The new (old) Moisin Nagant the Rabbi sold me

[Rightwinger]

Now you guys that already know them well tell me about these rifles. I have some pics that are not very good as I can't use the wifes camera worth a crap and mine is down till I find the card reader again.

Rifling is pristine! Stock looks good. I originally thought I might sand and refinish it but would lose the stampings in the stock if I do. If you guys tell me they aren't of much value to tracking the rifle then I may go ahead and refinish anyway. Bolt looks to me like its a replacement since I didn't think the Russkis did stainless but it looks nice.

Anyway, you all fill me in on what to look for in the Moisin's (Mike.357 here's your invite to expound!)

Edited June 15, 2008 by Rightwinger
add pics

[Daniel]

look for some padding for your shoulder. i fired like 10 rounds and my arm was already sore when i first went out with mine.

[Guest AK4ME]

Thats an original bolt. Its not stainless,it was just left "in the white".

I added a Limbsaver slip on recoil pad to absorb some of the recoil. I can shoot it all day with no problems now.

I refinished one of mine and I love it. At Wal-Mart you can find this paint stripper called Dad's that will remove the shelac without the need to sand it at all. Just apply the stripper without getting it in contact with your skin. The shelac will bubble up and run off the stock. Then rinse it with warm water and repeat as needed. I applied the Dad's stripper 2 times and then used fine steel wool to finish it up and I didn't harm any of the markings. I used a stain called Bombay Mahogany to refinish it and it looks great. Its much darker than the original color and your tastes may vary. After I let the stain cure I used an aresol clear coat to seal it all up. You can get the clear in flat,matte, and gloss. I used the matte cause I really didn't want it to shine much. I get compliments on it at the range on a regular basis and I am kind of proud of it cause its the first one I ever refinished. I have some pics somewhere and if you want to email me with Mosin in the header I will reply back with some pics sometime soon.

drozd16@REMOVETHISyahoo.com Delete the obvious

Edited June 15, 2008 by AK4ME
Added content.

[Rightwinger]

That sounds like the ticket then. I have to hit Wally World tomorrow anyway so I'll pick some of that up. Where did you get the stain? WM as well? I'll look around.

All the refinishing I have done previously was either to low quality stocks (for the Ruger 10/22, New England Arms 20 gauge shottys for the boys) or to new semi finished stocks I have on my Savage 110 and Weatherby .340. I used Tru-Oil on all and love the look.

Darker wouldn't scare me with this one though as I was handling my brothers M1 and it looks great in dark colors. He liked the Moisin as well so he may have to give the Rabbi a call as well.

Guess I have switched over from AR building to collecting the old ones now.

[Rightwinger]

Oh, can anyone tell me what Mike was asking about? What Armory is it from? The pics are not detailed as much so tell me what to look for and I'll post it or take more in sunlight where I can get some detail.

Any links to good sites with take down info, diagrams, etc? I'll be taking it apart fully to do the re-finish work.

[xd shooter]

Check & see if this will help any.

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

You can find some info on the forum there.

Edited June 15, 2008 by xd shooter

[xd shooter]

O that is a nice rifle I did fondle it as The Rabbi got it in.

[Guest tokarev]

AK4ME is right on about the Dad's stripper. It works great, but it will burn if it gets on your skin. Wear rubber gloves and watch the spray (as you can probably tell, I got a few drops on me) I also have used the same technique as he does on a couple of my milsurps stocks and they do look good.

Nice looking 91/30 that you have there. Do you have the sling with the dog collars and the 18 inch "pig sticker" bayonet to go with it? I can't read the year stamp on the barrel shank, but by the fact that the receiver is round instead of octagon and that also on the barrel shank, there is a triangle with an arrow in it, shows that it was made at the Izhevsk arsenal.

One of my favorite milsurps, the Mosin-Nagants are what started me on the long road of military arms collecting. If you like history and reserching interesting weapons, you're eventually going to end up with a lot of these and other milsurps as well.

Here are a couple of links to web pages with a wealth of info. The first two are just on Mosin-Nagants and the third one is a link to another forum dedicated to milsurps of all kinds.

http://7.62x54r.net/

http://www.mosinnagant.net/default.asp

http://forums.gunboards.com/

Will you be at Owl Hollow next week for the get together? I'll have one of my M-N 38's there along with a few other milsurps and I'm sure that there will more than likely be at least one M-N 44 'booming' as well.

Enjoy your new rifle!

[Guest tokarev]

sorry, posted twice :-p

Edited June 15, 2008 by tokarev
redundant posting

[Mike.357]

These guys have already covered about everything you need to know.

the four links already given here are worth their weight in gold as far as information on the rifle goes.

All I will add is that I do not believe you need any padding for the buttstock.

Plant the rifle firmly against your shoulder and blast away. I will not be a party to the line of thought that Soviet men are more manly than capitalist men! LOL

Seriously the recoil is not all that bad, but it does let you know you have fired a rifle.

Carry a heavy mallet or a hunk of 2X4. Sooner or later the bolt will lock up on you.

[The Rabbi]

It came with gear, like the pig sticker bayonet.

His idiot gun seller forgot to pack the rifle in the box it came in before letting him out the door with it.

Sorry Rightwinger. I'll hold it for you.

[Guest dotsun]

Very nice. If you go through with the refinish, we'll be wanting new pics you know.

[Rightwinger]

Just got back from Wallys World and they didn't have Dads varnish stripper at mine, but they did have Kleen Stripper so I have that, Provincial (med brown) stain and clear kote in semi-satin so that project will probably start tomorrow.

Rabbi, no problem. You were trying to get out of there and I didn't care for another box. Besides, I like driving around East Nashville with a long gun riding shotgun!

