Thinking of purchasing a Mosin Nagant

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I paid 65 bucks for mine wish id bought a couple of em. My only complaint with the Russian 91/30 i have is i dont feel the magazine or feeding from the magazine is very well designed or reliable..... But it was made in 1938 or something i think im sure its been "used". Shot great till i cleaned it with a foul out system, the bore shines like new now but i think i got it to clean :( Round here the prices on them at the gunshows has gone nuts, 120 up to 180 dollars, seen a carbine some one even had on there table for 280 i think and two tables down my friend bought one for 60 bucks.
 
AH-1 (and others) beat me to it.

My MN 44, partly due to my lack of any gun training, made really large patterns at 50 yards, but my only ammo was the cheapest, oldest Bulgarian in the dusty gray cans. My terrible groups were with the bayonet extended.

You can have much better luck by trying Czech, Hungarian or other ammo.

Very knowledgeable, middle-aged buddies here always prefer the 38, 91/59, Polish 44s and actual Finns, if not the better Russian 91/30s.
The Polish 44s can sometimes be found in beautiful condition at gun shows.
'Gunandgame' has very enthusiastic guys who have valuable advice.
 
the finns are the best but now they are very expensive...they are not 100.00 anymore:(.the best shooting finn I have is a sako sky M28/30.

one the russians I look for a pre war 91/30 with a hex reciever.these were not rushed into production and shoot better.(imho)
when buy a MN I look for stamped matching numbers,cond of the bore,trigger then the crown.if all of these are good you should have a good shooting rifle.
 
I just recently bought one. SOG has the 91/30 for $77.00 right now, so when you have the bug to buy new rifle, its hard to turn it down when they are so cheap.

I've only taken it shooting once since I've had it, just getting used to it, and it is my 1st bolt rifle. I like it.
 
Mosin-Nagants aren't the best rifles in the world, but the price of ammo for them is so low that its almost foolish not to own one just for the sake of getting in trigger time with a full-sized .30 caliber cartridge for pennies a shot. You can blast away to your heart's content without worrying about the mortgage or the kid's milk money.
 
So if you could only have one, which is more important accuracy/performance wise on a 91/30? Having a Hex receiver, having all matching serial #s, or being an ex-sniper?
 
None of the above. The most important factor is the bore of the barrel. Some that look mint are too wide to shoot very accurately. You won't really be able to tell till you shoot it.
 
I've had almost a dozen Mosin's of the years. Not a fan of the M44's anymore, I don't like the bayonet. Wish I'd never sold my M38, was one of the best Mosin's I'd owned. THE best was a Polish M44 that I had, excellent quality and machining. Right now, the only Mosin I have left is a Chinese carbine, I think it's called the type 53, bought it for $40 at a pawn shop, someone had Bubba'd it up a little. So, it's practically worthless but shoots great, cost practically nothing, and has the best trigger of any Mosin I'd ever tried.
 
it's rugged and reliable action and if you use .311 inch bullets it will be much more accurate most likely. What most people don't know is the old mosins are 31 caliber rifles. The current ammo manufactured is .308 diameter for the newer machine guns and sniper rifles its fed to.
 
Go for it. I bought a 91/30 earlier this year and have nothing but good to say about it. You can read the first part of my review here, pardon the crappy pictures though. :)

http://jibenow.com/gentlemanadventurer/2010/07/03/i-have-this-old-gun-mosin-nagant-9130-pt-1/

I'm a big fan of both the rifle and the cartridge. I will say that after tweaking with the sights for a bit I am able to group about 3" groupings at 100 yards. Next on my list is the purchase of some Mojo peep sights, which I hope will help me further shrink that. The rifle is VERY consistent and I know it's capable of better.

My advice to you, regardless of the model you end up purchasing, would be to make sure that the bore is strong and not too pitted. If the bore is good, the rest of the rifle will probably be rock-solid.

I love Mosins more and more every day. They are solid, reliable rifles, and with proper sighting most of them are more than accurate enough for practical field use.

The biggest disadvantages are the quality of the open sights and the overall weight of the rifle. I think a pair of Mojo peeps and an aftermarket polymer stock (with a buttpad!) would probably solve these problems.
 
