That's a standard Mosin-Nagant 91/30 chambered in the very manly 7.62X54mmR cartridge, a staple of the Russian infantry since its introduction in 1891. Yes, 15 years older than the venerable .30-06...
I would have taken the picture with the bayonet attached except that I would have needed to shoot the picture from my second story window to fit everything in. Without the bayonet on I still had to stand on a chair to get the whole rifle in the shot - that's a 32"X50" map of the US for the background.
Next week, a rifle that's about as far from this shoulder-kickin' beast as possible...
That is all.
11 comments:
I adore mine. My 6-year-old son is continually amazed that Daddy owns a gun bigger than he is. Heh.
A very fine piece, and a fantastic bargain to boot! And it's little brother, the M44, is just as wonderful, although phrases like "kicks like a mule" and "flinch machine" are sometimes associated with it.
I bet with match quality ammo coupled with that l-o-o-o-n-g barrel, the 91/30 has the potential to be really accurate, too.
As a final comment . . . Battlefield obstacles? No worries. Use your MN to pole-vault over them!!!!
Three words: Limbsavr recoil pad.
I can truthfully attest, that rifle represents a grave threat to the country's water-filled 2-liter soda bottle population.
I have two of the shorter versions, the M38 and 91/59. I've yet to fire either, but I'm told that recoil and muzzle blast are impressive. I found some nice recoil pads on close out at Walmart for when the day does comes.
Hmmmm, maybe at the Meat, Greet, and Shoot!
liberty,
I actually bought mine based, in part, on the fact that it was the centerfire rifle voted "Most Likely To Be Mistaken For A Musket"...
BillH,
Absolutely. I bought mine from a local gun store before I got my C&R license, and it was STILL cheap. And I didn't have to remove 18 pounds of cosmolene...
brad,
Remind me to dig up the "Stuff AR/AK/Mosin Owners Know" chart one of these days. It compared the three rifles across many categories, one of which was the bayonet. IIRC, for the AK it said "people are moderately afraid of your bayonet"; for the AR it was "people laugh at your bayonet"; and for the Mosin it was "you can use your bayonet to stab your enemy across a river"...
ebm,
Already got one - same one TOTWTYTR got at WallyWorld... It serves double duty on my Mauser...
Bruce,
Heh. I almost forgot about that... This year we'll have the 2.something gallon laundry detergent jugs filled with water as targets. I've been saving 'em for over a year now (I currently have 8...)
TOTWTYTR,
As I mentioned, I got the same slip-on recoil pad. Helps a LOT...
The M38, M44, and hex receiver 91/30 are on my list of "guns I will be forced to buy when Cadillac Deval passes the one-gun-a-month law and I start actually buying one gun every month out of spite"... Maybe two each. I'd like to have an entire gun cabinet filled with nothing but Mosins...
The Chart
http://62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinHumor.htm
Jay,
There are two or three sections devoted to the Mosin at the Gunboards Forum.
Mine is a 1952 Polish T-44, which I bought new and unfired at Collector's Firearms here in Houston.
Wicked accurate it is, and the recoil, though noticeable, is far from objectionable.
Recoil? The rifle my ex stole and sold back in my '99 divorce was the epitome of Newtonian punishment.
Ruger 77mk1 International. Chambered in .308 with an 18" bbl, Manlicher stock and carrying a 6x Leupold, it weighed barely 7 lbs, if that.
Muzzle blast for muzzle blast, the Ruger and the Mosin were kin. But the Ruger attacked the shoulder and cheek in a way the Mosin never approaches.
Still, I slayed a good two score of deer with it before it vanished from my grasp.
I may have to get an M-44, and set it up as was the Ruger. That'd be fun.
Jim
Sloop New Dawn
Galveston, TX
As the proud owner of both a 91/30 and a CHINESE Type 53 copy of a M44, may I say that one of the most fun things I have ever done with a rifle is take a newbie to a range to shoot first a 22 rifle, then the carbine. The muzzle blast and fireball are magnificent, and the look on the newbie's face is always one of wonder and awe at the power they control, that just kicked them in the shoulder.
I passed on the first few new, unfired M44's I saw, due to my own ignaorant newbie-ness in firearms at the time. $89 for a non-corroded barrel now seems like a fantasy. I wants both a new Polish or Czech M44 and an octoganal barrelled 91/30.
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