Bore sighting mosin nagant
 

Friend has a mosin 7.62 x 54.Told me he bore sighted the gun w/the .32 cal. barrel dowel.Told me the .308 dowel was loose in the barrel.So I check it and sure enough the .308 dowel has plenty of play.So I insert the .32 cal. dowel in the barrel and it fits snugly.First,two things:
1) the boresighter is a Red Head product made in china,of course.So size/quality control is suspect.[Don't have a micrometer or other measuring tool]
2] the gun is old and barrel probably has considerable wear being WW ll
production. But .32 cal?... [he can't give any insight on groups because the rifle is too painful to shoot and sight in w/its steel butt plate.This is being corrected.
Any thoughts on the above?

I also have a Red Head bore-sighter...my 30 cal dowel seems a little loose on my 308 cal riles, but not that loose....and while I haven't tried the 32 cal one in any of my 30 cal rifles, I can't imagine it would fit...my 30 cal one just isn't "that" loose...

Can't comment on the bore sight, never used one on any of my nagants.

The Mosin Nagant is a tricky one to get the hang of at first... not only are you dealing with a rifle that was mass produced in extreme excess, but could have seen heavy use (or none at all) by the time it lands in your hands.

Some Mosin 91-30's were "battle zeroed" out to 300 meters with bayonets in place, I've been told that removing the bayo can affect accuracy but have not tested this myself.

My M44 on the other hand, was zeroed at 200 yards. This meant that it was extremely hard for me to find paper in the beginning, not knowing that was the case.

The other issue your friend is most-likely dealing with is massive flinch because of the kick that these deliver. He's already said he doesn't like shooting it much, so I wouldn't doubt that he tenses up pretty good by the time the trigger breaks.

Modern has passed me by
 

I have no clue how to use dowels or lasers or whatever. Of course, I got trained by WWII vets and the last sighting in was done by taking out the bolt and sighting in the bore on a big orange vase twenty five yards away.
When it got below zero, those old Russian soldiers use to mix a little gas with the oil on the bolt to get them to work. Probably wouldn't pass a modern warranty. So forget I told you.
Yea, time has passed me by. Dowels!!!

I would get in the milsurp websites and look at what the reloaders say. I don't handload myself, but reloaders of these swag the bores for the very reason you describe. Some of the guns are very worn, others not so much. Most will be "dark" bores.

Many of these have wide tolerances, partly from wartime demands that made precise manufacturing too time consuming, battlefield wear and tear, etc.

Also, many of these were counterbored by the russian military arsenals, and that could perhaps affect the fit of your dowel. Literally, the last inch or so of the barrel was bored out at the muzzle because of a worn out crown. This was most common on the m38 and m44 carbine versions, though there are many 91/30s with it, too. The rifling effectively ends inside the barrel rather than at the muzzle. Shine a light down the barrel and you can easily tell if it was counterbored. The rifling won't come all the way to the muzzle, but will end somewhere short of it (probably an inch or two, though I've heard of 91/30s with up to 4 inches bored out). Counterboring was done for the same reason you'd recrown a barrel, so in theory it improves the shooting.

Good point.

You have to be really careful to check the barrels when buying these... the price point is so attractive (or it was...) that people would just buy them up without even looking them over.

I'd still say your friends problem with grouping has more to do with his shooting technique (or just major flinch factor), but it's really hard to say without knowing what condition the barrel is in.

Thanks to everyone for the responses so far.FF,that was the kind of response hoped for.I told him about this sight and this thread is bookmarked.I enjoy guns in general but don't keep up w/mil. surplus.Now we have something to look for.

[QUOTE=Psylocide ........

The other issue your friend is most-likely dealing with is massive flinch because of the kick that these deliver. He's already said he doesn't like shooting it much, so I wouldn't doubt that he tenses up pretty good by the time the trigger breaks.[/QUOTE]

Yeah,he put about five rounds through it then went to a different gun.The big issue was the steel butt-plate.I went for a visit recently and the newly installed recoil pad looks pretty good on it.A long eye relief scope is next on the agenda.