Mosin nagant questions

[abaddon]

Two questions

1) how much play between the stock and receiver is acceptable? The m91/30 I'm looking at has some Play. When I try to pull the barrel away from the stock it moves maybe a millimeter.

2) the date says 1939 but it's a round receiver. Weren't all round receivers made during/after the war?

I'm intending this to be a deer/elk rifle. Accuracy matters more to me than historicity (although the history's cool too).

Thanks

 

[Cal-gun Fan]

Play in the stock can be fixed by bedding or a new stock, so don't worry about that. If the barrel is good and the bolt is smooth, not much pitting I would get it if you are interested.

7.62x54r is a great deer round IMO and could probably work well for elk too.

 

[Cosmoline]

There shouldn't be any play at all. But often it's just because the action screws aren't tight.

Round receivers were made from the 30's on. 1936 was about the final end of the hex receivers.

The 180 sp's should be fine for deer or elk.

 

[Iramo94]

Question number 2: Short answer is no.

Long answer is...
Tula stopped manufacturing of the hexes in 1936, and Izhevsk stopped in 1935. After that they started the "low-wall" round receivers, followed by uncut "high-wall" receivers. It is perfectly acceptable to see a round 1939. The thing that you were thinking of about the war time guns is that they are much worse as far as fit and finish. Really, that is to be expected...a million firing guns that look bad is better than 500 thousand perfect guns.

 

[mongo4567]

I assume that you mean the barrel moves a little at the front of the stock near the muzzle, if so that is perfectly normal. The 91/30 has a pretty long, flexible barrel and stock...more so than a lot of other rifles. I would really focus on how the muzzle looks and how the rifling looks at the muzzle end.

 

[jojo200517]

Everyone else has pretty much nailed it I just wanted to add that 203gr silver bear soft point packs an awesome punch and from what I have seen expands pretty good. I'm not sure how hard elk is to kill but I have always been told that the 7.62x54r is somewhere around the equivalent power of a .30-06 (sits back and waits on someone to tell me i'm wrong here)

 

[AethelstanAegen]

2) the date says 1939 but it's a round receiver. Weren't all round receivers made during/after the war?

Technically 1939 is during a war (at least late 1939) with the Soviet Union jointly invading Poland with Germany and then invading Finland for the disasterous (for the Soviets) Winter War. As others have mentioned, wartime doesn't really have much to do with the change from hex to round receiver as those changes were mostly complete by 1936.

 

[abaddon]

Thanks for the replies folks. It's helpful.

Btw the front sight is missing from this rifle. Since it'll take roughly $20 with S&H to get a new one I talked them down that amount on the price. So it'll be $100 instead of $120. And I don't foresee any problem with just drifting in another sight.

Sound like an okay deal?

 

[Cosmoline]

Is the dovetail for the front sight still there, or has the barrel been cut?

I was assuming you were finding loose back-and-forth, front-to-back fit at the receiver. That's not good, but may just be loose receiver screws. Shims can fix it too.

 

[Roan]

$100 missing the front sight is a bit high, but not exessively so. It's still common to find more complete examples of the 91/30 for that price, or lower. That said, if this is a local gunshop you wish to support, it's probably worth it.

 

[klutchless]

Nice price and half the work into mounting a scope on it is already done .That front sight is a no holds barred nightmare to remove on some guns.

 

[AethelstanAegen]

$100 missing the front sight is a bit high, but not exessively so. It's still common to find more complete examples of the 91/30 for that price, or lower.

+1. You could probably find one in good shape online and even with a transfer fee/shipping (depending on what the fee is in your area) and come out ahead or very likely break even without any hassles of installing a front sight. I sounds like you may be dealing with a rifle that someone fiddled with, which always makes me a bit nervous. As Roan said though, it's not completely out of the ball park and I would probably look into other sources but YMMV. Anyways, I'm sure you'll enjoy whichever Mosin you end up with...they're a lot of fun.

 

[Dentite]

There's enough of these out there that I wouldn't buy one with a missing front sight unless it was $50 or so. I bought a nice hex for $90 last year.

 

[courtgreene]

use the money you would have used to replace the front sight (add to it, but low end has worked for me) and buy an IER scope, then take off the rear sight, add some .22 rings, and you're much more capable of accuracy. Just getting a new sight generally puts you way high at 100 yards, and the only way to remedy it with irons is to get YET ANOTHER front sight with a higher post, or modify your front sight, and that's no fun at all. Additionally, you are going to have to be out there at a range with a rubber mallet and brass punch trying to figure out how to get this thing lined up for windage because that's a front sight adjustment. I say save the time, keep the front sight off, and throw a scope on your rear sight mount. Caution, taking off the rear sight isn't as hard as the front sight but it's not exactly a picnic.

 

[vellocet]

Hundred bucks for no front sight is excessive. The guy at the BOX O TRUTH site has an excellent section on bedding and corking long mosins for cheap. You have to wonder what knocked the sight off. Courtgreene has a good idea.

 

[abaddon]

Thanks for the posts. I think I'm going to pass for now. It sounds like the front sight is more of a problem than I had originally thought. Especially since I just spoke to them and they had reneged on the $100.

I'll keep looking.

Btw I want to start out with just iron sights. May add a scope later, but I'm more familiar with iron sights - I'll have to learn some of the different options for scopes and mounts later.

 

[Cal-gun Fan]

Good choice to be honest if the sight post is gone. Mosin's are common enough that you can find a nicer one easily.

Check classicarms.com, they have great deals!

 

[mgkdrgn]

Two questions

1) how much play between the stock and receiver is acceptable? The m91/30 I'm looking at has some Play. When I try to pull the barrel away from the stock it moves maybe a millimeter.

2) the date says 1939 but it's a round receiver. Weren't all round receivers made during/after the war?

I'm intending this to be a deer/elk rifle. Accuracy matters more to me than historicity (although the history's cool too).

Thanks

The transition between the HEX and round receivers happened in the Mid 30's. The "rough as a cob" round receivers come from the war years ... 41 - 45. Between 1936 and then the Mosin =was- a round receiver, but they were not in the great hurry to produce them as they were during the war. I call these "pre-war rounds", and they are much superior in fit and finish to the war time rounds.

You got lucky.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

When I bought a Mosin-Nagant, the action screws needed tightening. I think it was a good thing I knew to check that before firing. It might not have been dangerous, but it would affect accuracy.

I know they are called hex receivers but they are octagon.

 

[MyGreenGuns]

Assuming its original stock:

That weapon should also have 2 barrel bands on the forward part of the stock. If they are missing I could imagine it peeling away from each other.
+1 to checking reciever screws.

 

[ball3006]

If it was a Finn rifle I would pay 100 bucks for it but a regular MN, nope....chris3

 

[abaddon]

Where are the action screws?

 

[Cosmoline]

Under the receiver. One comes up from under the front lug, the other goes down under the back of the bolt. You have to remove the bolt to remove it.