http://www.mosinnagant.net/finland/M24-Rifle.asp
The rifle has a hex receiver from the Russian Mosin Nagant M91 rifle series which is the more sought after receiver. The wood furniture has been replaced with a Finnish two piece stock and upper handguard which features copper rivets. The stock has finger joints which you may be able to make out just behind the rear barrel band. The traditional Russian sling mounts which would require the use of "dog collar" slings have been replaced with the "hangar" type sling attachment. I have an un-issued sling amongst other things on it's way from Finland as we speak.
The rifle features the stepped German Bohler-Stahl heavy barrel, the stamp is hidden underneath the barrel within the stock. There were approximately 8,000 rifles made with these barrels. However, I believe that the replacement barrels the Finn's would have used for this model of rifle would have a tighter bore which would make it suitable for using .308 projectiles and the Finn's made this distinction from the original Russian calibre by denoting it as 7,62x53mm. The rear sight has had a new plate fitted and the elevation gradients have been marked in metres. Note: the lowest distance is 300m. The "S" within the shield on the top of the barrel stands for "Suojeluskunta" which is the Finnish Civil guard known as "The White Guard". If a rifle belonged to the Finnish army it would typically have an "SA" stamp in a square box on the side of the barrel near the receiver.
On the side of the receiver is a stamping of "S106801" which is the area of the Civil Guard in Finland which the rifle was issued to. My rifle was originally issued to the Jyvaskyla region, neat!
Towards the bolt head there are two stamps; one which is a triangle shape and another which is a diamond shape. I haven't been able to figure out what these markings mean.
On the underside of the bolt handle is a hammer in a circle which is a Tula marking.
So that's all well and good, but how does it shoot? Well it shoots a fine Finnish diet of course! Lapua 7,62x53 cases, Vihtavuori powder and a healthy dose of .30 calibre 167gr Scenar's! Vihtavuori has load data on their website for this calibre which also lists the use of .308 bullets. I have some N140 on hand so I started the load data for at 46,6gr and moved up in 0,3gr intervals with a max load of 47,8gr. Overall length was 75,00mm (or 2.953" for those unable to run a simple conversion). I loaded ten rounds at each load weight giving me a total of 50 rounds to take the the range. I have a larger selection of .308 bullets (>600) on hand but didn't want to load too many up just in case the .308 bullets weren't that accurate due to possible bullet fit which would then require .311 bullets. If .308 bullets shoot well then I have a huge range of possibilities on what I could feed my Mosin compared to .311 bullets (note: not so much of an issue now since 150gr .311 expanding bullets can be bought).
So I took the Mosina out to the 100m range where I set up with a front and rear bag. I wasn't quite sure where my first shots were going to go seeing as the rear sight had a minimum elevation setting of 300m so I just kept a 6 o'clock hold on the black. After the first magazine (5 rounds) I noticed that my shots were around a foot higher than point of aim. It's also worth pointing out how nice the trigger is! The Finn's added a mouse-trap spring to the trigger which makes a noticeable difference which also has a nice clean break. I settled myself in for the next five rounds having got used to the rifle and couldn't believe the group I had when looking through the binos.
Seeing that the first ten shots were around a foot high, I decided to keep the sights on 300m but aim at the bottom of the target. The following ten rounds were much better elevation wise but the group suffered because I wasn't able to repeat a good point of aim on the target so continued to patch my target and keep a 6 o'clock hold.
The remaining groups were respectable fist-sized groups, but started opening up a bit more towards upper load (although I may put this down to myself). This rifle is hefty at 9.5lbs, overall length of 51.5 inches and a barrel length of 31.5 inches, so does a pretty good job at mitigating recoil. I would like to say that the recoil is less than my Lee Enfield No4 and 8mm Mauser.
In short, for a rifle that's >100 years old it is in remarkable condition and is an excellent shooter! I'm looking forward to my next loading session using 155gr Scenar's and my next trip to Sennybridge F range to stretch it's legs a bit (although I fear that Mr Snayperskaya may bear a grudge about sharing a pit with a filthy Finn rifle
)
46,6gr (top group);
46,9gr (bottom group)
47,2gr
47,5gr
47,8gr
