Today they had a Mosin Nagant rifle at MC Sports and I couldn’t resist buying it. It was made in 1943, and has all matching numbers on all the parts including the bayonet. Despite its age, the wood has a surprisingly nice finish to it except for a little wear on the stock, and the action is still clean and smooth. I’m going to the shooting range tomorrow with my dad and we are going to see how this thing performs.
Sorry about the horrible quality pictures. My digital camera was recently damaged badly, and the shroud over the lens was destroyed, so it’s left with only the inner part of the lens, held onto the camera with a flimsy rod of plastic. I’m amazed it still works at all.
My National Postal Meter M1 Carbine showed up just the other day (a late birthday present from Mr Geek). I need to clean it up, though, so it looks all pretty.
My uncle is giving me an M1 Garand rifle sometime this summer. I had a thread about that a while ago - he is going to come here to Indiana and give it to me in person rather than ship it. We’ll go shooting together. He was a Marine and claims he can hit the bullseye at 500 yards with the M1. We’ll see about that.
He had a Carbine too but gave it to his best friend. I wish I had one. My next rifle though I think will be an M1A.
Very nice. No gun collection is complete without one of these tried-and-true pieces of Russian history. I have a Mosin-Nagant M44 carbine myself, and I’ll probably be picking up a 91/30 to go with it before too long.
As far as the kick goes, I find it quite tolerable. I had heard plenty of stories of how strong the recoil is, but I’ve never found any padding to be necessary.
It’s kind of funny how familiar the M-N and Garand are to me (even the “empty chamber” ping the Garand makes!) just from playing the *Call of Duty * games.
Sweet - I’ve got a couple of those myself. They’re amazingly accurate. I don’t find the kick to be too bad. It’s nothing compared to my 1895 Steyr-Mannlichter carabine. That thing is downright painful after 2 or 3 shots.
Well I’m back from the shooting range. That Mosin is one hell of a rifle! It’s my new favorite rifle. That thing is a cannon. It’s very very accurate and loud as a mother fucker. The kick is pretty powerful but not really problematic for me. I’m not exactly a small guy. My dad though aimed too high with it shooting from a standing position and he blew a hole in one of the concrete baffles at the range and he had to pay them 75 dollars. It took a huge chunk out of the concrete.
Sweet rifle. I too think they kick like the dickens, but not as bad as my dad’s Swedish Mauser in 6.5x55mm. It helps that the rifle is like 4 feet long, otherwise it would kill everyone in a 4 foot radius.
That’s a bitch about the concrete baffle. Were the range guys pretty cool about it?
Yeah they were cool about it, they just matter-of-factly told him he needed to pay them 75 dollars, and after he did, we went on with the shooting. Even though there’s a gigantic yellow sign at the front of the range that says anyone who shoots the baffles or the posts will be ejected from the range. Maybe that’s just in reference to people who do it on purpose. Anyway my dad never practices shooting so he’s not very good at it. He needs to come with me more often.
Heh, shooting a Mosin on an indoor range? Everybody nearby is going to feel it when it roars, that’s for sure.
Once I broke a light bulb at a range. An ejected shell casing from my 1911 apparently bounced off the shooting booth wall and continued upward to shatter one of the lighting fixtures right above my head. I was plunged into slightly dimmed light and showered with a gentle rain of glass shards. The range guys didn’t charge me for the light bulb.
According to the ATF, I should be getting my Curio and Relic license in just about a week or so. When I do, I really want to get two or three more Mosin Nagants and re-finish them in different stains. I’m also going to look into one of those “man licker” things that I keep hearing about. I could really use one of those.
My Swedish is a dream to shoot. Minimal recoil and very, very accurate over iron sights.
Then again, my Mosin is a M43 Carbine, which just makes the recoil all the worse. Takes all kinds, I guess. I’ve even heard people bitch about the recoil of a Garand, which is a veritable pussycat compared to the Mosin.
I’ll be honest, it’s been a few years, but that thing goes boom in a major way and I remember it as being pretty harsh. Not as bad as this cheap single shot Argentinian shotgun I have, but pretty strong still.
Welcome to the club. Now you need an M38 and M44. And maybe some Finns. Some people call this condition “mosinitis.”
I take it you are familiar with cosmoline, and that there was none left in the gun? Take proper precautions if you’re shooting corrosive ammo, which can be had for very cheap.
There was some cosmoline, on the bolt and inside the action. There’s none left now - I cleaned it all off with mineral spirits. As of now I’ve only used Brown Bear which is non corrosive but there are various websites that sell surplus ammo in bulk lots, which I take to be corrosive - I take it you’re supposed to clean the bore out with ammonia mixed with water after shooting that stuff?
There are major disagreements on how to best clean it - some use ammonia, some use boiling water, some use a commercial cleanser. You should generally clean it immediately after you are done shooting. If you cannot do a full clean until you get home, then at least squirt some Windex or something down there and give it a few swipes with a patch. Then do a thorough cleaning of the bore, bolt, and action at home.
Stats on several surplus rounds. Brass is best; lacquered rounds tend to gunk up the bolt, especially if every bit of cosmoline is not gone from the action. It can literally then take a hammer blow to move the bolt.
My friend bought one last summer. After we cleaned the cosmoline he let me put the first 10 rounds through it.
He also bought a tin brick of ammo soldered closed with lead. It came with a key like old sardine cans. Of course the tab popped right off. I wound up bashing the end off with a wood dowel and a hammer. The inspectors piece of paper in cryllic said 1953. Each pack of 10 rounds was wrapped in waxed paper and tied with string like little Christmas presents.
It’s chambered for 7.62 right? There’s no excuse for buying corrosive ammo in 7.62 these days. The good enough stuff is cheap enough from somewhere like Cheaper Than Dirt that you shouldn’t ever even look twice at some weird vintage ammo left lying around.
