Fleet Farm Mosin Nagant M91/30

[plblark]

Thank you both

I am not sure my shoulder is up to that rifle... But the price is nice...

I have a .270. It wasn't as bad as that. There's a LOT of wood and steel to soak recoil. That said, why tempt it. Get a clip on recoil pad or a strapped on shoulder recoil pad and then go enjoy it

[Grayskies]

Had not thought of that, ty

[mn_smokeater]

bah try a M44 with some heavy ball ammo!

is gun! supposed to kick!

[wrench]

For heavy recoiling rifles with metal buttplates, get one of these...
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/de ... ber=284105
and you can shoot all day.

[heavy metal daze]

or ducttape a diaper to either the buttstock or yer shoulder.

[White Horseradish]

It's got a sharp edged metal butt plate

That's a crowd control device.

poor ergonomics.

Ergonomics are fine. You're the wrong shape.

I don't have a particular problem shooting them while wearing a t-shirt. They are not forgiving of incorrect stock placement, know your pocket.

[dtapper2]

I ended up picking up at 1937 Tula M91/30 today up at FF up in Brooklyn Park. Everything on it is in awesome condition and no Soviet refurbishing marks to be seen. I am pleased so far and I cannot wait to shoot it.

[Philo]

I ended up picking up at 1937 Tula M91/30 today up at FF up in Brooklyn Park. Everything on it is in awesome condition and no Soviet refurbishing marks to be seen. I am pleased so far and I cannot wait to shoot it.

That's cool. I may buy another one when they go on sale again and I will try to find a pre-war Tula with a nicely machined barrel.

I spent about three hours last week disassembling, cleaning, lubricating, and reassembling my Mosin. I removed a hell of a lot of cosmoline. The bayonet also had to be filed out to make it easier to attach to the muzzle. The only tricky part was setting the firing pin protrusion within the acceptable range. I didn't like the crappy teardrop gauge that came with the rifle. I used my dial caliper.

I just shot the rifle for the first time yesterday, complete with bayonet. It was fun to shoot a rifle that probably had not been shot in over 50 years. I put 20 rounds through it and I could feel my shoulder starting to get a little tender. I was wearing a thin golf shirt. I switched to my AR-15, which has almost no recoil by comparison.

[autobahn]

I have a gripload of the lighter weight ball ammo for the mosin and I can shoot all day with it without too much pain.

[yuppiejr]

Some other buying advice I've picked up on while reading that may or may not be useful to anyone else shopping Mosins at FF:

- Ideally the bolt & receiver have the same, original serial numbers (electro-pencil does not necessarily count) if possible, having the magazine floorplate and buttplate also match the bolt/receiver is nice if you collect or may sell to a collector later.
- Counterboring is pretty common but it's worth looking for one that isn't if the bore is in otherwise good shape and the muzzle crown isn't damaged.
- Not everything they have is on the floor, if it's not busy and ask nicely and the sales associates I talked to didn't mind checking crates/boxes for non picked-over options.
- Opening the ammo spam cans with the official "can opener" sucks.. however, while the screwdriver and hammer method per Youtube seems fast, having done so and later considered the implications of an errant hammer/screwdriver combo hitting the primer of just one cartridge protected by only a thin layer of paper was a "WTF were you thinking" moment. I'm thinking tin snips along the outside edge of the can would be a smarter play next time I have occasion to open one of these while avoiding great bodily harm or a nice insurance payout for the wife and kids.

[Norsesmithy]

I've never had any problem with the issue can opener. I've never taken more than a minute or two to open a can.

But with the hammer and screwdriver method, you shouldn't be able to slip and hit a primer unless you were doing something very wrong.

[farmerj]

while you guys are at it...

May want to take the time to find a firing pin gage tool. Let's you know you have the firing pin protrusion set correctly if you ever disassemble the bolt. They get as much gunk up in the firing pin channel too.

Figure 42 shows the step.

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

[Philo]

while you guys are at it...

May want to take the time to find a firing pin gage tool. Let's you know you have the firing pin protrusion set correctly if you ever disassemble the bolt. They get as much gunk up in the firing pin channel too.

Figure 42 shows the step.

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

I had to take my bolt apart completely. It had cosmoline packed into it. My FF rifle came with a cleaning kit that included the gauge tool. It looked different than the one in the instructions in the above link and I wasn't sure how to use it properly because Century didn't cover that in the instruction sheet that came with the rifle. I ended up using my dial caliper to verify that the pin protrusion was within range.

[yuppiejr]

I've never had any problem with the issue can opener. I've never taken more than a minute or two to open a can.

But with the hammer and screwdriver method, you shouldn't be able to slip and hit a primer unless you were doing something very wrong.

A hybrid approach probably works best (at least fastest), use the stock opener on one of the long sides to break the initial seal and then use the hammer/screwdriver method (hitting the screwdriver from the side, not the top) from the starter hole to get it the rest of the way. After comparing the can opener I originally got with one that came with my last spam can I think I had a jacked up opener, the second worked much better other than some minor futzing around the corners.