Just came back from shooting range. This was my favourite type of a day: Plenty of ammo and all kind of interesting weapons free of charge. And the cherry on the top of icing: I didn’t need to clean them up myself!
I’m a volunteer weapon instructor in a reservist-training organisation that could be in some way compared with National Guard. Anyway, today there was infantry weapon training day where I was asked to participate as an assistant instructor. I was supervising the shooting, assisting and instructing our guests, kept records and all duties that you can imagine can include in event like that.
The bonus was that when our guests left, it was our duty to get rid of all ammo that was left. And believe me, it was plenty.
Anyway, I grabbed my favourite weapon, the TAK-85 sniper rifle (the ultimate Mosin-Nagant) and a bagful of ammo boxes and headed to 300m rifle range with couple of mates with similar itch. You get the point? Now my right shoulder is a bit blueish...
The 7,62x54R will live long in this country as we have a bit sentimental relation with this calibre and Mosin-Nagant rifles. The army is selling M-39 rifles for reservists for 200€ each and these are not any battle-beaten worn-out warhorses but mint condition relics from the history. They are very popular and cherished up here. Part of national heritage.
This calibre will not fade away in here for a very long time.