My new M1891/30 Mosin Nagant PU sniper

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(This might run a little long, bear with me) Right after moving out of the dorms in college, I purchased the first firearm I have ever personally owned. I grew up around firearms and had firearms my Dad let me use, but nothing that I have ever purchased on my own. I was living in Ypsilanti and wanted a firearm. The short time I gave money to the local university to live in their supplied housing was the longest I had been without a firearm. I went to the local Dunhams and bought an M1891/30 Mosin Nagant for $59. It was an Imperial rifle dated 1903. It was a mix master with no matching numbers. I also picked up 200 rounds of mystery ammo wrapped up in plain boxes. I took my “new” rifle to my grandfather’s house with my future brother-in-law and started shooting. We got it so hot, that it started oozing cosmoline and you could see the heat rising off the barrel. We had a blast with it. After shooting it that day, I didn’t take it out for another few years. I didn’t clean it. After a few years, I peered down the barrel and noticed rust. It was so bad in fact that it had formed ‘rusticles’. This was my first experience with corrosive ammunition. The barrel was ruined. I tore the rifle down and took a Sawsall to the receiver and trashed it. I gave the parts to my uncle who has a large number of the rifles. I still regret that.
Fast forward to today. I have wanted a Mosin since I trashed the rifle I had. I specifically wanted an M91/30 because I personally don’t like the carbine length Mosin rifles. I decided to take the plunge and purchase not only an M91, but an M91/30 PU. The brown truck just dropped it off yesterday. I am VERY happy with this rifle so far. I haven’t taken it to the range. What I got is a 1943 Izhmash arsenal PU. These were rearsenaled at some point in their lives. The rifle has the correct mount, scope, bolt, stock (?) and butt plate. The magazine plate is a forced match. The barrel is bright and clean and so are the optics. I used the bullet test (I don’t have a set of 7.62 x 54r muzzle or throat gauges) and it seems to be very nice. I did take my .308 muzzle gauge just to see what it would read and it was a 2 on a standard .30 cal. muzzle gauge.
I am very excited to get this thing to the range.

 

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One more picture

One more picture

 

[WardenWolf]

Very nice. Congrats on a gem!

 

[stubbicatt]

I hope your rifle give you years of joy and accurate shooting.

I bought a faux PU sniper a few years back, and it never did perform the way I thought it should, after considerable investment in gunsmith time to get the scope base properly centered up... the gunsmith brazed up the pads on the lateral feet and ground them slowly to where the reticle lined up with the bore pretty much centered in the tube.

Perhaps I should have gone an extra little distance and glassed in the action, but I didn't.

I hope yours satisfies you. They are neat rifles.

 

[Loosenock]

Great choice! Your going to love it!. They're a real hoot to shoot. The Mosin snipers can be a hobby all into themselves. Learning history, different scopes, how they're set up and ringing out the accuracy.

'loose

 

[ol' scratch]

Thank you all. This is one of the AIM rifles and from what I can tell an actual sniper with the correct stock and above mentioned matching parts. Stubbi, I am sorry you had trouble with your rifle. The reason I became a member of this forum was because of a rifle giving me fits. I feel your pain. AIM still had over 100 of these the last time I checked. I did research this before I ordered it. A known Mosin guru (someone on the CMP forum called him the Scott Duff of Mosin rifles) gave his seal of approval on these. Given the condition of mine, I tend to agree. As soon as I can find what I need, I will work up some loads for this rifle. I have wanted to go to Perry and shoot the sniper matches. I am looking into that.

 

[stubbicatt]

Ol Scratch, it promises to be a good time!

If the sniper matches allow handloaded ammunition, you might consider a custom resizing die. I have found that brass fired in these chambers tends to lengthen considerably. Since they headspace on the rim, the length to the shoulder is not so critical. If you resize your cases in a standard die, you will set the shoulder back excessively for the same chamber in which they were originally fired.

C&H Tool and Die offer this service. You send them 3 or 4 cases fired in your rifle and they make a die which will resize your brass perfectly for your rifle.

Often I wish I had proceeded to buy one of these dies, not terribly expensive at $69 at the time. I don't know what they are now.

You will learn far more than I ever did, but the scopes are focused at infinity, and parallax can be a problem. A little trick I learned or read somewhere, I no longer remember where, is that you can see the front sight post when looking thru the scope. The trick is to center up your vertical post in the scope with the front sight post to eliminate horizontal shot spread. Once I figured this out my shots started grouping, but never so well as I would have liked.

I guess floating the barrel in the barrel channel, or perhaps corking the barrel at the front barrel band, and then glass bedding the receiver would have been beneficial, but like I said, I gave up. Today I wish I hadn't given up.