Mosin-Nagant Essay

[Joshua M. Smith]

In the late 19th century, the Russian military was looking to replace its Berdan and Berdan II single-shot rifles with something a bit more modern.

A man by the name of Mosin came up with a rifle, as did two brothers named Nagant.

The Nagant brothers' rifle was arguably the better, but they weren't Russian.

A compromise was reached when the Mosin's action was mated to the Nagants' magazine. This configuration was adopted as the 3 line rifle of 1891, known more widely as the Mosin-Nagant M91.

This rifle was 3 lines in caliber. A line was an old unit of measure which approximated 1/10 of an inch, and so this rifle was a .30 caliber. The sights were graduated in arshini, an archaic unit of measure the length of the average soldier's stride, or about 28".

Changes were made after the Bolshevik Revolution. These changes included shortening the barrel and stock, thereby shaving 3/4 of a pound off the weight. As well, the old measurements were done away with. The caliber was designated as 7.62mm and new rear sights, graduated in meters, were fitted. This refit was called the M91/30.

Shortly thereafter a need was recognized for a carbine version to be issued to troops whose main weapons were not their rifles, but rather artillery, machine guns, tanks and the like. The stock and barrel length were again reduced, creating a rifle that weighed in at 7-1/2 lbs and had a barrel of 20.25".

This carbine was acceptable, except for one problem: It was not issued with a bayonet, nor did it have the lugs to accept one. The Russian and Soviet point of view when it came to bayonets was that every rifle should have a long bayonet, and that bayonet should always be affixed. The sole exception for this ideal that I've been able to find is that the bayonet should not be affixed when riding in a truck.

This ideal proved itself out, at least for the conscripts of the USSR, during WWII. Ammunition and rifle production could not keep up with demand, and therefore every third conscripted soldier was issued a rifle, and every soldier was issued only three rounds. With bayonets affixed, these soldiers charged into battle, usually quickly exhausting their ammunition supplies and relying on the bayonet in short order. When the man with the rifle went down, another, unarmed man would grab it.

A problem arose with the M38 carbine: Though it made a good club, it didn't have anything pointy on the end to stick Nazis with. Lives, and more importantly, rifles, were lost.

Due to a combination of factors, the main one of which being the "three round then bayonet" policy, the USSR lost somewhere on the order of 10 million conscripts.

The need for the bayonet was recognized during the war, and a permanently affixed, folding bayonet was fitted to a carbine with the same dimensions as the M38. The result was adopted as the M44, in the year 1944. Though it weighed more than the 91/30 rifle, it was still shorter and handier.


This is my personal M44 along with everything it came with. The sling is probably not original. All serial numbers match.

The Mosin-Nagant and its carbines are relative latecomers on the surplus market. The USSR retained its bolt rifles against western aggression. As they require very little training to operate, the "peasants and workers" of the USSR could have been pressed into reserve service with these firearms with a minimum amount of instruction.

It's often said that these rifles and carbines are inherently inaccurate. I would say that, with the exception of those rifles which have not been properly cared for, this statement is usually false. The fault usually lies with the shooter, the sights, and surplus ammunition.

Sights are coarse military style, not nearly as fine as a Swiss carbine's, or even an M1 rifle's. Neither is the trigger pull good; it's long and gritty. Cases tend to stick in the rifle. This is known as sticky bolt syndrome. It's caused by cosmoline which as soaked into the walls of the chamber flowing due to the heat of firing, and the lacquer found on many surplus cases blends with to form a sticky gunk.

When I first got my M44 a couple months ago, it was covered in cosmoline. I cleaned it up, made sure everything was tight on it, and took it out and shot it.

I was not impressed at the accuracy. I guessed they were all correct: The Mosin-Nagant is a piece of Soviet junk.

I’m not the type to give up easily though, and I noticed when I cleaned it that it was filthier than it should have been. I set out to remedy this situation.