Could you check if you have a smaller box that the pig sticker and other items (I assume the russki cleaning kit?) will fit in and let me know? If so I'll just bungee them to the bike and swing by tomorrow as I get off mid afternoon on Mondays. If not, I guess we wait till the next set of Thunderstorms so I will be in the truck.

[Guest clutepc]

Do you get those in very ofter Rabbi? What do you normally sell them for?

I've been looking for the same rifle in dated 1942 or 43.

I'll start looking a little more seriously in a few months.

Thanks!

[Guest Fastzntn]

I've got a Mosin dated 1934, so hopefully it shot a few Germans in WWII, or at least impaled them on the bayonet.

Mine was a pain to get clean. Hoppe's No 9 and Hoppe's copper solvent produced ok results. Outer's foaming bore cleaner worked better, and Sweet's 7.62 worked the best.

If I had to do it all over again I would buy stuff in this order 1) the rifle (duh), 2) Sweet's 7.62 solvent (I'm assuming you already have a nice cleaning rod, make sure it's long enough for the gun), and 3) lots of ammo!

Plus, a Mosin made it on the list of 10 manliest firearms!!

#9: Mosin-Nagant M44

Speaking of guns without safeties, here's the Mosin-Nagant M44 Carbine from Russia. The Mosin was used by the Russians against the Finns, the Finns against the Russians, the Estonians against the Russians, the Russians against the Russians, and the Russians against the Germans. It does, in fact, have a safety, but it's quite hard to engage. But this is not a complaint one would ever voice in the Red Army. Your officer would reply, "Safety? Safety? Is gun! Meant to kill! No warrior should know he has safety on gun, because he should be killing enemies of homeland! Safety make loud click to aid enemy in locating warriors! No safety!" while pounding his fist on the table.

And the Mosin can kill enemies of homeland. The muzzle blast will vaporize green growth within a few feet of the muzzle, and even if you miss, the enemy will be reduced to shouting "WHAT?" to communicate. You'll need a recoil pad or shooting jacket. Ordinarily, this might be considered unmanly, but this rifle has a short stock for using while wearing several layers of wool for a Russian winter. It is acceptable to wear padding to fire a Mosin.

Of course, there are also M38, 91/30 and other variations of Mosin-Nagant and all are cool. All, also (except the M38), come with a bayonet. Russian doctrine held that the bayonet was mounted except while traveling in a vehicle, because the Russians understood that an empty rifle could still be a pointy stick—a Viking spear. The Russians loved to spear Turks. So, coincidentally, did the Vikings. This rifle sounds better all the time, doesn't it? The Finns used the Mosin as a sniper rifle during the Winter War, and their greatest Sniper was Simo Häyhä, who had 500 confirmed kills in 100 days. This is a man the Finns describe as "modest" and "self-effacing." It's a good thing the Russians didn't run into a Finn who was proud and arrogant. They'd have been wiped out.

It fires a 7.62X54R (for "Rimmed") cartridge, about as powerful as .30-06, and holds the distinction of being in service from 1891 to the present, longer than any other military cartridge. It is still used in Dragunovs, PKMs and other Russian weapons. It's cheap in quantity. So are the rifles, because they were built for (all variations) over 70 years, by Russia, Finland, Poland, Romania, even the US. As I write this, arsenal-new M44s are $55 to $200. At that price, you should have several, so any guests you have during the Collapse can be outfitted as they receive Enlightenment. Then they can rape, kill, sack and loot with the rest of the men who secure a new Dark Ages to hasten the new renaissance. It will be a manly duty.

http://www.arthurshall.com/x_2007_manly_firearms.shtml

[Guest Revelator]

Oh, that is priceless. One of my personal beliefs of weapons is: if it won the battle of Stalingrad it has my undying respect.

[Rightwinger]

This rifle shoots very well! Recoil didn't hurt until this morning! I do have a bruise on the shoulder but have had worse with 300 magnums in the past. Will go a head and get a limb saver butt pad of some kind.

So I get home, I know the rifle shoots where I point it. Didn't need a 2x4 to operate the bolt......time to make it look good.

Last night I field stripped her, took the wood outside and stripped it using spray on shellac/varnish remover. Worked about 90%. I then washed it in warm water and then let it start to air dry. I then used a technique I don't know the name of, I'm sure carpenters or wood workers have a term for it but I use a knife, almost held at 90 degrees to the wood and then shave or scrape the thin layers of varnish and wood on the surface. It really got it down to wood only.

Here it is after removal of varnish by knife and prior to putting the steel wool to it for final sanding. (modeled by the wife for me) Will apply stain after lunch and see what we get.

[TripleDigitRide]

I'm having a hard time finding the rifle in the picture.

[Rightwinger]

Bubba, she says Thankyou! (and then said at least someone noticed me today for more than holding a rifle stock up).

[TripleDigitRide]

No problem. I'm a nice guy like that.

[Rightwinger]

Almost finished. After final light sanding and smoothing with steel wool I stained it with minwax Provincial brown stain. Two coats of that and drying (watched the race while paint dryed) a quick coat of poly seal and this is the final result. Not as "orange" looking as it was with the varnish on it and the arsenal stamps came out nicely as well. The stock itself did not take the stain as deeply as the neck but overall I'm happy. I have a few more pieces of the metal parts to polish up on the stainless steel wheel on the grinder and I'll put her back together tomorrow. Pretty fun weekend project.

[towerclimber37]

that turned out pretty nice! I like the nicely done nail polish...it gives the rifle stock a sophisticated look

[TripleDigitRide]

Yet again, no rifle to be found.

Looks good.

[Rightwinger]

Yall like that Mossy Oak model eh? So do I ! !