Nagant 1895

[cschauss]

I see that Bill's in Robbinsdale has Nagant 1895 revolvers for sale pretty cheap - about $139.00. I thought that they might make a nice antique piece as well as an unexpensive cabin defense weapon. Does anyone have any experience or opinion about these?

[Stradawhovious]

They are fun range toys, and a nice piece of history. Relying on one for personal defense..... You might want to give that a second thought. As cool as they are, and a fun as they are, they are less than convenient. It takes a long time to load them considering it is a gate loader, and even longer to unload them, considering the convoluted extraction method it uses. The single action triger pull is not terrible, but the double action requires a running head start since the trigger not only has to pull the hammer back, but also move the cylinder forward into the forcing cone. Not an impossible double action pull, but certainly impractical.

The 7.62x38r ammo this thing eats is expensive to say the least. The good news is that you can substitute .32 SW long or .32 H&R mag which are easier to come by, and much less expensive. Either way, it is a very underpowered cartridge. The good thing about using the 7.62x38r, is that it makes the Nagant the only revolver made that can be effectively suppressed since the round is subsonic, and the brass forms a gasseal against the forcing cone. Seeing as you live in MN however (assuming you do) it is unlikely you will ever be able to take advantage of that little feature.

All things considered they are great fun, and you should buy one...... but IMHO they do not make good self defense weapons. Too bad.... I just had quite a nice specimen here for sale for $140 with over a hundred rounds of ammo........ but you missed it.

[redaudi]

I might have to look into that....

If I can swing it past the finance minister...

[yuppiejr]

Ammo:

http://www.wideners.com/itemdetail.cfm? ... =100000568

1092 round crate = $319 + $22 shipping, $0.31 per round which is about $16 a box of 50.

[Spike]

Slickguns has some good deals too but after shipping, I don't know if they're any better than Widener's.

http://slickguns.com/category/ammo?caliber=31

[cschauss]

They are fun range toys, and a nice piece of history. Relying on one for personal defense..... You might want to give that a second thought. As cool as they are, and a fun as they are, they are less than convenient. It takes a long time to load them considering it is a gate loader, and even longer to unload them, considering the convoluted extraction method it uses. The single action triger pull is not terrible, but the double action requires a running head start since the trigger not only has to pull the hammer back, but also move the cylinder forward into the forcing cone. Not an impossible double action pull, but certainly impractical.

The 7.62x38r ammo this thing eats is expensive to say the least. The good news is that you can substitute .32 SW long or .32 H&R mag which are easier to come by, and much less expensive. Either way, it is a very underpowered cartridge. The good thing about using the 7.62x38r, is that it makes the Nagant the only revolver made that can be effectively suppressed since the round is subsonic, and the brass forms a gasseal against the forcing cone. Seeing as you live in MN however (assuming you do) it is unlikely you will ever be able to take advantage of that little feature.

All things considered they are great fun, and you should buy one...... but IMHO they do not make good self defense weapons. Too bad.... I just had quite a nice specimen here for sale for $140 with over a hundred rounds of ammo........ but you missed it.

Thanks, Stradawhovious. This would be in addition to my Beretta 96 and my AK-47..kind of a last stand kind of thing.

[Pezhead]

Could a Webley be affixed with a supressor?

[Stradawhovious]

Could a Webley be affixed with a supressor?

Anything can be affixed with a suppresor, the question will be whether or not the supressor will then be effective. The problem with supressing revolvers is the gas escaping at the cylinder gap, which makes a poo load of noise. The Nagant bypasses this by moving the entire cylinder forward, and feeding the funny uncircumcised looking case for the 7.62x38 directly into the forcing cone. When the round is touched off, the pressure fire forms the case mouth into the forcing cone making a gas seal. To my knowledge, the Webley doesn't do this.

Here are pictures of the 7.62x38r round. The one on the left is fired, the one on the right is unfired.

[omega8omega]

The original russian round for this revolver looks exactly like spent casing on the picture above. It has very slight difference in diameter between lower part of the round and the business end. It is very hot round comparing to Fiochhi (spelling?) that one can buy here.
I am 100% agree on the double action. But there are some methods to make it lighter, the best is probably in the book "Shooting sport" by A.Uriev. Also there are these revolvers in SAO and for target shooting.