What calibers can a mosin nagant be changed to?
- Thread starter Eric F
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1KPerDay
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Take the mosin action, and whack a mauser owner over the head with it, and take his mauser. 
navyretired 1
Member
7.62X54 is an excellent hunting round long known as Russian 30-06 and is not readily adaptable to different case sizes. I've seen some pretty neat MN sporters and lots of game have taken with that round starting back in the 1930's.
I had an idea to do a similar project, but starting with a Type 38 Arisaka receiver. It turned out that it would be a lot more work to build a nice gun from that existing action than to just start from scratch with something more universal. The Mosin action in particular doesn't strike me as something to put much money into.
If you really want to use that receiver, though, it appears that buymilsurp.com has barrels for sale.
My guess would be that the only reasonable caliber to swap to would be .303, because it's rimmed and uses the same diameter bullets. Not an economical swap, though - 54R is a lot cheaper than .303 right now.
If you really want to use that receiver, though, it appears that buymilsurp.com has barrels for sale.
My guess would be that the only reasonable caliber to swap to would be .303, because it's rimmed and uses the same diameter bullets. Not an economical swap, though - 54R is a lot cheaper than .303 right now.
DMK
Member
Why would someone want a Mosin action if they had a choice in the matter?
I love the caliber. The history of the rifles is very interesting. The action of the rifle? Well, I like 1KPerDay's answer.
I love the caliber. The history of the rifles is very interesting. The action of the rifle? Well, I like 1KPerDay's answer.
devildog32713
Member
Well I wouldn't want to hurt family... lol
Oh for pete sake! I just happened to come across a complete mosin nagant action, and was thinking to barrel it to something else. 7.62x54 is hard to reload for based on bullet availbility right now. Also I was thinking 350 rem mag or something larger.
Sure there are better actions but this was free!
Sure there are better actions but this was free!
R.W.Dale
Member
I've heard of them being rebarreled to 500s&w as a single shot
Yeah I to have heard of people converting to .303 I just tinkered with a 303 in my mosin magazine and it handled it ok, picked up on the extractor with some help, but the conversion doesn't seem to make sense the x54 is easier on brass and just as cheap to reload I think. Certainly surplus ammo is cheaper and although still corrosive I have no problem shooting it but I would not touch cordite. The thing that would take some monkeying to do if it would work at all might be a .356 winchester or a .32 win special. A .32 win would be neat, but it would take a lot of work if it had a shot in hell. The one thing you could surely do if you reload is bore the mosin out and fire form mosin brass to be a blown out straight wall and make shot shells. If I were bored enough and had an old beat up m44 I might give that one a shot.
As far as barrels for mosins already chambered for other calibers I have never seen or heard of them the conversion to .303 can take place because .303 has its shoulder further up the cartridge and I believe you can remove metal from the chamber to accommodate the .303's gently rolling shoulder. That is why my .356 and .32 win ideas are just pipe dreams because they are much shorter cartridges.
I can't remember how the russians attached mosin barrels but it wasn't user friendly, not at all as friendly as a mauser rebarrel job, I think the design just doesn't offer much room to make easy modifications.
As far as barrels for mosins already chambered for other calibers I have never seen or heard of them the conversion to .303 can take place because .303 has its shoulder further up the cartridge and I believe you can remove metal from the chamber to accommodate the .303's gently rolling shoulder. That is why my .356 and .32 win ideas are just pipe dreams because they are much shorter cartridges.
I can't remember how the russians attached mosin barrels but it wasn't user friendly, not at all as friendly as a mauser rebarrel job, I think the design just doesn't offer much room to make easy modifications.
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RonE
Member
It depends on how much work you want to do. The rifle is set up for a rimmed cartridge so it would be simpler to go with a rimmed cartridge for a conversion to another caliber so long as the rim size is the same or perhaps just a little smaller. Other wise you need to machine the bolt face also. If you rebarrel, the sky is practically the limit for rimmed cartridges...........Maybe consider the 38-56 WCF, the 6.3X53R Finnish, the 30-40 Kraig, maybe even the 45-70 Govt...........But to what purpose? You can put only so much lipstick on a pig.
garyhan
Member
If you absoutely have to have a Mosin in a different caliber, I would look at a rebore to a .33 or .35 wildcat. Cheaper than a quality rebarrel, and no action work necessary.
gary
gary
solvability
Member
I have heard the 45-70 is not too hard - but I agree with the majority - it is a crappy action why not enjoy it with cheap ammo as is - it is not going to be a better action in another calibre and may be an expensive crappy unreliable action in another calibre.
dirtyjim
Member
if you have the skill & equipment just about anything is possible.
i have a 6.5vostock reamer for a mosin project & i have several more on the drawing boards.
i'm going to swage a rim onto 22-250 brass for one rifle & since i just hapen to have a ocagon .416 barrel blank siting in the corner i'm going to make a .416 wildcat based on the 7.62x54r case by blowing the shoulder out. i'll make my own reamer for it.
ptg has the 6.5/7.62x54r(6.5vostock) reamer & the 9.3x53R reamers on file
i've also been thinking about doing a 10,75x68mm since i already load for it.
eventually i'm going to to convert some mosin boltheads to work with the standard .473dia. cases & rethread some aftermarket lr mauser barrels for mosins, sort of a mosin caliber conversion kit.
i think there would be a market for a mosin caliber conversion kit & it wouldn't be hard to do or very expensive.
the bolt heads can be reduced down to .473 by soldering in a bushing, cut the ejector groove slightly deeper reshape the end of the the extractor. i may adapt a sako style extractor to the mosin bolt head.
the shank on a lr mauser barrel can be turned down & rethreaded for a mosin.
epoxy or solder a spacer to take up the slack inside the rear of the magazine.
