7.62x54
 

I've got this old Mosin Nagant 91/30 that I've been kicking around for years. It's a flat out shooter, and I've been thinking about deer hunting with it for the late season.

Have any of you used the 7.62x54 round with any success? I know it would work but I'm curious as to what to expect. The ammo that shoots best out of it is "wolf" brand 200 grain soft points.

If all else fails, the rifle is long enough that I could probably pole vault over brush with it to get closer to the deer.[8D]

RE: 7.62x54
 

The mosin nagant and it's cartridge the 7.62x54r is likely the most underrated combo in history. In 2 world wars,and countless other conflicts,russian snipers (including a LOT of women btw) made clean 1 shot kills in excess of 1,000 meters,and sometimes much further. If your eyes and markmanship are up to it,there's NO reason you can't hunt deer with soft point ammo. I'm assuming your 91/30 is still unaltered and unscoped,therefore I would guessitamate 200 yards max range unless you're really good with iron sights.

RE: 7.62x54
 

Is is fairly unaltered. When I bought it, it was covered in rust and the stock looked like it would fall apart, so I cleaned all the rust off of it and washed the stock, buffed it with a little steel wool and put a new coat of stain and a protective finish on it. All the original markings and stamps are still there, but it looks a lot better now. Here's a few pictures of it.





I've shot it at 200 yards before and it did ok, but unless it was a wide open field with a good rest and good light, I don't think I'd shoot it at that range for hunting. Many of the farmers around here use the Mosin Nagant carbine, but they mostly shoot coyotes and other varmits with it.

RE: 7.62x54
 

I got one last year as a Christmas present. Still haven't shot mine:D. Mine had a bayonet attached. I removed it and plan to dremel off the bayonet lug...then put an ATI stock on it and use it for hunting. Some people frown on "bubbatizing" a rifle like this but they're a dime a dozen and I won't own a gun that I can't hunt with unless its a pistol...Yours looks real nice.

RE: 7.62x54
 

I practiced with mine, was very comfortable out to 150 yards for this season. Hit atree branchat35 yards and watched 8 doe bounce into the ravine in front of me ....
I wasshooting a 208 grain soft point out of mine. I was very practiced up..grrr just low light and not the best vision I totally missed the tree branch i hit!!! I ended up getting one with my .30-06 later that day... I was also shooting with a cast on my hand.... and as heavy as the nagant is...it was a little rough to shoot! I love my nagant, and will try again next year!!!
-Jake

RE: 7.62x54
 

Be careful if you shoot any of the surplus ammo. I bought some, and it was unbelievably corrosive. It was a great price for practice ammo. But it was not worth it. Tom.

RE: 7.62x54
 

Lol, I did that when the rifle was "new to me" and it rusted after just sitting in the closet! I never shot surplus ammo out of it after that.

RE: 7.62x54
 

I shoot some surplus...clean it really good and haven't had any rusting problems.
-Jake

RE: 7.62x54
 

I have an M91 also that I have just finished upgrading. I have put a new ATI stock on it, with a scout scope with a muzzle break. It shoots much better now with a lot less recoil than it did without the muzzlebreak.

Thinking of taking it Hog hunting.

RE: 7.62x54
 

Wiggy, that round is so similar to the .30/'06 and the .308 that you'd never be able to decide which one was used to make a given wound channel in a game animal....

It is best to treat all eastern bloc made ammo as corrosive whether it is or not! Clean your bore with hot, soapy water (or WWII GI bore cleaner) after shooting such stuff. Then oil or otherwise preserve the bore....

RE: 7.62x54
 

We have that same gun, its extremly accurate. The recoil isnt that bad at all either.

RE: 7.62x54
 

Wiggy, the 7.62x54R is more than adequate for deer. The performance is equal to, or slightly better than, the .308 Win. If your rifle is accurate then it'll do just fine. I've had two Mosin-Nagant rifles, one was the full rifle like yours, and the other was a carbine (I can't see how they could fight at night with the carbine, not only was it LOUD, the muzzleflash was blinding at dusk, let alone in pitch black). The carbine was not very accurate at all, and the rifle I had wasn't all that much better, but as a 100 yard gun it would have done ok. My biggest gripe are the very poor iron sights on eastern bloc rifles. Not great for precision shooting.

My father-in-law and his brother hunt with SKS carbines with Wolf soft point ammo, and they kill deer just as dead, just as fast as my .30-06 can out to 200 yards. The 7.62x54R is a lot more powerful than the 7.62x39 Soviet.

So if the rifle is accurate, I'd say go for it. Also, I don't think that any of the current production Wolf ammo is corrosive. A lot of the old milsurp ammo in the as-issued bandoleers or Soviet marked boxes was wickedly corrosive, but since Wolf had started making new-production ammo for export they appear to have gone to all non-corrosive primers so it shouldn't be a problem.

Mike

RE: 7.62x54
 

I've had wolf 7.62x54r ammo cause rust a few days after shooting a mosin nagant before. I don't know if it was a fluke to have gotten some corrosive 'non-corrosive' ammo or not. My guess is that Wolf gets their ammo from a lot of former warsaw pact countries and if they happen upon a pile of corrosive primers, they'll use them. I've had Wolf.303 brit cause corrosion too in short order, but I've never had problems with 7.62x39, 8mm, or 6.5x55 Wolf. I stillshoot wolf 7.62x54r ammo, but its no more accurate than the crates of czech silver tip ammo that I bought a few years back and am still shooting.

Accuracy varies greatly. I've never seen or shot a carbine that impressed me, and I own a few. wartime 91/30s are the luck of the draw as to whether that will shoot broadside of the barn or fist-sized accuracy at 100 yards. Prewar 91/30s, 91s, and anything rebuilt by the Finish are much better.

RE: 7.62x54
 

Czech silver tip ammo locks up my bolt for some reason. Accuracy wasn't as good as with the Wolf brand either.

The iron sights are fairly crude, but I have an easy enough time using them. Reminds me of the sights my Daisy BB gun had when I was a kid. It makes good groups, but a little KY windage has to be used since it shoots about 4" to the right at 100 yards. The trigger isn't bad either, about the same as the old Enfields I used to have. I'm planning on using it for the last week of the season here. I've had the thing for this long and only punched targets with it, it's time it got a little real use. I found out quick these things are about impossible to sell anyway.