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I'm going to choose a Mosin Nagant next week, I'm after opinions and some pointers to help me find the pick of the litter. The place I'm going has a lot of choice, the original long rifle with both the early hex receiver and the later round type, m38 carbines and the later m44 with the attached bayonet. Of the examples I have handled before the carbines feel nicer but not sure how they will shoot.
Are there any particular maker that stand out? Any markings I should look out for? Or just general things to look out for?

Any help or pointers towards an online resource would be a great help.

I've owned an m44 and a 91/30 Tula with a hex receiver and I defiantly preffered the long rifle just my opinion though .

http://7.62x54r.net/
I found most of the answers I needed on the above site.
The carbines are fun to shoot but they have a LOT of recoil. M91/30's are a lot easier on the shoulder but they can still slacken your fillings if you don't keep them tucked in tight!
I own a 91/30 with a PU scope on it and I love it.
ATB
Ian

A mate near me has a carbine for sale for £60 - which I thought was on the low side of things price wise!
(It's the type without fitted bayonet - so the M38?)

I'd have had it from him if I'd been interested in such things

My ONLY interest in the M-N would be to find one of the Finnish versions...on my list of things to look for...

http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinM39.htm

I have an M38 and I love it, the fireballs it produces add to the fun, it's not a tack driver but then they only cost a few quid, ammo is cheap and it's a bit of history.

The carbines are really heavy on the shoulder they are cheap but my advice would be to go for the long rifle.
They all shoot well. Surplus ammo is available at reasonable cost but be aware the primers are corrosive if you use military ammo you MUST clean your rifle after every outing or it will rust your barrel out.

Cleaning is easy enough: a couple of pints of boiling water down the barrel, followed by a squirt of Forest foam, leave for 30 minutes and then pull through with a bore snake.

M1891 rifles are standard issue to Badger battalions, they'll outrange anything that Farmer Giles may be planning to use in the cull...

Love my m44, a gun you certainly know you've shot!
Even more so with some mil slurp I picked up, a bit heavy, take a hack of an effort to cycle the bolt using it, so I discontinued its usage as I didn't want to kill the rifle or myself!

Thanks for the info people, 7.62x54r.net is a goldmine!

Well, I spent one of the most interesting mornings in a while today. Having arrived at the dealer, which was right across the road from where I work (Who knew? Not me!), I was given a strip light and shown into a shipping container containing six or eight racking pallets of rifles and told to help myself. "This one is M44s, these are M91/30s and the early ones are over there with the oct receivers. I'll just ask you to be careful and to put everything back where you found it, have fun."
I could have spent days in there, and in the future i may do! Searching through the Mosin Nagants was interesting enough without having the added distraction of MG42s, Thompson parts, Stens, Brens, machineguns that looked like german aircraft or tank guns and even an FN browning pistol. outside the crate were more sights to see including four 20mm Hispano aircraft cannons in for deactivation.

In the end I decided on a 1938 M91/30 from Tula, with reasonable wood, a nice bolt and importantly a good feel to the trigger. Now it gets sent for proof and I can play with it when it gets back. I can spend the time in between thinking about what others i can save from the hatchet man!

legs748 wrote: In the end I decided on a 1938 M91/30 from Tula, with reasonable wood, a nice bolt and importantly a good feel to the trigger. Now it gets sent for proof and I can play with it when it gets back. I can spend the time in between thinking about what others i can save from the hatchet man!

Cool, how much was it and from which dealer ?