what to do with Mosin Nagant?

[04ctd]

buddy has one, wants to dump it cheap.

it's cool & neat...and whatever, i'm a guy, and the only thing better than one AR-15..is well, about half a dozen AR-15's, and some other miscellaneous calibers thrown in for the Zombie/Thug life apocalypse.

what do i need to do to check it, and what all to clean it, it's still got comsoline (sp?) in it?


what do you with one, take it to the range, and uh...uh.....uh......what else?

how plentiful / cheap is ammo? will ammo be available in a SHTF/Zombie scenario?
(in other words, by buying a $100 gun, do I automatically incur a "you MUST have 10000 rounds of ammo on hand for each weapon you have?)

 

[fiundagner]

440 round spam can of ammo runs 85-100$ depending on who you get it from and how much shipping is. the ammo is corrosive primed generally, so make sure you clean it good when you are done shooting. if you can?t clean it good immediately put some window cleaner down the barrel to help prevent damage to the rifle. This is none reloadable ammo. Ammo may still be available in the event of a zombie apocalypse, largely because no one sells can openers for the spam cans, so defenders will be overrun while trying to hammer them open with chisel and prybar. Ammo cans may be used (full or empty) as improvised heavy armor for your zombie survival vehicle

To remove the bolt open the bolt all the way to the rear and squeeze the trigger, it will usually fall right out. You need CLP (or a similar product) and a buncha ton of patches, to clean it. Most of them are sold with everything else (brushes, under barrel cleaning rod, bayonet, etc) as part of the purchase. if you don?t have a cleaning rod a standard 30 caliber brush such as you would use on a 30-06 or 308 will do the job, but you need a loooong cleaning rod (note the extra o's). a set of dental picks or wire brushes can be useful for getting into all the cracks and crevasses

Clean it, lube it, take it to the range and shoot it. Don?t worry, the second shot will put your shoulder back in joint after the first dislocates it. Take a firmer grip on the rifle and repeat until satisfied. (I recommend a medium limb-saver brand slip on recoil pad to help out with that, but it is not a must have item.

Mosin nagants may also be used, especially with bayonet attached, as improvised pole vaults, pikes, and marshmallow roasters for that campfire across the Mississippi river. Stand enough of them on end and you have a resonable apoximation of a palisade style fort. Additional information on secondary mossin nagant uses may be found here : http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... 38JYRi4VSQ

 

[tucker]

I use a 30 caliber snake to clean mine. Took me a whole afternoon to get the grease off it when I first got it. I love to shoot mine. Esprcially at night. Puts out quite a fireball. I use mine for deer hunting. Bought some ammo last night at Academy Sports, 20 rounds, non corrisive, $11.95.

 

[PCShogun]

Be advised though, these rifles are very rare. Russia only made about 15 - 20 million of them.

The ammo is STILL being manufactured. Some Newer Russian weapons still fire this caliber.

Its about the same as a 30-06, just a tad lower on the shoulder bruiser scale. If it doesn't kick you hard enough to make you feel manly, get a M44 or M38. Uses the same bullet but are a few pounds lighter. These carbines will ignite nearby structures with their fireball.

The Mosin Nagant 91/30 has an 18inch bayonet, perfect for hot dog roasting at the range while shooting, and aerating stucco ceilings and drywall at home when not paying attention to the total 5'6" length. The M44 is handy as the bayonet is attached all the time.

Surplus ammo is available almost anywhere on the web and is cheap, CHEAP, I tell you. Like 20cents or less per shot. Getting into the cans is great afternoon fun. Dremel tools, hammer, and chisels not included. New ammo is not much more and is available in hollow point and soft point.

 

[Enjay]

Fiundagner, dear husband, I haven't the foggiest notion as to what you thought you were doing to the mosins as ours were degunkeded and ready to fire when I bought them. My guess is you're running yours a bit dry...

All of the cans of milsurp are berdan primed, which means they can't be reloaded. And the can's don't come with openers. Good news is it's super simple to build one, just look up the build plans for a home trebuchet. If you can't get the can open at least you'll still be able to make defensive use of it.
It makes a great hunting rifle too. If you snap on the bayonet you can kill it, field dress it, spit it, then fire off a few "soup's on" rounds and have a nicely blackened haunch by the time your buddies get there, all without getting out of your tree stand!

 

[Paco]

A lot of places send you a can opener if you buy two or more of the spam cans.

 

[armaborealis]

As mentioned, ammo is cheap. Lots of corrosive comblock milsurp out there. Winchester also makes modern soft points appropriate for hunting.

Recoil and performance wise you can expect performance on par with the 30-06 or .303 british. That is, it is quite respectable. For around $20 you can get a nice thick rubber buttpad that will soak up a lot of recoil if you are recoil-sensitive. I took a 7.62x54R on a brown bear hunt (interior Alaska, not coastal! The interior bears are a lot smaller!) once and did not feel undergunned. With decent soft points, it should be fine for any sort of big game on the continent expect perhaps coastal grizz. Mine shoots about 3 MOA from a solid benchrest which is tolerable for hunting out to about 200 yards or so.

