What should I look for again? Also, I am a Mosin newbie, so explain it to me in plain english, hehe some of your guys Mosin jargon confuses me.
I want something that I can shoot accurately say out to 500 yards and scope it. Nothing too expensive, either for optics, just basic get the job done so I can shoot at longer range targets for fun.
Thanks in advance!
tlarkin, look for a Mosin nagant 91/30. They are much better for long distance than the carbine model M38s, M44s and 91/59s. As to the technical stuff:
1. Make sure there are no burrs on the bolt face (the part ar the front of the bolt with the little hole in the middle for the firing pin). Burr cause extraction problems and lead to 2x4 Bolt, a condition in which you have to beat the bolt handle with a 2x4 to make it work.
2. Take a bore light or a penlight, shine it up the chamber and look down the muzzle. You will be able to see the lands and grooves. The lands are the raised parts, that look like bars that twist the length of the barrel. The edges on the lands should be sharp. As these are what grab hold of the bullet and set it to spinning, you can see why sharp lands are important. You will be able to tell if the lands are sharp even if there's cosmoline in the barrel, whcih like as not there will be.
3. After fulfilling Task No. 2, look at the muzzle. Do the lands run all the way to the muzzle? If they don't and the last inch or so looks smooth like the inside of a shotgun barrel, the rifle has been counterbored. If the counterboring is an inch or less, don't worry about it. Mor than that, however, and you should think twice.
4. Test the bolt. Does it close and lock easily, or do you have to fight it? A bolt that's stiff isn't necessarily a deal-breaker, but it does mean you will need to detail-strip it and clean it thoroughly to get all the cosmoline out.
5. Look at the arsenal marks and serial numbers. Do the serial numbers on the receiver (the thing the bolt locks into) and on the bolt match? Look also on the magazine; there is sometimes a serial number there as well. Soviet arsenals often "force matched" bolts to rifles because many wartime bolts were made without serial numbers. It's not of much importance either way; but a rifle without a matching bolt should not command as high a price as one with matching numbers.
Look also at the year the rifle was produced. If you have a choice, a peacetime year (in the case of the Soviets and a 91/30, that means from 1924 to 1940, from the end of the Russian Civil War to the start of the Winter War with Finland). The peacetime rifles had more care taken in their production, and it shows in the machining and finishing.
Look for an arsenal mark. The two you are most likely to see are a triangle with an arrow in it (Izhvesk, aka "Izzy") and a star with an arrow in it (Tula). There is a school of thought that the Tula Mosins are more accurate, but I note my 1923 Izzy will shoot a five shot group at 50 yards with iron sights you can cover with a half-dollar all day long. There really isn't much to choose between them.
6. Look at the receiver. Is it hexagonal or round? The hex receivers are the mark of earlier-model rifles. The hex receivers are stronger than the round receiver Mosins. This may play in your evaluation or it may not.
7. Look at the stock. Are there any repairs to it? If there are, how noticable are the repairs? I am not talking about dings and dents here. I'm talking about places where new wood has been spliced into the original stock. It won't affect the shootability of the rifle, but you should be able to use that as a bargaining point to knock the price down a bit.
Well, that's enough for you to be going on with, tlarkin. Let us know how you make out at the gun show. Be prepared to spend between $100 and $150, and you should find a nice Mosin to bring home with you.