The first thing I did was clean the bore. I went through several hundred patches and half an economy bottle of Hoppe’s #9. When I saw that wasn’t quite doing it, I switched to Outer’s Foaming Bore Cleaner and G96.


This is the first picture of the bore I ever took. I had been scrubbing and soaking it for days with Hoppe’s. It shows sharp shoulders on the lands, and that’s always an encouraging sign.

When I used the Outer’s Foaming Bore Cleaner, I pushed out many, many years of copper fouling which had just stuck in the bore. Under the copper layer I found more powder gunk, and under the powder gunk I found a layer of rust.

Not discouraged, I used a recipe from my dad: a mixture of vinegar and salt. While he soaks cucumbers and onions in this solution, I use it for removing rust (though I will admit to eating this rust remover now and again, as well).

This removed most of the rust. I pushed out several bright red patches. Be advised however, if you take this course of action, that the solution will take off the bluing. Keep a wet rag handy. As well, some bluing made it into the chamber area. I let the solution take this off as I’ve never been a fan of chambers coated with anything. It seems it leeched out the cosmoline as well, with the help of a 20 gauge bore brush fitted to a variable-speed power drill.


This picture was taken after the first vinegar/salt treatment. The lands are much brighter, as you can see.

As a side benefit, “sticky bolt syndrome” has disappeared entirely for me. Even shells with split necks, which are relatively common among the military surplus ammunition now available, do not cause undue difficulty when opening the bolt.


Here is the most current picture of the bore. Notice that there is still a bit of surface rust. I’m not overly concerned about it, but I may take it out when I get some time. The vinegar/salt solution had stopped pulling it out for the most part, so I’m assuming this would take a bit more work.

I also switched ammunition. The Russian surplus was inaccurate, undersized, and some of it was overpressure. Though I have a new batch from a different lot, it’s still only notebook paper accurate at 50 yards.

The ammunition I use now is either commercial Brown Bear 185gr or 148gr Czech surplus.

Something still had to be done about the sights, and though I’m going to get a Mojo rear peep after Christmas sometime, I had to make the sights more visible now.


A couple dabs of white automotive touchup paint made the sights much more visible.

With minor work as outlined above, these rifles can be real shooters.

I cannot show my best target thus far until the end of the month due to the fact that it’s been entered in a postal match. However, I do have a few other targets I have shot, and I’m becoming increasingly impressed.


This rifle seems to “like” Brown Bear 185gr commercial ammunition best from what I’ve tried thus far.


This is probably my best group with surplus ammunition.

Both targets were shot standing at 50 yards, from a field expedient rest – a folding ladder.

Keep in mind that these groups were due mostly to guesswork on my part: At 50 yards, the front sight was wider than the bullseyes I was shooting at! (cont'd)

[ArkansasHunter]

Thank you !!! I enjoyed this ...A.H

[billy]

well done!

[Joshua M. Smith]

Not done yet... haven't been able to get the rest to post!

[billy]

here is something that you will love.
everyone that has tried this knows it works!
go to this thread.
homade electronic bore cleaner

(homade electronic bore cleaner)homade electronic bore cleaner

[Joshua M. Smith]

(Here's the rest - I've gotten an unresponsive site so far. Here's to hoping this method will work.)

The next modification will be a sharp front sight made out of a finishing nail combined with the Mojo peep sight mentioned above. This should give me a very fine sight picture.

Some people don’t understand why others mess with a “piece of junk” made in the Soviet empire, and copied by other Soviet nations. I hope I’ve helped to answer those questions. They’re inexpensive but not cheap. It’s cheap to feed them, but with a little work, very acceptable accuracy results. And, both the rifle and cartridge have definite American roots. The direct predecessor to the Mosin-Nagant, the Berdan II rifle, was invented in 1868 by Hiram Berdan and was issued as early as 1869 in Imperial Russia. Additionally, American firms such as Remington, for a time, made the Mosin-Nagant under contract. It was even considered as an issue weapon for the US military, and a few examples exist chambered in .30-’06, though they are considered unsafe to shoot. The Michigan Militia, during the time of the Bolshevik Revolution, were issued unaltered Mosin-Nagants.

