Should I buy a mosin?

[JSH1]

I got the Mosin bug and bought one about a year ago. It was fun to clean up and get ready to shoot. It is an interesting piece of history. Then I went the range and found out it shoots 5 inch groups at 25 yards off a bench. Now it sits on the gun rack.

I probably got a lemon but I'm not going to roll the dice again.

 

[nhcruffler]

RD, I would say that it really depends on where you want to go with this. I have a small collection of mil surps and most were bought for under $100. I have modified a few and even built a few custom mausers. Are you just trying to fill the SHTF locker or are you really into mil surps and want to try some home gun smithing. I am not rich and only have a modest collection. Last Thanksgiving I bought a Savage Axis II XP in 30-06 . I paid $309 OTD And got a $50.00 rebait that brought the total price down to $259.00. $259.00 for a brand new American made rifle w/ composite stock and the Savage Acutrigger, which is just as good as a Timmney. AND… it came with a Weaver Kaspa 3-9x40 scope mounted and bore sighted ( at least they tried to bore sight it ). That scope has a SRP of $150 but can be had for $100.00. This rifle only weighs 6.5 lbs and is the most accurate rifle I own.
If I was a young guy just starting out , living in an apartment, working my way up the ladder I know what rifle I would buy. Good luck with your decision, either way you can't go wrong buying a rifle

 

[rduchateau2954]

You make a good point. I do like, and have liked the 54 round for a while. Thought about buying one for a range toy but never did. When I was more gullible and thought I had a spot hunting big buck farmland I went and bought a tikka t3 lite stainless topped with a Nikon bdc scope. Spend a bunch on ammo finding the perfect round. Super lite, super accurate, 3lb adjustable trigger etc etc etc.

Fell through, and i sold it. Now I only have the SKS. Two things I've learned over the years with my guns. I don't want anything to do with polymer anymore, and I'm a sucker for shiny wood.

My thought behind a mosin was to get a toy. Put some pretty wood on it, try my hand at refinishing the old stock, glass bedding, barrel cutting and recrowning, swap some parts and just have fun with it.

My tikka was perfect, I didn't dare mess with it.

I did look at the savages, and that is a thought too. I would ditch the synthetic and go laminate. Works out to be about the same $$ either way.

If another hunting opportunity comes along I'll be ready.

 

[rduchateau2954]

I'm not jumping at anything. Cruising armslist, Facebook trade groups and forum classifieds for something that catches my eye. Not being so serious about a bolt gun is making the whole process so much more enjoyable.

 

[Swing]

THERE IS NO SAVINGS

^ This. If the goal is to have a bolt-action rifle with better range than your SKS, Bubba'ing a Mosin will accomplish that. However, after all the parts and time, you're at or over budget bolt guns and quality used rifles already on the market.

i hate mosins

^ I don't know I'd go that far because there are very few guns that I truly hate, but I am not a fan of the Mosin. Beyond butt ugly, rough action, and some examples are really ratty. The only saving grace is the very low cost of admission. I had a M44 in the 90s and found it to be a nearly worthless POS. I was tempted on more than one occasion to pickup a 91/30, but I couldn't justify wasting the gun safe space nor adding another caliber to the mix. YMMV.

 

[rduchateau2954]

^ This. If the goal is to have a bolt-action rifle with better range than your SKS, Bubba'ing a Mosin will accomplish that. However, after all the parts and time, you're at or over budget bolt guns and quality used rifles already on the market.



^ I don't know I'd go that far because there are very few guns that I truly hate, but I am not a fan of the Mosin. Beyond butt ugly, rough action, and some examples are really ratty. The only saving grace is the very low cost of admission. I had a M44 in the 90s and found it to be a nearly worthless POS. I was tempted on more than one occasion to pickup a 91/30, but I couldn't justify wasting the gun safe space nor adding another caliber to the mix. YMMV.

That's the thing, mosin bubba'd, savage, used whatever, just about everything is gonna run $400-$500 when all is said and done.

It's just a matter of preference. That's the point I'm trying to make. I'm not out to build some budget sniper rifle and play kill the nazis here.

The thought was to take a cheap rifle and make it better myself. Mosins are proven to be pretty accurate with a little TLC, some bedding, and handloads.

I get a decently accurate rifle and I learn more about working on firearms. Until I cut and recrown the barrel, which will be the very last thing I do (if at all), everything can be un-bubba'd.

 

[HankC]

Put some pretty wood on it, try my hand at refinishing the old stock, glass bedding, barrel cutting and recrowning, swap some parts and just have fun with it.

