Biweekly Gun Shots 11 - Mosin Nagant 91/30 (with Turned Down Bolt)

Mosin Nagant bolt action rifles are well known rifles. The many models and variations were the main battle rifles of the Soviet Union, and other eastern bloc nations, for many years. If you are not that familiar with them but have seen the movie Enemy At The Gate - those were Mosin Nagant rifles used by the Soviet snipers. That movie was set in WWII. The Mosin Nagant predates WWII by many years and went through many models and variants before it wound up used in that war. The 91 in the model number is short for 1891. The rifle was used from 1891 through the 1960s as a battle rifle. That includes service in: The Sino-Russian War, The Russian Revolution, WWI, WWII, The Korean Conflict, The Vietnam War and so forth. Of course once the old bolt action rifles were replaced with semi-automatics and fully automatic weapons the became dinosaurs for the eastern bloc military, but that took quite the while. That was a boon for collectors.

As for the actual rifle models of Nagant (as they are commonly called) I will not go into them all here, it would require pages and pages. I will discuss one of them though, not as to details of its history but as to its current availability and shootabilty.

Currently there are at least a few online vendors who offer the Mosin Nagant model 91/30. They are usually available with the round receiver but some also come with a hexagonal receiver. Both are usually inexpensive, that is unless you find a sniper model. The regular ones, with the straight bolt handle (it sticks straight out to the side and is not curved down when the bolt is closed) can be had for as little as about $80 plus shipping; figure about $20 to $25 for shipping. Not a bad deal. The sniper rifles, on the other hand go for about $400 to $500 apiece, plus shipping. The biggest difference between the two of them, of which I am aware, is that the sniper rifles have a turned down bolt handle. That means when the bolt is closed the bolt handle is pointing down, and when it is open the handle does not stick straight up as does the straight bolt handle but cants off to the right. The allows for a scope to be fit above the receiver, something impossible to do practically on the straight handled models because with it sticking straight up it gets in the way of scope rail and scope placement on the receiver. Another difference, of course, is that the sniper rifles come with a scope too, some with the original old scopes, some with new replacements.

If I wanted one of these rifles I would not care all that much about whether it had been a sniper rifle or not. I like to shoot em for fun, I am not about to use an old warhorse like a Nagant as a sniper rifle today. I would rather opt for a modern bolt action rifle, in a manageable weight, that shoots .308 ammunition, and that has an adjustable trigger. Yet, when I recently heard that Nagants maybe available with the turned down bolt for only $155 I figured I had best look into the situation. So I did a bit of Internet surfing and came up with this source of the Nagants with a turned down bolt at a great price: RGuns.net. Folks they have the Mosin Nagant 91/30 with turned down bolt for the amazing price of $155. My guess is that they had some extra bolts from the sniper rifles and put them into a regular 91/30.That is just my guess, maybe they were actually manufactured with these bolts but somehow I doubt the price would then be so low.

As for the basic Nagant design - it was built to last. These were true warhorse type guns: big, heavy, strong. They fire 7.62x54R ammunition which is readily available either in surplus (much of which uses corrosive primers) or current commercial manufacture (all of which should be noncorrosive). If you are familiar with them, you don't need me to make up your mind for you. If you are not familiar with them and are a shooting enthusiast, might I suggest maybe you should look into acquiring one or more of them. I am about to do likewise. If they still have them in stock, I will be sending them a copy of my C&R license as soon as possible. Once they receive it, I'll place an order. of course if you have a C&R you can order this rifle directly from them; otherwise you will need to go through a local FFL holder in your area. That adds more to the overall price of the rifle (probably around $50 average across the USA), but the rifle is still worth it in my opinion. It can last you for decades if cared for properly.

