91/30 and bullet drop

C

Coyote WT

New member
I was researching some ammo and found a trajectory chart the was rather enlightening. I'm still in the first stages of training the basics like trigger and breath control but I'd noticed that at 100 yards I was striking pretty consistantly high. The chart I found indicated that at 100 yards with this ammo the bullet was about 5" higher than the elevation of the barrel and it wasn't until 200 yards that the bullet was back at zero elevation on its drop.

Is this something other Mosin Nagant shooters have noticed?
 
Sure have. AFAIK, they're all sighted for 200 yards. I seem to hit about an inch or two high at 100 usually.
 
I can't wait until I'm only an inch off target! To date I've fired less than 100 rounds so I'm still on the slow uphill climb to proficiency. Right now I'm averaging about 5 inches off. Now that I know what's going on, I may be able to bring my group, such that it is, into center area at least.
 
Most Mosins shoot high. For what ever reason I'll leave to internet gossip, like they were designed to be fired with the bayonet attached.

What ever, I don't shoot with bayonets and I do want my rifles to shoot where they are suppose to. I believe in shooting hair not air.

Also I shoot and teach CMP-GSM games. Per CMP rules you can't use bayonets.

Now back to the problem. For every inch you need to move on the Mosin you need to move the front or rear sight .0061 inches. If they shoot high, then its hard to add height to the front sight so we need to lower the rear sight. I also want to be able to use range marks on the Mosin rear sight, meaning if its set at 100 yards (or meters) I want to hit at 100 yards.

So what to do:

My Mosin shot 8 inches high. I need to lower the rear sight .0488 (8 X .0061)

I took the rear sight off the rifle and milled .0488 off the bottom of the slider which will allow it to set .0488 lower on the base. I put it back on my rifle and discovered it hits on at 100 when set at 100, 200 when set on 200, etc etc to 400 yards (farthest I can shoot on my back pasture range).

A milling machine works best, but a file or grinder will work if you are careful to keep it level and not take off too much.
 
kraigwy said:
I put it back on my rifle and discovered it hits on at 100 when set at 100, 200 when set on 200, etc etc to 400 yards (farthest I can shoot on my back pasture range).
Click to expand...
This raises the question of just what units of measurement those numbers represent. Are the sights calibrated in meters, arshins or ells? Anybody have any insight on this?
 
milling the sight

Nice! I think that's a little out of my wheel house at this point but any advise on sighting from someone with sniper trainer is damn good advice. Thank you.
 
Were m44's the same way? Or was this just the 91/30s? Haven't shot mine out that far yet so ill be interested to see.i
 
My M44 is the same way. About 1 1/2 high @ 100 yards.

Kraigwy - How hard was it to remove the pivot pin for the rear sight? I've been considering doing this but my sight base has a hairline crack and I'm leary of driving out the pin.
 
My understanding is that Mosins are sighted in at 100 meters, which is 109 yards. That's as close as they were intended to shoot. One story I heard was that when they weren't going to war, they took the time to sight some in and reject those which didn't shoot worth a darn... three shots within an inch was what I heard, but I don't believe it.
 
Supposedly it was also the M39s and some other Fins. Again, unsure if this is actually true. You never know. A lot of the history has been lost.
 
From what I've read, different factories sited guns differently. A good mosin resource I've found is:

www.7.62x54r.net

they go over some of the different siting configurations the factories did, try shooting with a few in mind and you'll figure yours out.

some were sited to hit center with the site on the outer circle of the bullseye on a 100yd target (about an inch and a half high like some have been saying). Some were sited to hit right on the top of the site at 100. There are also some other variations.
 
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This raises the question of just what units of measurement those numbers represent. Are the sights calibrated in meters, arshins or ells? Anybody have any insight on this?
Click to expand...

Any Mosin manufactured after the Soviets took over use meters. Many of the pre-soviet era Mosins were also converted to meters.

Everything you could ever want to know about the Mosin Nagant and its variants can be found here..

http://7.62x54r.net/


Oops...somebody already beat me to it! :p
 
I love that web site. It has a lot of good info on everything from factory ID stamps to the specs of various surplus ammo.
 
It's my understanding that most of the 91/30 rifles we have are in meters because the old rear sights were replaced when the arsenal refurbished them. http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinFeatures02.htm If you have an older rifle with a "hex" receiver and a flat style rear sight, it may have been replaced with meters. If it is curved it may be in the original arshini.
 
Just got one.....

.... for $99 bucks, why not?

Mine gave me a 4" group centered about 2" left of center (lots of 7's, 8's and 9's on a NRA 100 yard smallbore target...... until I put the bayonet on it: then the group moved a foot low and left.
 
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