Additionally, these rifles have one of the longest track records of any service rifle. They are still being used by the Iraqi military, with US troops training the Iraqis in their use. American firms are providing non-corrosive ammunition.

Adopted in 1891 and still going strong in either active or reserve military service? That has to be some kind of record, and speaks volumes for the Mosin-Nagant’s overall quality.

[mosineer]

Definitely need to try that, looks like a pretty neat outfit.

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All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing

[roadie]

Nice job on the essay. I am sad to hear that you have accuracy issues. I have an M38 and took my first long range open sight shote last week out in the desert and did pretty good. I was actually suprised. I found a target up on a hill side that I walked off at about 580 meters apprx(yes it took forever). I started taking shots at it and within 6 shots I was hitting somewhere near center mass. It was a 4'X4' sheet of plywood. I have also noticed with the right target I can get great groupings at 50 and 100 meters as well. I use 147 Gr Hungarian surplus ammo. The rear sights are not exactly dead on for the distances they are marked for but once I learned the deviations it went well. I plan to eventually put a long eye scope on it, but for now it's fun to see how far I can shoot and still hit what I'm aiming at.

As for the bore, I feel the pain you went through on cleaning it, never had the sticky bolt issue but my bore is a mess. I mst hav run 20 or 30 patches through it and they were still comming out a bluish color. I discovered that it is probably decads of copper fouling built up. My lands, grooves shoulders and all that are sharp, and it shoots great so it must be alright. but eventually I would like to see clean white patch come out of that bore, Any suggestions. All I have right now is hoopes #9.

But either way, I love my Nagant, want a 91/30 eventually, like the 44 but found the balance is better without the bayonet. Thanks for the essay.

[billy]

yeah i gotta suggestion.
(homade electronic bore cleaner) (homade electronic bore cleaner)homade electronic bore cleaner

thats the best suggestion you will ever find for a dirty bore!

[roadie]

I think i'll try it, sounds like a good idea. I had heard soaking the barrel in carb cleaner, and or apple cider vinigar, but this sounds like a fool proof way to a clean bore. On a side note, how many patches should it take to get an .223 bore perfectly clean. My AR get's pretty clean, but I'd like to see pure white patches when done. Any suggestions there? I already spend about 2 hrs cleaning it, it gets kinda tireing, i'd like to be able to speed the process up a bit.

[risk_3715]

I have one suggestion for the essay... references. I want to see some real references and where you're basing you info off of. Unless no one else here cares about credibility, then forget what I said. =-)

[locksley]

Thank you well done!

[troy2000]

Nice, readable overview, Josh.

A couple of amplifications, if you don't mind:

Remington and New England Westinghouse were the American manufacturers. While the Remingtons have the year of manufacture on them, the N.E. Westinghouse rifles are all dated 1915, which I believe is the year the contract started.

After the Revolution in Russia, the Communists weren't able to pay for the rifles that hadn't been delivered yet (and maybe our government wouldn't have let them go anyway), and the U.S. Army bailed the two companies out by buying most of the undelivered firearms. Many of those were used as trainers, and some were sent to Russia with our Expeditionary force after the war. Some were also sold on the civilian market; I have one from N.E.W. that has no military markings on it at all, American or Russian, beyond what was applied when it was manufactured.

The .30-06 Mosins you mention were aftermarket, civilian conversions, and I believe you're right; many are unsafe to fire.

There were also a couple of prototype Pederson devices made for the Mosin Nagants, at the same time the devices were being made for the Springfields. They're kind of like the Holy Grail of the Mosin Nagant world: they probably don't exist any more, but if any collector ever finds one he'll be world-renowned (in Mosin circles, anyway...).

[.22guy]

Nice essay, thanks for posting it.