Many Mosins have dark bores, counterbored muzzles and not shoot well at all. May not worth to put all the work into it. You may wish to buy a few, keep the best and sell the rest. In a few years, x54 surplus may dry up and cheap ammo would not be available.

 

[rduchateau2954]

Many Mosins have dark bores, counterbored muzzles and not shoot well at all. May not worth to put all the work into it. You may wish to buy a few, keep the best and sell the rest. In a few years, x54 surplus may dry up and cheap ammo would not be available.

What is dark bore?

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

This is a question I also have. I own 6 Mosins, 5 91/30's and a 44. They date from 1932 to 1944 and none of them had any corrosion or rust in the bores or action. I did hand pick them from the rack at the store but I don't recall any of the ones I looked at as having a corroded chamber or barrel. They did have a lot of cosmoline!!! I also have a couple of Mausers, 3 SKS's, a Russian AK 47, as well as a bunch of 1903's, 4 M-1's, and an 1898 Springfield all of which have clean chambers and bores. How could this be if the "corrosive" primers are as bad as most here seem to believe? Frankly, I am convinced that if even a basic swab is completed before you store the weapon and you are NOT in an extremely humid area the corrosiveness factor is vastly overblown or clean bored 100 year old rifles would not be available. Much time is spent expounding upon the need to clean rifles firing corrosive primed ammo with water but I mostly used WD-40 for my first swab followed by dry patches and then CLP. If the residue is removed from the chamber and bore there is no need to worry about whether it is "neutralized" using water.

You may not agree but I really would like an explanation of how many old war horses are available with clean bores "if" the corrosive factor is so strong in the old ammunition. I don't think the American, German, Russian, or Japanese soldiers were overly worried about instant cleaning in the middle of a month of battle. An old friend of mine who was a Marine medic on Guadalcanal told me that he probably went through a dozen rifles in the first two weeks as he would drop the rifle he was carrying when his services were needed and just pick up one of the multitude of rifles that were laying around the foxholes where he was working. He also told me a story about shooting a wild chicken of some sort around evening and causing a minor firefight without any visible enemy present......

 

[aarondhgraham]

There is really only one answer,,,

There is really only one answer.

If you want the gun,,,
Then buy the gun.

We all overthink these things.

Aarond

.

 

[788Ham]

My understanding, from talking to an outfitter at Cabela's, Mosin's are going to be banned, the thing ongoing with Iran. Powers that be are going to ban them outright. The outfitter said all they had are now gone!

 

[Savage99]

Good for those brave peasants who fought the nazi.

This is picture is enough for me tonight.

 

[docsleepy]

I have to chuckle a bit when I read about all these horrible groups out of Mosin-Nagant's. I was out shooting to 800 yards with one of my near stock Mosins a couple weeks back.

You really don't have to spend all the money in the world to have a lot of fun.

Using a Lee case trimmer and a 7 mm pilot, (what, $15??) and some McDonald's plastic straws cut up to make the shim fit the bore so it would crown square to the bore, I re-crowned that mosin.

Reload using Norma brass, the 174 grain Hornaday .3105 has an excellent ballistic coefficient. Hunting I use the sierra 150 grain .311. Varget 42 to 44 grains for low power with the sierra bullet, I pushed the Hornady with H4895, 44 grains for long distance (that's a bit hot for me well within the published specs on the Hodgdon website)

If you know how to use the Hornady tool, you can easily find the ones in the store that don't have shot out throats.

I'm still using those dag gum cheap $50 NCStar pistol scopes, mounted where the rear site dovetail, bed them with a bit of JB Weld on the dovetail.

You really don't have to spend much more than about $170 a year ago or $200 right now, to have a bunch of fun. There's a wild hog in one of my freezers that experienced this.

My dirt cheap Mosin is good to about 600 yards on my 22" ar500 target; 800 was iffy. Probably good to 300 for real hunting.

 

[docsleepy]

Simo did OK with a Mosin.....

 

[rduchateau2954]

I have to chuckle a bit when I read about all these horrible groups out of Mosin-Nagant's. I was out shooting to 800 yards with one of my near stock Mosins a couple weeks back.

You really don't have to spend all the money in the world to have a lot of fun.

Using a Lee case trimmer and a 7 mm pilot, (what, $15??) and some McDonald's plastic straws cut up to make the shim fit the bore so it would crown square to the bore, I re-crowned that mosin.