The biggest issue with the mosin I've found is that the sights suck. The front sight on many mosins needs to be extended higher to allow proper elevation zeroing. This can easily be done with a bit of wire insulation as a cheap/marginal sort of fix, but more permanent fixes are harder.

I used my C&R to pick up a Nagant revolver and currently have them paired up on display. They make a nice historic display. A historic display that you can have a spam can of ammo sitting in the garage for <$100.

 

[biganimal]

I have had about 60 MN's over the last 40 yrs and several were out of spec for head space. these were mostly ones that had non matching numbers on the bolt and receiver. but a couple with matching numbers also failed. Buy a head space gauge or have a smithy check it for you. this should be done with EVERY surplus rifle you purchase.

 

[PCShogun]

Big, I've never had that problem but will bow to you for the simply fact you've had a lot more Mosin's than I. 60 Rifles! Wow.

As the bolt action seats against the cartridge rim, its not as bad as a semi automatic which is essentially rimless. A REALLY bad head space on a bolt action IS cause for concern and will agree with Big that a Go, No-Go set of gauges in this caliber is a worthwhile investment. If your buds like these rifles, you can buy a set of gauges as a group and pass it around whenever you buy one.

I own 3 Mosin's 1 shoots great, 1 shoots high without the bayonet on, and the other shoots low. You go to the range and see how she shoots and then adjust the sights for your rifle. Its not hard to do. The insulation trick is a good one to raise the front sight.

 

[biganimal]

PC, The main reason I have so many is I owned a gun shop for many years. I can actually say counting the ones that I sold thru my shop the number is closer to 150. But I only checked the ones that I owned,shot ,or intended to shoot. Once I bought two crates of 20 for $39.99 each. Didn't even clean em off, just took em to a gun show in Upstate NY and sold them for $89.00 each. Them were the days!!!!

Presently I have 3 91/30's, 1 Finn mod 27, and a Chinese 53 (same as a model 44)

 

[rotarymike]

Just sent my 91/30 to live with my father-in-law for deer season, along with some Brown Bear soft point ammo from AmmoToGo for $10/20 rounds. Makes as good a deer gun as any other .30 cal rifle.

IMHO, the recoil of the full-size model (91/30s and their ilk) isn't bad at all if you are prepared for it. To me, it stings a lot less than most .308 rifles and a HELL of a lot less than my Yugo Mauser, even with the recoil pad on the mauser.

 

[PCShogun]

Yeah, 8mm Mauser really slaps the old shoulder blade.

I should let you shoot my Enfield Mk5 No1, Small, light rifle with a full power .303 cartridge. The Cordite makes the difference though, that's not a recoil shove, its a hard punch to the shoulder.

 

[rotarymike]

I'm never adverse to shooting a different gun. At some point, I should shoot a Mosin carbine to see A. what the difference in recoil is and B. that glorious fireball.

Sometime soon I need to go to one of the outdoor ranges in the early AM to sight in the scope on the Mauser. This is the 4th scope mount - hopefully this one won't crack or bend from recoil like the others. Last time I went, felt like I was dieing from heatstroke after about an hour.

 

[PCShogun]

I've got a 1000 watt UPS. Wonder how long you can run a box fan off of that?

 

[rotarymike]

I think the box fan would have just blown hot air at us. It was humid enough that sweat wasn't evaporating, and probably over 100 in the sun. We brought water with us, but I was so dehydrated just opening the bottle it all evaporated. Started to sweep up brass and had to sit down half-way through to bring my pulse back down and start sweating again. Not fun.

Of course, it was about 3 in the afternoon on one of those 100+ days a few weeks ago. :roll:

I just need the babysitter to get here around 8, then I could be at the range at 9 and back home before lunch.

 

[Paco]

I have a spare ammo tin key for the Russian spam cans if we want to start a 'pay it forward' thing with it.

 

[Paco]

I'm never adverse to shooting a different gun. At some point, I should shoot a Mosin carbine to see A. what the difference in recoil is and B. that glorious fireball.

Sometime soon I need to go to one of the outdoor ranges in the early AM to sight in the scope on the Mauser. This is the 4th scope mount - hopefully this one won't crack or bend from recoil like the others. Last time I went, felt like I was dieing from heatstroke after about an hour.

I have a Polish '52 M44 you're more than welcome to shoot at the next shootzenfest.
You can also shoot the VEPR for more semi-auto 7.62x54R goodness.
I am also trying to get my cousin to come down with his collection of WWII rifles.

 

[rotarymike]

I have a spare ammo tin key for the Russian spam cans if we want to start a 'pay it forward' thing with it.

Where there's a will, there's a sawzall.

 

[PCShogun]

You can also find the can openers for a few bucks at the gun shows, as if you needed a reason to go.

I have not used mine yet, but am told a hammer and chisel work better.

 

[bilall]

Got an opener with an 880 round crate containing two 440 round spam cans.
It took about halfway around the first can to learn how to use it and not force it. Once I learned the feel, it takes less than 5 minutes to open a can.