My M38 carbine originally shot 6-8" 5/round groups at 100yds, and after tightening the action screws, the groups improved to 3". Aside from that, really the only other thing that I can think of which would so negatively impact accuracy, is a buggered crown. Or.... it could very well just be a stinker; the barrel had been milled so poorly that the rounds rattle their way down the bore, or something along the lines of what Ash suggested.
AmishFury made a good suggestion; if after all attempts to fix your rifle's accuracy problems have failed, sell it to a collectore & buy another.... preferrably a Finnish M39.
Those are well known amongst Mosin Nagant collectors for being nicely accurate. Finnish MNs are a little scarcer and more expensive than the average war-time Izhvesk M44 or refurbished pre-war Tula M91/30, but they're well worth it.
As for bayonets, my M91/30's POI from POA is spot-on at 100yds without the bayonet fixed, yet I've seen MNs that throw rounds up to 6" off POA without their bayonets fixed. And evidently removing an M44's folding bayonet entirely can throw off the POI.
Before really working the M91/30 out at my range, and after hearing about MNs being sighted-in at the factory with bayonet, I bought an M38 to bypass that idiosyncrasy (partially). It just so happened that my Tula M91/30 doesn't suffer from that quirk, and my Mosinitis hit full stride
.
rangerruck said:
Also check out the
Mosin Nagant HQ Forum over at Gunboards.com.
cracked butt said:
A mosin isn't going to shoot like a Garand or 03. A lot of the mosins were made with very poor quality to start with and use with corrosive ammo hasn't made them any better. They are being sold as 'like new rearsenalled condition' which means the bore can vary from new to a completely crapped out sewer pipe that has been placed in a newly finished pretty stock. 10" at 40 yards is the best some of these rifles will do ( I have one that shoots worse).
Au contraire..... The vast majority of pre-war Mosin Nagants that I've seen have been of outstanding fit-&-finish, especially those from Tula Arsenal. A great many MNs on the surplus market weren't even fired in anger, and have been warehouse denizens since the Great Patriotic War, while many of those that have seen action didn't have a chance to digest much corrosive ammunition. The Soviets generally weren't as hard on their rifles as many believe either; after a fight or training they'd remove the barreled-actions from their stocks, and throw everything into a tub full of hot/boiling water. Communist soldiers were well aware of the corrosive ammunition they used.
When Mosin Nagants reached the refurbishing depots/arsenals as part of the Soviet make-work programs, the ones which were rotted-out sewer-pipes didn't end up in a pretty stock; they instead ended up donating their bolts & receivers to new M44s, or to help out rifles with otherwise good bores. The Soviets were cheap, but they weren't so cheap as to reissue unservicable rifles in the event of another big war.
Of the Russian Mosin Nagants made at Tula, Izvhesk, and Sestroryetsk, those manufactured at Tula Arsenal are considered by many collectors as being the best made (even during war-years), with very well-executed & clean milling done by skilled workers.
And as for accuracy, the M91 & M91/30 have great potential, even with plain iron sights. Especially the Finnish M39 & M28/30, or the pre-war Russian M91 & M91/30s with their higher-quality manufacture and long sight-radius. Take an M91/30 in excellent shape, add on a good quality PU or PEM scope w/ a solid mount, and there's a rifle which can make a good hit out past 800yds.
The M91/30 in this
video isn't even a Finnish MN or high-quality Tula fitted with a modern scope, but rather a round-receiver 1942 Izvhesk fitted with a 4x PU scope.
The best I've gotten with my own '34 Tula M91/30 with iron-sights was a bench-test I did in January of this year; IIRC air-temp was between 25-30deg farenheit at 8000ft, with little-to-no wind (very uncommon at this particular range!). I was using Bulgarian steel-core light-ball ('86 vintage), which provided 2" to 2-3/8", 5rd best groups on a 25/300m zero target which I had to use since my range's berm is at 100yds. Prone unsupported net me a 3-2/3" best on the 25/300m target. Posting my sighting targets at the 100yd berm, from the prone unsupported my best group measured in at an even 2-1/2".