.308, 7mm mauser, 6.5x55, 250 & 300 savage & .22-250 will fit the magazine with very little modifications, along with many others.
i have a 6.5vostock reamer for a mosin project & i have several more on the drawing boards.
i'm going to swage a rim onto 22-250 brass for one rifle & since i just hapen to have a ocagon .416 barrel blank siting in the corner i'm going to make a .416 wildcat based on the 7.62x54r case by blowing the shoulder out. i'll make my own reamer for it.
ptg has the 6.5/7.62x54r(6.5vostock) reamer & the 9.3x53R reamers on file
i've also been thinking about doing a 10,75x68mm since i already load for it.
eventually i'm going to to convert some mosin boltheads to work with the standard .473dia. cases & rethread some aftermarket lr mauser barrels for mosins, sort of a mosin caliber conversion kit.
i think there would be a market for a mosin caliber conversion kit & it wouldn't be hard to do or very expensive.
the bolt heads can be reduced down to .473 by soldering in a bushing, cut the ejector groove slightly deeper reshape the end of the the extractor. i may adapt a sako style extractor to the mosin bolt head.
the shank on a lr mauser barrel can be turned down & rethreaded for a mosin.
epoxy or solder a spacer to take up the slack inside the rear of the magazine.
.308, 7mm mauser, 6.5x55, 250 & 300 savage & .22-250 will fit the magazine with very little modifications, along with many others.
db_tanker
Member
read about a Finnish Sniper team using a MN action chambered in 300 WinMag...they did pretty well at that sniper comp.
the 416 wildcat would be VERY interesting...make for some serious brush rifle medicine I think, with an 18-20 inch barrel...
the 416 wildcat would be VERY interesting...make for some serious brush rifle medicine I think, with an 18-20 inch barrel...
panrobercik
Member
Throw that action away, get a $70 91/30,
$100 for 440 rounds of surplus ammo.
Or just start reloading 54R, there are plenty of .310 bullets from 125 to 200 grain and brass is pretty easy to obtain too.
Making a custom gun on MN action would be not economically wise .
Keep in mind , there are millions of Mosin Nagants in US so this caliber will not fade away as will a lot of wildcats.
$100 for 440 rounds of surplus ammo.
Or just start reloading 54R, there are plenty of .310 bullets from 125 to 200 grain and brass is pretty easy to obtain too.
Making a custom gun on MN action would be not economically wise .
Keep in mind , there are millions of Mosin Nagants in US so this caliber will not fade away as will a lot of wildcats.
harmon rabb
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if you buy milsurp, 7.62x54 is so cheap, why do you need to reload?
_N4Z_
Member
I reload x54r and have had no issues finding bullets. The .311 round is the same used in the Brit .303 and if you buy online, they are easily obtained. Grafs, Powder Valley, Wideners, Midway, all currently have .310, .311, and .312 diameter bullets available. Sierra, Hornady, Speer, PRVI, Remington, Winchester... They all make and sell them. Just bought some 125gr and 180gr Sierra's from PowderValley a couple weeks ago.
But if your dead set on changing caliber then have a go.
shotgunsrfun
member
I finaly found on Midway USA 7.62x54R Wolf Brand non cor. On a PSL I heard you must use low grain?? the wolf is 148 grain, What is the recommended grain for PSL?
I do not care much for surplus ammo, you have to clean it very well and I would think the Corr salts would get on your cleaning rod and mess up other guns.
I do not care much for surplus ammo, you have to clean it very well and I would think the Corr salts would get on your cleaning rod and mess up other guns.
Vern Humphrey
Member
So far as I know, the last war Finnland was in was the "Continuation War" with Russia, which ended at least 10 years before the .300 Winchester Mag was developed.
MatthewVanitas
Member
I don't have the info on-hand, but you can probably find it with some googling: I've read that the Finns were very big into converting MNs to larger calibres for hunting big game (moose and bear?). I believe a lot of them were basically 7.62x54mm wildcats blown out to 9mm and 10mm-ish to use the metric rifle bullets available in Europe.
R.W.Dale
Member
Do they have international sniper competitions during wartime?
Vern Humphrey
Member
Yes. Very serious competitions.
dirtyjim
Member
but it would be fun, some of us have the tools & like to tinker.
i have a lathe & over the years i've picked up a lot of nice barrels for around $25-30 so i figure why not try to make something different instead of eating at the trough with everyone else. sure i can get a generic remchester special from wally world but what fun would that be.
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