Lol!
Well, maybe eventually Ill get a Finnish one too.
Got news! My dad is a Lieutenant at the Police department, and the armorer there (who happens to be a dealer for historical rifles AND an expert with the Mosin!!!) is going to come over and show me some of the different models first hand!
 
it's rugged and reliable action and if you use .311 inch bullets it will be much more accurate most likely. What most people don't know is the old mosins are 31 caliber rifles. The current ammo manufactured is .308 diameter for the newer machine guns and sniper rifles its fed to.
Click to expand...

Not true....new Russian ammo production is .311 or .312 as per spec of the 7,62x54R caliber.

The only .308 ammo produced is by Lapua which in reality is a different cartridge....7.62x53R.

The Finnish Mosin nagants (M39 and others have .308 bores.
 
None of the above. The most important factor is the bore of the barrel. Some that look mint are too wide to shoot very accurately. You won't really be able to tell till you shoot it.
Click to expand...

That is an interesting aspect that I never understood completely.

It is true, there are Mosins with excellent bore conditions but with pathetically wide bores....why is that?? Poor quality control??


For example, my 1939 Tula (rifling almost like new) has a slightly wider bore than my other 2 Izhevsk (1938 and 1939 with perfect rifling as well).....it is still very accurate....but why the wider hole??
 
It is true, there are Mosins with excellent bore conditions but with pathetically wide bores....why is that?? Poor quality control??


For example, my 1939 Tula (rifling almost like new) has a slightly wider bore than my other 2 Izhevsk (1938 and 1939 with perfect rifling as well).....it is still very accurate....but why the wider hole??
Click to expand...

Sometimes when they were re-arsenaled, if the bore was rough or pitted they would "re-bore" (Not to be confused with counter-bore) them. I guess they thought that a little wide was better than rough and pitted.

My M38 and M44 are counter-bored but you couldn't tell it accuracy wise. I haven't had a chance to slug the bores on them yet to see what the actual diameter is yet though.
 
he Finnish Mosin nagants (M39 and others have .308 bores.
Click to expand...

Only some of the pre-war Finns had bores near .308" They captured many metric tons of USSR ammo in the Winter War and retooled their rifles accordingly. The post-Winter War rifles such as the M39's, M30's and late model M91's had slightly wider bores of about .310", give or take. So in short the only ones you really need to reserve for .308" for maximum accuracy are the very rare pre-war models. I've owned at least a dozen M39's over the years and they'll shoot any 54R out there.
 
Only some of the pre-war Finns had bores near .308" They captured many metric tons of USSR ammo in the Winter War and retooled their rifles accordingly. The post-Winter War rifles such as the M39's, M30's and late model M91's had slightly wider bores of about .310", give or take. So in short the only ones you really need to reserve for .308" for maximum accuracy are the very rare pre-war models. I've owned at least a dozen M39's over the years and they'll shoot any 54R out there.
Click to expand...

I always heard that with Finnish Mosins with .308 bores you cannot shoot .311 or .312 bullets because you could dangerously increase the pressure level.

However, our friend caribou, regularly uses Czech surplus ammo in his M39 with no problem.
So, either his M39 has a wider bore than .308 or the story about not shooting .311 or .312 in .308 bore is simply not true.
 
Sometimes when they were re-arsenaled, if the bore was rough or pitted they would "re-bore" (Not to be confused with counter-bore) them. I guess they thought that a little wide was better than rough and pitted.
Click to expand...

That sounds "complicated"....what I mean is if they re-bored "cleaning" up the old rifling then re-cutting a new one, the increase in bore diameter would be really excessive (i think).....

They may have cut a bit deeper grooves following carefully the old rifling pattern...but that look like, as far as I know, a high precision, complicated job doesn't it??
 
I read where a lot of guys own and love those puppies. There must be something there but for me, there is no interest. :)
 
Often overlooked outside of cast boolit circles is that the MN is an excellent cast boolit performer. So oversized bores are no big deal. My MN 91/59 has a slugged groove diameter of .314, (common) I have even used 8mm (.324) cast boolits and sized them down to .316 using Lee nose first boolit sizer set up on my 2 ton arbor press. Accuracy results were great.

So if your MN or other rifles have odd sized bores, don't despair, just start casting and customize the boolits to fit the situation.
 
Picked mine up yesterday(1930 M91/30). Put 25 rds. through it, and loved every minute of it. Nice 2 inch groupings about an inch off center, did'nt have the bayonet in place. Very fun gun for $150.
 
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