what to look for in a milsurp?

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possum

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i guess i got lucky with my mauser because it was in great shape all around, and my sks is ugly but it is a great rifle. i am now wanting to pick up a mosin, perferably an m38 carbine, just to have, at the price you can't beat them, i think they are a great value personally. and it's main mission will be to dispatch hogs when i get to georgia and various other wildlife i am sure. so what do i need to look for, when it comes to the barrell, chamber, bolt, insides and out, etc; in particular on a mosin m38 carbine? i would appreciate it greartly thank you in advance.
 
Check for a decent bore, bearing in mind that most M38's are counter-bored. A check for a smooth action and matching numbers would be a big plus. Also many prefer pre-WW2 examples because they weren't produced under the duress of a nation at war.

-jagdpanzer
 
Possum, you're welcome. I forgot to mention to try several different types of ammo in your rifle when you get it. Mosins seem to be a little picky in what they shoot the best. As you probably know, ammo is dirt cheap for these right now. If possible look for a M38 in the original style stock. Many are in M44 stocks which have the cutout for the bayonet. Mosins can mutiply quickly, so be careful.

-jagdpanzer
 
yeah i have been doing some looking at different ammo, and have found alot, of choices i know the surplus ammo is cheap, but this initially is gonna be a hunting gun , and maybe having some fun here and there, not really a plinker, but with everything else i am sure it could turn into that very quickly!:) I was thinking about trying some of the s&b various load offerings especially the "match grade" stuff, i wanna see how good that stuff is. and i wanted to try the 180gr sp by wolf gold line for hunting. so the first thing i will do is test out the different rds, and then tweak the sights to where i want them for the load i decide to stick with which will have to be one of the sp loads, since i will be hunting. thanks again for the help!
 
armoredman,
thanks for the link!:) good info and something i will definetly use before i am done buying milsurp rifles i am sure thanks again!
 
Owning, and having owned several milsurps, the biggest problem I've see is that there is often LOTS of cleaning rod wear at the muzzle. Bores can be good, w/ strong rifling (heck, even not so strong rifling, and they still shoot), but some of the muzzles are just round holes. (this is why you see many of the M38s counterbored.) If they're re-crowned or counterbored the accuracy can be restored. Many were shot with corrosive ammo, and there may be some "frostiness" to the bore, but I've never seen it affect accuracy all that much (but it does make 'em hard to clean---I use Foaming Bore Cleaner, so not a problem).
 
Being that ALL ammo shot thru these guns when they were in service was corrosive, the bore and the bolt face are two of the main things you want to check. The muzzle is the third. Other than that, these guns are pretty much indestructible.

One thing I've found, with a carbine (M38 or M44), you'll probably want to stick with light ball ammo, 145-150gr, rather than the heavy ball ammo, 175-180gr. The heavy stuff thumps you pretty good from a shorter, lighter rifle like the M38.

S&B makes decent 150gr soft nose ammo for hunting. Its a LOT cheaper than Norma's offerings.

Check out this site for lots of good info on MN's.
 
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