mauser06

kinda going against my name here from the historical point of view....but dad recently told me he been seeing alot of mosin nagants at the gunshop selling pretty cheap....were both into mausers...i was the original...dad collected a few originals.....the only thing i know about them is they were used in WWII...particularly the scene in "enemy at the gates"..the snipers rifle.......and they fire a 7.62x54R right?? which of these guns are the GOOD ones?? im sure they are like mausers..everyone made them and many variations...but theres better ones then others...so what are the good ones??? hows the caliber compare to a popular cartridge of todays time?? can i even find factory loaded ammo?? hornady custom or anyone make it?? accurate guns or junk?? im happy with the mausers in the house....but heck....why not jump on a sleeper while its cheap?? mausers used to be sold for dirt.....now im seeing them go 300+ anyone know about these rifles?? just wondering...id love to set one up like vassilis sniper rifle.....me and dad could have shoot outs...original mauser vs original nagants! lol thanx guys

Briman

Cheap, overbuilt, and powerful. The 7.62x54R is roughly the equivalent of a 308 winchester.

The actions can be a bit clunky on some of them and the magazines are somewhat difficult to load without stripper clips.

They are not all equal.

Finn Mosins were usually captured from the Russians and were rearsenalled with a new barrel and stock. Finn built mosins are very accurate, but also cost in the realm of $200+

Russian mosinsrun the gamut of being completely worn out to being halfway decent shooters. A lot of them are on the market right now and are described as 'arsenal refinished to excellent condition'-most of these simply have the stock refinished or a new stock installed- always check bore condition.

The 91/30 and 1891 are Russian long rifles. M38s, M44s and M59s are russian carbines. In general, the full length rifles will be much better shooters than the carbines. The carbines will give you dismal to acceptable accuracy. I much prefer the full length rifles not to mention they tend to balance really nice for me.

Soilarch

My buddy (two of 'em actually) can get a box of 20 for 5 or 6 bucks!!!! And if I recall right, it sits right between a 308 and 30-06. For the money they can't be beat, and I'll probably buy one this summer when I got some dough to throw around. The only thing I don't like about them is the fat front sight...but you can get past that pretty easy.

Briman

That's actually pretty expensive commie fodder.

The local Gander Mountain has 900rd crates of the stuff for $85. Another store in my area had360 rd spam cans for $35 a piece a few years ago- I cleaned them out of their stock

Lookey here: http://aimsurplus.com/acatalog/copy_of_7_62x54R.html

or here: http://ammoman.com/index.htm

biscuit jake

I did own one for several years but the bore was not in the best of shape. I think they would be fun to own from the standpoint of having a piece of history, but I would not set my expectations very high unless you find a sniper model. Norma used to make some decent ammo for them. The rifle was at least good enough to help win WWII. Get a late model though, one built for smokeless powder.

longrifle1000

I had one of the Russian ones for a few years. I paids, if I remember right, $75 for it. The stock was in bad shape, but the bore was great. I replaced the stock with a sporter synthetic number from Sportsmans Guide. The gun shot great out to 200 yards for me, using the iron sights. Ammo was extremely cheap, and it was a very fun gun to shoot. You just have to watch for corrosive ammo. Most of what I shot was corrosive, just need to clean the gun when you are done shooting. I am thinking about picking up another one just to plink with.

Charley

MNs were all manufactured to shoot smokeless powder. The 7.62x54R was never a BP cartridge.

The Finns are the best shooters, particularly the M39. Finnland was a part of imperial Russia, they split slightly before the October Revolution, I believe. They had thousans of Russian rifles in the imperial arsenals they took over, so I guess you could say they were captured. Most of the later rifles werer captured during the Winter War and the Continuation War.

The common "Sniper" from Enema at the Gates is the M91/30. There are plenty of replicas around. going for $350 to $500. Genuine snipers are considerably more.

The MN was adopted in 1891. It did considerably more than fight in WWII.

Briman

I'm pretty sure they are still being used today in some corner of the world. Mosins and SMLEs are two rifles that will probably still be seen in backwater countries 50 years from now.