"New" Antique 1970 Mosin-Nagant

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Cosmoline

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Well I finally scored the 1970 M-39 I'd been looking for. I found it at WGA for $325. That's on the high side for M-39's, but man was this thing worth it. It's a legal antique, with a receiver dating to 1897, but you would never know that looking at it. It's the first Mosin-Nagant I've ever seen that's really 100% in all respects. The stock is perfect, the bore mint and the blue mirror deep. It has a light layer of cosmoline on it now but I'll take some photos once I get that scrubbed off. If it shoots anything like it looks, $325 will be an incredible bargain. I'm going to put my Darrel scout mount and scope rig on it. This is one of the very last of the truly great war rifles of the 20th century.

Remind me, why do people buy Remchesters again?
 
Wow, that is one sweet sounding rifle. Looking foreward to the pics. As for the reason people by Remchesters--they think that a sport rifle is a better deal? I dunno, really. Milsurps get the job done for a lot less--and look a lot better :) .
 
The M39 has to be one of the finest C&R rifles you can get. The improvements the Finns made on the Russian design are great.

Here's my VKT:

finn_m39_vkt_66543t.jpg

I'd buy more, but I got caught up buying Garands.
 
It really says something that a military with full access to an array of east and west block assault rifles and submachine guns still found it worthwhile to build new M-39's in 1970. And given the proximity of the USSR, the SA was no play time "national service" military force. They had to have known that there was a fair chance their soldiers would have to use these rifles, esp. after Prague in 1968. Indeed, one story is they revived producion of the M-39 specifically in reaction to the invasion of Czechoslovakia , though I don't know if that's true or not.
 
Really? Where did you hear that? I know Izhevsk and Tula are still around and kicking, so I suppose they could get the old machining diagrams and tools out of the basement.
 
I have been told the Mosin has begun production again in Russia....
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That would be sweet, but would they still be $80 for a 91/30? :p Or, what if they make improvements on the design (how that's possible, I'm not sure, but I'm open to it :) ). Keep us posted on that.
 
They'd be competing with the 30+ million other Mosin Nagants made over the past century. Frankly I would think they'd find it more worthwhile to produce new Garands and M-1 Carbines at half the cost of the US ones. I'd buy a IZHMASH Garand!
 
I have three antiques I got from WGA. They're great, I'd have more but the $50.00 shipping to Hawaii is brutal. :)
 
The bad news is that beautiful stock is full of cosmoline. Frankly this is the first Finn I've run into where they put cosmo on the stock wood in addition to the metal, and since the wood was raw it soaked right in. In fact I suspect it wasn't the Finns who did it but the importer. Looks like I'll be spending a lot of long days with the blow dryer and rags. The good news is the tiger striping and patterns are amazingly deep, and in about a month when it's finally cleaned up it should be second to none.

In the mean time I've popped the rifle over to my sporter stock and will be taking it to the range this weekend for some iron sights shooting before I install my Darrell mount on it. The action is tight, just like a brand new rifle.
 
I'd buy a IZHMASH Garand!
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So would I :) . A Garand's a Garand, and if they can be had for cheaper than SA is selling them ( :what: prices), I'm all for it :D . Sorry to hear about your Cosmoline problem (but, hey, that is your namesake ;) ). Can't wait to see what that stock looks like with the Cosmo gone.
 
This stock is just too beautiful to take in the field, anyway. I've decided to leave it at home for September hunting and just use my sporter stock with some sling modifications.
 
Some pics. It's only half finished but I noticed there's still some cosmoline in the wood, so I'm wrapping it up with three BLO coats and a wax seal. When it warms up again next year I'm going to try the kitty litter & garbage bag method to drain any remaining cosmolinification.

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[safety nazi] You're pointing the rifle at your chest with the bolt closed. Obviously you don't know what you are doing with such a fine weapon. I'll pay the shipping to give it a proper home. [/safety nazi]

:neener: :evil:

Very nice, I wish my Finn looked like that. Of course it was only 1/3 the price of yours so......
 
The Finn who formerly owned it shimmed the receiver/stock contact points with little aluminum shims, so they really wanted to make it into a tack driver. In my first test shooting the results were surprising. It grouped a rough 2" at fifty meters with the Wolf 200 grain that my previous M-39 loved, but shot one ragged hole with the FMJ Winchester that the old M-39 hated. Go figure. Actually I'm beginning to believe that the late-model M-39's have tighter internal dimensions and possibly a slightly tighter bore than the .310" Continuation War M-39's. My last 1968 M-39 did very well with S&B and Winchester but not too well with Wolf and Albanian. With Winchester FMJ I was almost able to draw a smiley face with iron sights at fifty meters--just one bullet shy. This would fit into the accepted theory that the late model M-39's were designed as officer training/match rifles with the idea that they could be used as reserve snipers if the Ruskies invaded Finland as they had just invaded Czechosovakia.

I'll be mounting the scope soon, though this time I'm going to dig around the box o' parts and use low rings. The standard height rings are perfect for the boyds sporter stock, but too high for the military stock.
 
You can really see the remaining cosmoline in those shots around the grip and the forward half of the stock. THe removal process was just too rough on the wood so I'm going to let it come out naturally with use. I can't wait to see what's under the dark spots.
 
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