]

Once you crimp the mouth of a Nagant case, it will not last. The cracking is immediate the minute you run the shell through the sizer.

That's why I prefer the Lee hybrid die set. You just have to let go of the gas seal feature. When you get over that "disappointment", you are good to go with your Nagant and the resized .32-20 cases (in my very humble opinion).

 

[Cosmoline]

Thirties--what kind of brass were you using? I have been able to get several reloads out of the Fiocchi stuff before the mouth starts to give out. Even then, you can just trim off the bad spots. Using .32-20 resized is a stop gap measure. With better supplies of the real stuff we won't need to keep doing it.

Ideally, you need a taper crimp die. Most of the soviet production stuff has a taper crimp.

 

[Thirties]

I load my Nagant with Starline .32-20. The "factory" ammo I used was Finocci (sp?).

 

[Arkie]

Well I finally joined the group!!!

It arrived in the mail today and I got it all cleaned up. Now all I have to do is get some ammo for it. lol.

All clean, http://www.laray.net/toys/3.jpg

Tula symbol and 1943 date, http://www.laray.net/toys/9.jpg

Ready to go! http://www.laray.net/toys/10.jpg

 

[tinygnat219]

Arkie,

You don't have a Tula model, those have the star symbol. What you do have is a model made at Izvesk (Spell?), one of the other arsenals. From what I understand, these are slightly rarer. I haven't seen too many of these floating around, and I used to own one (I sold it, made in the same year actually). Looks like it's in excellent shape.

Nice Revolver and welcome to the club!

 

[Bacek]

It's Izevsk. During the War, many of Russian Arsenals were moved to Ural Mount. Area, where most of the military productions took place. Nice piece, Arkie.
The cheapest "official" ammo I found was Russian sport loads at SOG ~15 bucks for a box of 40.

 

[Arkie]

Well that's pretty neat. I thought I had a plain ole one. LOL.

I'll have to order some ammo for it and see how well it does. I think it's a nice conversation piece and something to show off at the range.

Thanks guys!

 

[Harry Paget Flashman]

My Son-in-Law just transferred to Gulfport from the West Coast and is visiting. It gave me a chance to a little horse trading and I got back a Nagant I'd given him several years ago.

I have now a 1924 Tula.

It has the older dark walnut grips and a "slash-in-box" stamp indicating a post WWII rebuild. I am happy to have this gun back.

I traded him a Ruger Model 77 in .308 with a 3X9 Bushnell scope for it and an Egyptian Hakim.

 

[eastwood44mag]

Guilty as charged.

It reminds me of me: Short, heavy, kinda ugly, under-appreciated, and stinking of gunpowder. We make for a perfect pair.

 

[gbelleh]

1944 Nagant here.

 

[nwilliams]

Can I join!

Here's my Tula 1940 Nagant Pistol and my Tula 1936 Hex Mosin Nagant 91/30 ex-sniper in the background.

 

[RON in PA]

1906
1919
1932
1943
1944

The first four are from Tula and the last is an Izzie.

If only they could talk, especially the 3 oldest.

 

[Apple a Day]

1913 and I managed to find a .32 ACP cylinder a few years ago. Once in a while the conversion cylinder doesn't index forward but what the heck, it's a fun gun for me, not a CCW... that's what Makarovs are for!

 

[jimmy]

There are some very nice Nagants shown in these pics.

Somehow I've become a collector of Nagants. My oldest one is from 1900 and youngest from 1945. To me, they fall into the "they're so ugly, they're beautiful" category. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and my wife--usually somewhat appreciative of the guns I bring home--took one look at my first Nagant and said with a note of distaste, "What is THAT!"

 

[Cosmoline]

You have to admire a sidearm that survived so long after being completely out of date. The vast power of the Stalinist state tried to phase them out several times, but couldn't.

 

[tinygnat219]

Harry Paget Flashman,

NICE horse swap. I wouldn't mind one of those, or a Belgian one.

 

[tinygnat219]

nwilliams,

You more than qualify.

 

[RON in PA]

Got a chance to shoot my 1932 last night at 7 yards and thought I'd post some scans of my targets, 9' paper plates, to show what the old war horse is capable of for those that doubt the Nagant. Compared the yellow box target rounds with the new Hot Shot ammo from Serbia. The latter is very well made and in both Nagants I've shot it in extraction is usually accomplished by just turning the muzzle up, you don't need to use the under barrel extractor. It is also has noticeably more oomph than the yellow box target ammo. Really need to chronograph it.

 

[MrTwigg]

Cosmoline and RonJon, Thanks for sharing the info on cylinders. View attachment 304661

I've got two (for now )
A 1936 Target and an 1940 Officers, both from Tula.
View attachment 304662

Both of the .32ACP cylinders are finicky in the '36 bit they both work in the '40. Hmpf.

 

[tinygnat219]

Very nice. I use a set of these for a backup brace of Cowboy Action Pistols. Anyone else do the same?

 

[Janos Dracwlya]

Tinygnat,

My wife has been wanting to get into CAS for several years, but my Ruger Vaqueros do not suit her. She wants something she can afford herself, and has her eye on a pair, which we will convert to single action.

I want to get one, too, and would have no problem with one (or two) as backup cowboy guns.

 

[tinygnat219]

Janos,

These are neat guns, but don't expect to win with them. They are great for the conversation and style points though and excellent for the roleplaying aspect. My next Cowboy match will have me with the Nagant on my hip in an open top holster, with my Ruger Super Blackhawk Bisley Hunter in .44 Magnum on the other in a crossdraw holster. I need to find those instructions for converting the DA to a SA. It took less than 5 minutes to do.

 

[Harry Paget Flashman]

tinygnat.

The Hakim was one of the guns I'd given him as a wedding present. I really missed that rifle. He'd only shot it once or twice so I got back ~400 rounds of Egyptian and Equadorian ammo, a 10 round mag and an after-market 20 round mag. Nothing is more of an attention getter than a Hakim blasting 20 rounds of 8mm downrange except maybe a CZ 52 slam-firing.

I just got another 10 round mag from Numrich for $59, shipped.