mosin nagnant info...

[George S.]

I just wanted to let you know that I ended up with a 91/30, it was made in 1938 at Tula. I payed 110, even though that was a little high, it was in good condition

A 38 Tula is a great find!! Tula's are prized among collectors. Way to go!!

200gr ammo was used in Russian machine guns. Some is available and it's typcally the ammo wrapped in paper and tied with twine. It will work but being heavier, it may hit low compared to the 147 grain stuff.

 

[Magnum88C]

One other thing I need yalls opinion on, I thought I read somewhere that 91/30s werent designed to shoot 200 grain 7.62x54r? I bought some wolf 200 grain and I was wondering if its ok to shoot this in my gun? Is there an ideal grain for this gun or am I reading too much into this?

The sights on all of the mosins were calibrated to shoot 148-gr FMJ rounds. The 148-gr FMJ, and 150-gr SP that Wolf puts out is as close to the military rounds available commercially. The Czech silvertip is surplus military ammo that is perfect for the Mosin. As another poster stated, it is dirty (and corrosive), but really all surplus commie ammo I've tried is.

The 174, 180, 184, etc Heavy ball is machinegun ammo, but is safe to shoot in Mosins. The Barnaul 203-gr SP ammo is commercial grade ammo that is just fine in Mosins, and from personal experience are very effective on game.

The heavier rounds do shoot HIGH. The easiest to shoot wil be the surplus 148-gr bullets and the commercial Wolf ammo in the same weight. The ehavier stuff is fine, but you'll have to learn where it shoots in regard to your point of aim.

 

[phantomak47]

should I have a gunsmith check the headspace and the bore? It looks good, but it is 67 years old.

 

[AlexI]

Regarding the 200 gr bullets: I tested some Brown Bear (edited, I realized it wasn't Wolf but they are listed with the same ballistics) 200 gr SP in my new Mosin 91/59 carbine just this last weekend. I sighted in with Polish silvertip surplus first (at 100 yards), then shot a 5 shot group with the Brown Bear. It landed in a nice 2 1/4" group about 8 - 9" below the point of aim! It took 6 clicks up on the Microclick Mojo sight to bring them up to POA.

BTW, does anybody here have any experience with the Polish silvertip? I bought a case of it more or less accidentally (tried to order Czech, but they were out of it and offered Polish instead). Turned out it has copperwashed steel (edited, on close inspection they are not brass) cases rather then lacquered steel like the Czech, which is very nice (no danger of gumming up the chamber). Accuracy seemed fine for surplus (hard to judge as I am just learning to shoot peep sights plus there were serious crosswinds that day, but my worst groups were around 4 1/2" and best ones well under 3"), and case extraction was easy (I was actually surprised how easy it was to work the bolt on this Mosin).

Alex.

 

[Cosmoline]

The earlier M-91 Mosins were sighted in for 210 grain RN FMJ. The first spitzer loading used a bullet in the 150 grain range. The Russian "D" loading from WWII was 182 grains. But to confuse matters the D-116 Finnish loading was a heavier 200 grains. In my experience, Russian WWII era Mosins do best with mid-range bullets, while later M-39's favor heavier ones. All of these are safe to shoot in functioning Mosins, however. The only ones unsafe to shoot are the high-pressure loadings used for aircraft machine guns, and these are rarely seen.