finnish nagants vs russian

[sheepdog]

Do the finnish have really tight barrels or something? I just bought one at a show, used my 30-06 muzzle gauge for laughs only to find it would bearly go in, ie tighter that most M1 barrels even though it should be a .311 or bigger

[crazy mark]

Sheepdog, which model Finn do you have. The 28/30 had a .308-.310 bore. I've never had a Finn that was over .311 and they are really nice rifles. I have 2 M39's and one is on a 1896 and the other is a 1905 action. Somebody wanted my 28/30 more than I did so I sold it for $300 profit. I really like the Finn's.

[damron g]

Do the finnish have really tight barrels or something? I just bought one at a show, used my 30-06 muzzle gauge for laughs only to find it would bearly go in, ie tighter that most M1 barrels even though it should be a .311 or bigger

My Finn 28/30,39and 91's are all about .309 and the Ruskies I have are all over the board.I bought a Finn "SA" marked capture 91-30 with all Russian parts(mint .311 bore) that had a wallowed out muzzle and once cut and recrowned it shots as well as most of the Finns.

George

[Multigunner]

From what I read on a Finnish site they found that captured Russian rifles often had bores of .316, but captured ammo often had bullets of .308 and even .306 in some cases.
They then discovered that many US Remington Manufactured Mosins had bores of .308 and shot every size bullet with good accuracy. They then steadily decreased the bore size of Finn produced replacement barrels, I think .309 was supposed to be the smallest bore size they used, but probably a few .308 bores were made.

[sheepdog]

This is a Sako marked m39 wit a hex receiver pre commie.

[Larry Gibson]

This is a Sako marked m39 wit a hex receiver pre commie.

My Sako rebuilt hex recievered M39 has a .311 grove depth barrel with a .298 bore. Most othe such M39s are also this tight with the deeper lands. That is indeed a tighter bore than most milsurp '06s.

Mine will shoot .308 j bullet with longer bearing surfaces very accurately. However it shoots most all .310 - .312 j bullets extremely accurately. I size my C312-185s and 314299s at .312 and they shoot exceptionally also.

Larry Gibson

[StarMetal]

My Sako rebuilt hex recievered M39 has a .311 grove depth barrel with a .298 bore. Most othe such M39s are also this tight with the deeper lands. That is indeed a tighter bore than most milsurp '06s.

Mine will shoot .308 j bullet with longer bearing surfaces very accurately. However it shoots most all .310 - .312 j bullets extremely accurately. I size my C312-185s and 314299s at .312 and they shoot exceptionally also.

Larry Gibson

Larry,

My Sako Hex receiver Finn 39 has an honest .310 groove, which I thought was the standard for the M39.

I noticed you said "tighter bore then most 06 milsurps". Some will challenge you thinking "groove", but I caught that.

[Multigunner]

The early Enfield built FAL barrels also had an undersized "Minor Diameter" of .298-.299.
The purpose being to extend usable bore life.

I had a list of Finn Nagant bore sizes and they seem to have reduced bore size (major diameter, groove to groove) with each new issue of rifles or replacement barrels.

[Jack Stanley]

I saw a thirty-nine at the show the other day . At four hundred and twenty-five bucks plus tax I wasn't going to be the one to try it out .

On the other hand the thirty-nine I already have has a three eleven groove .

Jack

[webfoot10]

I have a 1898 Tula 91 that is a finn capture, I don't think the finns did anything special to
the barrel, except to counterbore it. It measures out to .310 bore dia. I think the early
russian barrels were bored a bit tighter that the later WW2 Rifles. I use a 31141 cast
boolet in mine sized .312 over 12 grains of titegroup and get two in groups with the iron
sights at 100 yds. from a bench rest. I think that this is the original barrel. Finn barrels are
bored .308- .309 dia.

[Gee_Wizz01]

I thought the Finn bore diameters were based more on the barrel manufacturer. I have a 91 and a 27, both with pristine bores, the 91 appeared unfired after the re-barrel, has a .311 bore; the 27 has a .310 bore. Both are extremely accurate with cast and jacketed bullets. The M27 has a very tight chamber, and some surplus ammo wont chamber. A friend had a Finn that he says had a SIG barrel and it slugged at .308, IIRC it was a 27 (it was a long time ago) and it was a tack driver. I wish I had bought more of these when they sold for $39, and nobody wanted them, the Finns were mixed in the with the Ruskies at a local dept stores sporting goods section.

G