For more info on these rifles, see:

http://www.surplusrifle.com/russianmosin189130/index.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosin-Nagant

All the best and safe shooting,

Glenn B

C&R Firearms Availability Blues

It certainly sucks to see how the available stock of C&R guns is declining and not being replaced with other types of C&R guns. Several months to maybe even a year ago I recall having read something at one of the C&R dealer's sites about how the Bush Administration had made deals with foreign governments not to offer up surplus arms in exchange for favorable status as to joining NATO. It was hard to swallow then because I still held out hope that Bush was truly a Republican; however now that he has pulled all of the other socialist crap he has rained down on us, I can look back with hindsight and see it fit his agenda well.

As for the C&R guns, it is virtually to find new conditions SKS rifles, Mosin Nagants are becoming quite scarce, with M-44s virtually gone from dealer's shelves and only other and usually less desirable models are left over, and they are not in that great a condition. Many of the Mausers still are available, but also seem to be in shorter supply. Same thing with most of the C&R surplus pistols. As far as prices go, well the inability for dealers to replenish stock, already had prices going up. Then to add insult to injury prices skyrocketed after election of George W. Bush's socialist first cousin Barack H. Obama. This also badly effected C&R firearms availability.

What really sucked for me is that I ordered a new Yugo SKS from SAMCO and they sent me some piece of junk gun with stock repairs and gouges and dings, scratches on the metal and at least one bent part. I sent it back for an exchange, but only after waiting well over a month for them to send me a return mailing label. I finally got it sent in at the end of last week, and was expecting an exchange from them - but then came the bomb. I had contacted American Express about the charge asking a hold to be place don it until they made the exchange since it was taking so long to get any reply out of SAMCO in the beginning. They said okay. After a month they called me to ask what was up, or I called them, and I told them SAMCO said they would do the exchange so please don't take any further action unless they heard more from me. So what does American Express do - they get me a refund from SAMCO - the ineptness in that riles me badly. Since I ordered mine on the night of election day, the price has gone up substantially, and I suppose if SAMCO even offers and exchange now they will want to charge more for it because AMEX got me a refund. Maybe it was just not in the cards for me to have another one, but it would have been nice to have father and son Yugos.

Of course, I may get very lucky and SAMCO may still send an exchange that is in as advertised condition - which was NEW, and they will charge the same price. Time will tell. If they do not offer an exchange at the same price I can assure you I am done dealing with SAMCO. Their customer service was terrible until I spoke to a supervisor and even then it was not great. Over a month to get a return label is pretty poor service at that. In addition I ordered a Spanish Mauser from them about 6 months ago. I still have not seen that one. Oh well, there are always other C&R dealers, I can only hope there will be a continuing supply of C&R firearms available to us.

All the best,
Glenn B

Good Deal - Get Em While You Can

I was just browsing some of the surplus firearms dealer sites, and I came across a good deal. It is on a Russian Mosin Nagant, in aresenal refinish to excellent condition, at a price of only $69.95 plus shipping. That is pretty darned good since competitors are selling the same thing for anywhere from $89.99 to $99.99. Had I not just sent in an order for a M1916 Spanish Mauser to another dealer, I may well have been buying one of these. As a matter of fact, I may just have to count the change in the piggy bank and see if I come up with enough. The ad can be seen here: http://www.aimsurplus.com/acatalog/Russian_M44.html


All the best,
Glenn B

Fairly Cheap Ammo for Your Mosin Nagant

This ammunition is less expensive than any of it I have seen recently anyhow. It is Yellow Tipped, Bulgarian manufacture, surplus, 7.62x54R, Berdan Primed, Corrosive, Sealed in a Tin, Comes 300 rounds to the Tin, and cost $39.99. With the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, you may not see prices come down on current production 7.62x54R in quite some time.

If you decide to go for more quantity the cost will be: $73.63 for a 440 round tin (7.62x54R, corrosive, Bulgarian also, but not sure if the same type of bullets), or 800 rounds at $69.92 sealed in paper packets, also corrosive and also Bulgarian.

See J&G Sales for these prices.

All the best,
Glenn B