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Mosin Nagant Restoration

6K views 21 replies 13 participants last post by  Josh Smith 
#1 ·
I was able to pick up a Mosin at the LGS. when I opened the box I was thinking wth did i get myself into??

everything coated in cosmoline. i managed to scrape, soak, and heat most of the cosmo out.

after soaking washing ect, the parts looked good:





it's a 1935 made in Tula


took a few weekends but i ended up sanding out what cosmo i couldn't get out of the stock. i took care not to eliminate the markings , deeper nicks and such. I wanted to keep the "history".

here is where i deviated from most mosin restores. I liked the grain of the wood, so i chose not to use the classic red shellac. I used urethane for a clear finish:



and the finished product, along with the other weapons
(the stock on the M&P 15-22 is fully extended.)

 
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#4 ·
the mosin-Nagant is a rifle series manufactured by the russions (and soviet union from the early 1900s through the second ww. the nmost common are the mosin 91/30, which i have, the 44 carbine, adn the 38 sniper. the thing to look for are pre ww2 and hex receivers. I got lucky and got a lightly used one
 
#8 ·
Russian built? Let me guess; Mosins are inexpensive to manufacture, extremely durable, and require little or no maintenance. Also, not terribly accurate (except for the 38).

The Mosin Nagant was the rifle used by Vassili Zaytsev in the battle for Stalingrad. Vassili Zaytsev was an extremely capable sniper and was the winner of one of the most famous sniper vs. sniper battles ever.

Vasily Zaytsev - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One can also see the movie Enemy at the Gates.
 
#6 ·
you nailled it and the sniper is not specifically accurate.
all mosin rifles are chambered in 7.62x54R

here is a bit of humor, but is actually based a lot in fact

Mosin Nagant Humor  AK vs. AR vs. Mosin Nagant

the best of which:

AK:- You buy cheap ammo by the case.
AR:- You lovingly reload precision crafted rounds one by one.
Mosin:- You dig your ammo out of a farmer's field in Ukraine and it works just fine.
 
#7 ·
you nailled it and the sniper is not specifically accurate.
all mosin rifles are chambered in 7.62x54R

here is a bit of humor, but is actually based a lot in fact

Mosin Nagant Humor* AK vs. AR vs. Mosin Nagant

the best of which:

AK:- You buy cheap ammo by the case.
AR:- You lovingly reload precision crafted rounds one by one.
Mosin:- You dig your ammo out of a farmer's field in Ukraine and it works just fine.
I'm pretty familiar with Soviet tanks and just assumed that their rifles embody the same design philosophy; cheap, robust and highly effective in large numbers.

One of the biggest kicks I had (years ago) was to drive a T54. It was truly a crude, rude beast!
 
#12 · (Edited)
This is what I did with my 1938 Mosin at 100 yards using iron sights and 60 year old ammo.



Not great, but good enough for a $100 rifle.

Over 17 million were produced and they were used against US/Allied forces in Vietnam.

7.62 x 54r, here on a stripper clip.

 
#17 ·
Just about all you get here in the US are refurbed. The cosmoline is a great preservative. Got mine on line uu for 99 bucks. It was manufactured in Russia in 1941 at the Isveck armory (same as the one in the OP) you can tell by the arrow in the star. Really pretty easy to clean up. Mine came with a sling as well as a cleaning kit and ammo pouch. Fun to shoot and cheap at that.
 
#18 ·
Let us not forget that there were a good number of FEMALE snipers in WWII - Soviet - they all used versions of the Moisin.

The most famous was: "Lyudmila Mykhailivna Pavlichenko (Ukrainian: Людмила Михайлівна Павліченко; Russian: Людмила Михайловна Павличенко Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko; July 12, 1916 – October 10, 1974) was a Soviet sniper during World War II. Credited with 309 kills, she is regarded as the most successful female sniper in history."


Vasily Zaytsev made over 400 kills. The movie "Enemy At The Gates" tells some of his story. Parts left out are difficult to believe -- "One day, Zaytsev’s commanding officer called him up and pointed at an enemy soldier in a window 800 meters away. Zaytsev took aim from his standard-issue Mosin-Nagant rifle, and with one shot, the soldier was down. In less than a few moments, two other German soldiers appeared in the window, checking their fallen officer. Vasily fired two more shots, and they were killed. For this, together with the Medal for Courage, Vasily was also awarded a sniper rifle.". He was a country boy who grew up in the Ural Mountains hunting deer and wolf.

Moisin - a cheap main battle rifle. Ammo is also cheap. Powerful, works -- everyone should have at least one.
 
#21 ·
People may be surprised, however, that the Mosin Nagants were the most accurate infantry-issue rifle in WWI and WWII. They were also the most accurate sniper rifles. These examples in the posts above don't show it, but Mosins were required to hold a 1.5 MOA group before leaving the factory. Obviously, this was when they were brand new and hadn't been chewed up by war yet. My buddy has a pre-WWII octagonal receiver from Tula that will hold 3" easily at 100 yards from a bench with cheap ammo. It's been counterbored and it is in very nice condition.

My Mosin, on the other hand, shoots about two feet high and right without the bayo attached. Suck.

Regards,

Rob
 
#22 ·
Hi All,

I'm hoping this might help some folks in this thread.

I apologize in advance for the screw heads; they were taken apart literally hundreds of times. I've since replaced them and found a proper bit for my torque wrench that will not cause damage to the new ones, even over the long-term!





Front view of the prototype that started my business...


... and the rear.

The action is shimmed and the barrel corked:



I also made some cool things like a two-stage Finn M39-style trigger. Instead of pins, it has bearings :D









You can barely see a couple bearings under the sear.

I'm not going to risk selling it though. Liability. Dangit. I will, however, share the design:

Here is one I did while taking time to record the manufacture. Please bear in mind that this is during manufacture and it does not yet have grease or bluing on it.









I may manufacture these one day if I can find an insurance provider that doesn't ask crack-smoking prices to insure the product; meantime I have no problems with folks making them for themselves. I'd advise against making them for others just because of liability.

These cannot be patented as a very similar product, the Finnish M39's trigger, has been around since at least 1939!

One company makes an arguably inferior trigger utilizing a ball bearing. It is single-stage and feels much like a S&W revolver's trigger pull. I believe but cannot prove that their use of the ball bearing is their way of modifying the design enough to patent it.

Anyway, even if this were patentable – a doubtful prospect as I said – I'm throwing the design into the public domain so that it cannot be patented due to a preexisting specimen.

This is the same reason the Ruger LCP is so similar (the same, even!) to the Kel-Tec design: Kel-Tec never patented those lil' pistols and Ruger picked it up.

I want the best manufacturers to make products I buy, not folks who think up the idea then farm it out to China to be made cheaply. There are too many awesome designs out there that are poorly executed, but nobody else can pick these up for fear of patent infringement.

If I get the time and the insurance to make these, I will. If not, somebody with a drill press and a few other tools along with a bit of skill is more than welcome to make them. My feelings won't be hurt.

As I said, this is a Finnish idea that I just improved on a bit.

This rifle is capable of this (or rather, I'm capable of doing this, with my 20/55 sight; I'm sure the rifle's much better):



I had to work for that group, but as long as I have a target I can see, I can do about that.

I know what these rifles can do and I love to see folks wring them out. Heck, a Finnish M39 had to have at least a 1.3MOA capability to be accepted into service!

Josh

 
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