1895 Negant Revolver cylinder problem

R

rotomike

New member
I recently purchased ammunition for the first time for my 1925 Negant. The ammunition is 7.62mm from PPU. The problem is the shells are way too loose fitting in the cylinder. I measured the inlet side of the cylinder bore and they are all about 9.88mm, the outlet side of the cylinder bores are about 8.49mm. The wall thickness between chambers at the inlet is about .85mm. Looking at photo's of other Negant cylinders i can see now mine has clearly been modified, I just can't figure why, and for what size ammunition? The serial number stamped on the cylinder matches the gun frame. Any thoughts?
mike
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As best i can tell the cone is 8.37mm.
i purchased it on auction a few years ago. it appears to be in excellent shape.
mike
 
Here is view of inside the chambers, I don't know what other cylinders look like but this one appears to have been machined about 18mm into each chamber.
 

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Doesn't sound like it's been rebarreled. I'm at a loss to understand why the rounds seat so deeply into the cylinder. I first thought that it might have been rechambered to 8mm Roth-Steyr, but the barrel would have to be changed.
 
Could this Nagant have been rechambered for 7.62x25mm Tokarev?
The 7.62x25 is larger rimmed than the Nagant round so the chamber would swallow the 7.62x38R like that. Also the shoulder is just over 19mm from the base, which would fit the machining seen.

Note that this conversion is considered unsafe because the maximum pressure of the 7.62x25 is much higher than the 7.62x38R.
 
Is having the chambers re-sleeved to their original diameter a possibility?
Click to expand...

Seriously? Just buy a new cylinder, one that hasn't been altered.

Don't sink more money into this gun than it is worth.
 
I'm not sure how much it would cost, just wondering if it was an option, as I haven't been able to find any original cylinders that are available for sale.
 
Some owners had their Nagant revolvers rechambered for 7.62 Tokarev (7.63 Mauser), and that looks like one of them. The trouble is that the auto pistol round runs a lot higher pressure than the old revolver round and I don't recommend firing the 7.62 Tokarev in that revolver.

There are (or were) cylinders available for .32 ACP which can be fired as is, or reamed for the original round or other .32 rounds like .32 S&W Long.

Jim
 
I think JamesK may have the right answer. You could get some Cerrosafe and do a chamber casting, to be sure.

I second what JamesK said about shooting factory 7.62x25 rounds through it. Perhaps some reduced-pressure Tokarev rounds, just powerful enough to operate a Mauser C96 Broomhandle would be a safer proposition. I don't know where you'd find them if you didn't load them yourself.

The somewhat generous forcing cone dimension, probably to accommodate the Nagant cartridge's flared-out case mouth as the projectile passes from cylinder to barrel, worries me. At best, it won't help accuracy. If ever there was an application for a hollow based projectile...
 
The Nagant is not an especially strong revolver, and all those auto pistol loads run about 30-35k psi. I am sure the owner who had that revolver converted was considering only ammo availability and not other factors.

(I have not been able to find a SAAMI pressure spec for .30 Mauser and it seems that neither it nor the .30 Luger is loaded in the U.S. any more, at least not by the major ammo makers. Pressure figures for Russian and East Bloc ammo seem to be based mostly on guesswork and "it makes a lot of noise" rather than any hard data. (Going by the various and sundry warnings from "experts", the East Bloc countries seem to have amused themselves by making ammo intended to blow up their own and their allies' pistols, a fun pastime, but a bit expensive.)

Jim
 
I took it to a local gunsmith. He tried a 32 ACP in it, was loose and slid into the chamber. He had no idea what round would fit in it. He didn't seem to want to bother to find out. He went in the backroom, came back out and said he didn't have anything, I mention the tokarev option and he immediately said no.
Then suggested I buy another gun.
 
My guess is that someone was to lazy to read a manual on conversions and just hogged it out. If I had a digital caliper I could help you by measuring some cartridges that I have. My guess is that it has been converted to use .32 S&W or .32 Long or .32 H&R.

I have an original Nagant revolver. I can measure it and measure .32 S&W ammo and give you the numbers. I modify 32-20 brass to shoot in mine.

Best guess where cylinders were coming from

https://www.buymilsurp.com/russian-...agant-revolver-c-3546_57.html?page=1&sort=20a

.033 between cylinders is not good. Even I would make that a wall hanger unless a cylinder can be found.

I also found reference to a different chambering from Norway and Sweden being 7.5mm

I pulled mine out to do some measuring for you but that wall thickness kills it.
 
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Your pistol has a refurb mark, so I will assume it also has an import mark. If those were not present I would have suggested that it might be a Vietnam bring-back. The VC did a similar modification to use 7.62 Tokarev ammo, but also put a loop of wire in the extractor groove to function as a rim.
As above, I would just suggest getting a .32 or original 7.62 replacement cylinder.
 
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