Reload using Norma brass, the 174 grain Hornaday .3105 has an excellent ballistic coefficient. Hunting I use the sierra 150 grain .311. Varget 42 to 44 grains for low power with the sierra bullet, I pushed the Hornady with H4895, 44 grains for long distance (that's a bit hot for me well within the published specs on the Hodgdon website)

If you know how to use the Hornady tool, you can easily find the ones in the store that don't have shot out throats.

I'm still using those dag gum cheap $50 NCStar pistol scopes, mounted where the rear site dovetail, bed them with a bit of JB Weld on the dovetail.

You really don't have to spend much more than about $170 a year ago or $200 right now, to have a bunch of fun. There's a wild hog in one of my freezers that experienced this.

My dirt cheap Mosin is good to about 600 yards on my 22" ar500 target; 800 was iffy. Probably good to 300 for real hunting.

Can you explain more on checking out the guns in stores?

 

[Shadow 7D]

Right, however, with surplus ammo and average used MN, don't expect MOA
you are looking more, some ALOT more
where an out of the box rifle, that you customize, is WORTH MORE
MORE accurate etc.

Rebarrel a MN, and that's an expensive proposition, keep the barrel...
and if you are reloading, there's no savings in ammo, but a bit of a pain, as you are now into 7.7jap/.303 brit range, no surplus bullets, no bulks, like .308

That's my point, have something to shoot, fine,
have a precision rifle, the point, is, a custom built on a modern action is a 'custom rifle'
one built on a MN is a 'bubba rifle'
resale isn't there, if you are going to do this, realize it's alot of work and no maybe no return.

 

[Jlr2267]

Yes, you should get one. For what you want to do, a MN is a good choice. If you screw up your project, you're not out too much. Personally, I enjoy them for what they are, without modification.

 

[docsleepy]

http://www.hornady.com/assets/files/manuals-current/metalic-reloading/LNL-OAL-Gauges.pdf

You can cut off eroded end of barrel & recrown a muzzle, but you can't Easily fix a shot out, eroded throat. You can glue a .308 bullet projectile to the end of this rod, and then measure how far into the chamber it will go in prospective rifles after cleaning the chamber a bit.

When I did it, I didn't want to have a bullet get stuck in a throat in the store, so I soldered a rod or wired to the base of a 308 bullet, and used that inside this tool instead of the plastic pusher. That allowed me to pull the bullet back out of the throat on each measurement. Simply mark the pusher with a sharpie for typical length, and buy the gun that has the shortest throat, it is the least eroded.

A store on the east coast of Florida was kind enough to let me set up my little toolset and measure a slew of their rifles right there in the middle of the store. A small crowd gathered, and several rifles were sold right on the spot as I pointed out good ones to prospective buyers.

Most of my most Mosins slug to .311 but you can use a .308 bullet to make sure things don't get stuck in the store. Take latex gloves to protect your hands some cleaning implements, and paper towels or rags to get the cosmoline off your hands, the store I purchased from they were still quite gunky.

 

[docsleepy]

Reloading for a mosin is very similar in price to reloading for any other rifle. Norma makes the brass. I usually use a bit lighter load to make my brass last longer. There is good quality commercial ammunition available, at reasonable prices from privi partisan, but even that isn't cheap. Especially with the bolt action, you can reload with an extremely cheap classic lee loader if you have to.

I recommend setting the bullet somewhat long, depending on your chamber, to reduce peak pressure, and use 42 or 44 grains of Varget or another similar low
Modest load

If you pick a good mosin, and if you add any reasonable pistol scope to the dovetail under the rear side, you will have a 1.5 or maybe better MOA shooter pretty quickly, dirt cheap. When I bought mine, you could get them for $100-$125

 

[docsleepy]

There's nothing wrong with buying a nice accurate store-bought rifle, either. It's fun sometimes however to buy something with the intention of gaining some new Gunsmithing skills. I learned a lot once by buying a used Savage and rebarrelling, learning how to use headspace and tools. Also changed the head of the bolt for a different cartridge, later changed stock, turned it into a single shot, great experiences & it is a tack driver now.

 

[docsleepy]

You can also sleeve a mosin barrel and cut down to reduce whip effects & increase accuracy. Trade off is velocity.

http://www.riflebarrels.com/articles/barrel_making/rigidity_benchrest_rifles.htm

 

[Swampman]

Having fun is all well and good, but if you want to avoid a LOT of frustration, slug the bore of any new (to you) Mosin, preferably BEFORE you buy it.

I've personally dealt with MN bores that ranged from .308" to .316".