mosin91/30

[Taylor]

The gunshop that I frequent has a new crate of Mosin91/30's.With a sign posted saying they are unissued,maybe my version of unissued is different than his.That being said,they look used,I would think that this would mean they are new and never used.However this does not seem to be the case,as they look real used.Am I missing something here?It would seem that finding brandynew war rifles would be rare,especially at $119.00.Reguardless of what make they are.They are Russian,no Finns or anything else.Hex reciever on the majority.

[jack19512]

I'm sure they are not new and never issued. I could be wrong though. Probably arsenal refinished.

[mike in co]

I'm sure they are not new and never issued. I could be wrong though. Probably arsenal refinished.

as in never shot AFTER the arsenal "refinish"

note: "refinish" is NOT rebuilt.....just refinished.


mike in co

[jhrosier]

I heard that the Russians were such a poor country that they never made any new rifles, only used ones.

Most of the recent imports were rearsenaled. Look for counterbored muzzles.

Jack

[beemer]

I would examine them closely, especially the bore, most of the ones I looked at had rough bores. It seems that if you could see rifling it was good to go. I looked for a good bore a long time before I found one. I carry a cleaning rod when looking for a milsurp, if I can't see the bore I wipe it out or walk.

dave

[txpete]

I have been lucky over the years and got to cherry pick mine from a few dealers.I have a few refurbs with great bores.when I buy one the numbers match,excellent bores and crown or I pass.

pete

[bkbville]

A dealer here in NY has the same thing - ATI imports - "unissued" Mosin Nagants.

This is B.S. - the Russians issued EVERY rifle.

These were nice though - none counterbored, sharp rifling.

[JIMinPHX]

If the barrel is not counter bored at the muzzle or pitted, then it's a keeper. Some guys say that the hex receivers are preferred, but all the MNs seem to go for cheap, no matter what they are. I think that they are a really great bargain.

MNs tend to be some of the strongest actions that I have ever seen. They are a bit heavy to carry around, but they are really solid guns. Once you clean them up properly, the actions can actually be quite smooth too.

Cleaning the cosmoline out of those barrels can be a lot more work than most people realize. It took me about 3 days of using every cleaner that I could think of before I got most of it out. At first, I thought that I had a terrible barrel. 3 days of cleaning later, I found out that I actually had a pretty good one. The guys over at milsurp after dark have a bunch of tips on getting the cosmoline out. They range from boiling hot water to mineral spirits, to acetone to purple power cleaner to simple green to fast orange. I tried all of those plus a few. Everything seemed to help a little. Nothing made it easy & nothing worked as well as other people said it did. I went through 5 or 6 bronze brushes in the process too.

I have not had good luck judging the quality of a mil-surp barrel by inspecting it after running a few wet patches down the bore. That will not even scratch the surface of the 1940's vintage cosmoline that has been sitting in a warehouse in Siberia for 60+years. I've known people to put over 100 rounds through an old mil-surp rifle, with normal cleaning between each string of 20 shots & then swear that the barrel was "shot out", only to find out later that they were still shooting on top of a thick layer of cosmoline. If the rifling does not look very deep, then there is a good chance that there is still a lot of that crud in there.

[Three44s]

I have a M38 that's counter bored and I can shoot .308" J-word handloads (Winchester power points) and hit golf balls at 45 yds with the issued sights.

(I really like that old girl!)

Three 44s

[coyote hunter]

The story on these "unissued" M/Ns is that as eariler stated, they weren't reissued after the Soviet military FTR'd (factory through repair) them sometime in the late 50's or earily 60s. After the war the broke and cheap Sov. mil. went through all of the war rifles, gageing and rebarreling the usless, and simply refinishing anything the could still be issued in it's present condition. Then, since Patton didn't get his way, they were just racked up. What's being offered is just that, some are really like new, most however are well used but gaged to be with in specs to shoot Americans with in a pinch. What you might get via an order to a wholesaler is what ever comes to his hand from the pile. I have several like new 91/30s, but I did pick them out myself...also as stated eariler, with a cleaning rod ( and bore light) in hand.
Some of the counter bored rifles will shoot...especially the Finn guns, but the odds are steeply against it. I have always avoided these rifles and carbines so modified. It's still to easy to get good ones.
I hope this helps.

[dualsport]

Picked up a couple at Big 5 in Sacramento on sale. One was a surprise(they let me look at several), it has a 1943 dated barrel that is bright and shiney new looking! I never expected that, and it's not c-bored. The rest of the numbers were engraved to match the barrel #., overall nice condition, obviously reworked and reblued(black) with solid wood. Can't wait to shoot it. Next a carbine. Oh, they came with bayonets and sling plus accessories, all for $80!

[Hang Fire]

I picked up a bubbarized 91/59 from neighbor couple years back for $25.00. I then decided to pseudo scout it on the cheap. It is my only experience with a MN and I have come to really like it, talk about a sleeper, has proved to be a jewel in the rough.


http://hstrial-rchambers.homestead.com/early.html#

[damron g]

The gunshop that I frequent has a new crate of Mosin91/30's.With a sign posted saying they are unissued,maybe my version of unissued is different than his.That being said,they look used,I would think that this would mean they are new and never used.However this does not seem to be the case,as they look real used.Am I missing something here?It would seem that finding brandynew war rifles would be rare,especially at $119.00.Reguardless of what make they are.They are Russian,no Finns or anything else.Hex reciever on the majority.

I have a 28-30 Finn with a rather peppered bore that after i did a lap with Bob-Ami on a tight brush with a patch shoots very well.Even though the bore is .300 it likes a .302-.303 nose and shoots about 2" with irons.Not as good as a clean 39 i had,bur far better than thee 4" groups it started out with.

George

[kjg]

get what ever your heart desires, i own 2 m44 one counterbored,theother untouched and shootto minuet of deerand better, and a 91/30 thats counterbored
its all to the eyes of the beholder they all shoot fantasctic, and evenbeter with a lyman .413299 with unique 2400, or 4350 and has dumped deerand pigs with equall entusiasm, find what you like and have a blast.

[NickSS]

I have several MNs that I use My personal favorite is a Model 38 carbine that is counter bored but shoots very well with both surplus ammo and my own cast loads. My 91/30 is also a good shooter but the groups move around from one day to the next. I think there is something wrong with the beading but I have not taken time to figure it out. Of course it could also be the lighting and the way my eyes see the sights on different days/

[jdgabbard]

Believe it or not, the Russians did make quite a few rifles that they never issued... Why do you think there was such a rush on their stockpiles after the fall of the USSR...

That said, there are plenty of Mosin's that are pretty much new. Very few if any fired rounds thru them... But most of those rifles are gone now. Many were imported into the states and most of those have already found a home. I've adopted quite a few!

Now you said most are Hex recievers. Well I will tell you that if there are any Hex receivers in the lot that I'll be my last penny that they are very well used rifles. Those are 91s, not 91/30s. Those were made well before WWI, and in WWI the Russians found themselfs with 1 rifle for every 10 infantrymen. It was so bad the allies loaned, gave, and sold rifles to them just to keep them in the fight. Winchester even came up with a nicely modified lever gun for them with a bayonet to boot! Then these Mosin 91 rifles were the same ones that fought their civil war, and went on to fight in WWII.

They are well use...

[Three44s]

"Well used ........... " indeed ...........

But still going strong!!!

Regards

Three 44s