Adventures in Mosin accuracy . . .

P

Prof Young

New member
So I've had my Mosin Nagant for a couple of years now. First time I sighted it in the best I could do with open sights was a foot high at fifty yards which apparently is normal.

So I found a kit as Sportsmans Guide that let you mount a scope without having to tap and drill. I did have to disassemble the rear sight. Well, I could get okay accuracy with that but it was very unstable and hard to adjust. Plus if you have a milsurp that has some history, why modify it? (Mine is a 1934 communist Russian made with hex receiver. It even has the hammer and sickle stamped on it.) So I was back to regular iron sights.

On Amazon I found a "Red Mosin Nagant Front Sight Extension" for eight bucks. Kind of a rip off, but it's an metal tube that fits right over the front sight and you file it down for accuracy. Installed it today. Did some shooting and filing. Now, at fifty yards, if I really concentrate and do my best shooting I can keep the group in about eight inches with the bullseye in the middle of the group. Not to bad for an old guy with an 80 year old gun and ammo that's almost that old.

Life is good.

Prof Young
 
If I can recommend something, try the Smith sights sold by Josh Smith here on the site.

They are under $50 IIRC and are elevation adjustable, allowing you to fix the problem of the gun shooting so high.

The story is that Russian soldiers were taught to aim at the belt line and the rifle would hit somewhere in the torso out to 300 yards that way
 
Dakota - Thanks

Thanks Dakota. Those look like a pretty good product.

I think for now I'll stick with with I've got. Those adjustable front sights look pretty good, but I think I've got this gun about as accurate as it's going to get with open sights. Plus this is a gun I own and shoot for the purpose of fun and owning a taste of firearms history.

Life is good.

Prof Young
 
I have a 1932 hex receiver, one of my first milsurp rifles. It can shoot better than 2 moa with the stock iron sight.

It shot way high like any other mosin. I drifted out the front sight. Punched out the front sight stem with a punch through the hole in the sight hood. Then I tapped the hole in the base with 4-40 thread. Span a 4-40 screw to the sight stem profile desired. Then I got myself an adjustable front sight. Works great.

The rifle didn't shoot well to begin with. A few things I did to improve; glass bedding the action, free floating the barrel, modifying the trigger to Finnish 2-stage etc. The sight modification is just for convenience, nothing to do with accuracy of course. Handloading helps of course.

-TL
 
I have to admit the first one I had (Hex receiver bought through the mail)shot really well. The only ammo around was Norma. I really have no use for those Russian rifles, but I think if more people reloaded or bought better ammo a lot of the inaccuracy problems would go away.
 
I got one of those "scout set ups" for my Mosin. Had to lock tight the set screws to get them to stay in place, but worked well after that.
Mosin%20Scout.JPG


Mine is accurate and getting on target is fast. For the price its a pretty good set up.

HOWEVER;

I'm into the CMP vintage rifle games. The rifle has to be "as issued". As to accuracy, these rifles can be pretty accurate. Accuracy means accurate ammo.
I have never fired any surplus ammo in my rifle. I wanted to build ammo to fit the rifle. I couldn't find brass so I started out buying 200 rounds of factory Winchester ammo, and reload that brass. My rifle shoots it well.

As mentioned most of these rifles shoot high. Mine was 8 inches high. I'm not one for holding over in matches so I fixed it, all the while keeping it in the CMP Legal "as issued" condition.

I forgot the exact numbers but I think this is close.

I measured the sight radius and I think it turned out to be 21.6 inches.
There is 3600 inches in 100 yards. Divide the sight radius by 3600. or 21.6/3600 = .006. That means that to move the impact on the target 1 inch, you need to raise of lower the sight .006. My rifle as I mentioned shot 8 inches high so I had to lower the rear sight .006 X 8 or .048.

I took the rear sight off the rifle and put it in my milling machine. I milled down the bottom of the sight (the sliding part) .048. This is again, the bottom of the sight and in no way effects the sight itself. It just allows the sight to set .048 lower on the sight base.

I put the sight back on the rifle, and when the sight was set on 100 it was zeroed at 100. I set the sight at 200, it was on at 200 yards. It worked to 400 also, I haven't fired it past that because my back yard range only goes to 400 yards. I have no reason to believe it wont work any where on the sight range.

I used a milling machine, but the same can be done with a file, making sure the sight is flat so you don't get a cockeyed sight.

I can still use the scout set up for playing, and I can also put the rear sight back on and have an "as issued" legal rifle for CMP matches. With carefully crafted ammo, my $99 rifle shoots a heck of a lot better then I do.

NOTE: Don't use the above numbers. I did this several years ago and I'm guessing on the numbers I got. Simply measure your sight radius, use THAT number when dividing by 3600.

These rifles are a lot more accurate then we give them credit for. Thousands of people throughout the word are using them to feed their families, in Eastern Russia to the West and Northern Coast of Alaska.

The problem with the Mosin, is we, (Americans) don't take the time and effort to learn how to use them. I've seen some darn good scores at CMP matches using these rifles.
 
Some of the Mosins can be real accurate. I saw one shoot consistent 1 ft groups at 1k yds with open sights. I am sure the groups were smaller than a foot, but he was shooting a 1 ft plate and hitting it every shot.
 
I shot my 1929 Hex 91/30 a few weeks back at 100yrds with the front of the rifle on a rest using Tula 147gr or whatever it is and it shot just right of POA in a 4-5" group. Closer to 4 but I wasnt expecting to much from it. There was a guy there saying all Mosin's shoot high so I had to prove him wrong. In his defense, his did. Real high like 10" high. With better ammo the '29 can shoot much better, so can my Hungarian M44.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top