Finnish 28/76 sniper educate me

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fourbore

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I saw three Moisin Nagant rifles made in Finland (by sako?) based on Russian actions. That from wiki and what the dealer told me. two are olympic or target rifles one is a sniper variant. All three have massive stocks, long barrels and globe front and aperture rear sight. The so-called sniper has a small scope mounting block on the receiver. Other wise they all look about the same. The sniper had a slightly different style front globe.

I saw one similar rifle on a youtube video that seemed to be holding in the 1moa ballpark. He said he was shooting 311 bullets which sounds wrong?

There seems to be confusion around bore diameter and 762x53 vs 762x54. I dont know what these are. The seller was saying they are 308 bore.

I like the sniper, but; two major issues. No scope mount and none for sale on the whole www. And old sales seem to be north of $500! The second problem is $1700 price. I guess its a 90% gun, honest wear. Seems nuts high?

I looked in the Blue Book and cannot find either of these.

I dont know if I even want one, but; it is new and it caught attention. It seems like the worlds most unlikely target rifle. Made in 1977! Really, not 1877 but 1977!
 
As rule of thumb the russian 7,62x54r use .312 bullets. The same as .303brittish.
The finnish 7,62x53r uses .309-.310 bullets. Lapua still makes them, its the D166 bullet the D marked barrels used to shoot.
The land to land diameter is under .308 for both so you can use those aswell, a fin barrel might not even care that much.
Now be aware that there are loads of finnish captured russian mosins that might have received a fin barrel.

One book i can highly recommend is "rifles of the white death"

Edit: i recently came across a youtuber testing different bullet diameters for russian mosin. I will try to find it for you :)
Iirc his best results where with .311s
 
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Glock,

Good info, thank you.

it looks like the 1977 sniper probably needs .310 or perhaps best to atleast assume that .308 bullets are not optimum. Strike one.

The link to the "current" Finish sniper rifle shows a slightly improved rifle post 1984, but; still uses the same scope mount. That certainly implies the mount should be available and at no where near $500 plus.

The 3rd youtube, is the gun in question. I saw that prior to posting and made a note he used 311.

Jack,

I suspect those books are a good read but would not expect detail information on circa 1977 target barrels. If I had the gun, I would or will want both titles. Thanks.

The last open question is the $1600 for 28/76 match rifle and $1700 for a 28/76 sniper (missing scope and mount). That is a lot to risk on a novelty gun that may end up back on the market in a couple years. I could buy a National Match Model 70 from the same time period for that and use std 3006 ammo! Is this a part of the current Moisin craze?
 
Hard to answer what they are worth. In the $1000-2000 range you can buy yourself a new long range precision rifle.
I honestly dont know how rare they are, haven't seen a lot of them. I think the real question you have to ask yourself is, will you regret not buying it?
 
"...311 bullets which sounds wrong..." .311" is what the 7.62 x 54R and 39 use. Not .312". The 7.62mm is the nominal bore diameter. That'd be the diameter of the hole drilled in the barrel blank without the rifling.
Apparently, later 28/76's came with a .308" barrel too. Slugging the barrel isn't difficult, but it's said do not use milsurp ammo in 'em. They're real target rifles.
The Blue Book isn't accurate anyway. Gives average prices from all over the U.S. with no regard for local supply and demand.
 
7.62x54R has a .300-.312 land-grove diameter. Useally bullets .311-.312 range work fine in the russian bores.
If you reload them you might want to buy a larger expander, since most die sets set the neck to .308
You can shoot a .308 in a russian bore aswell, its just not as tight as you could get the groups

7.62x53R is .299-.308 land-grove diameter. they did however use the Lapua D166 for D Chambers, which happens to be .310 along with the Lapua D46 which was .308
Lapua still produces both bullets by the way.

I happen to own a Tula mosin with a VKT (sako) barrel, that thing chews .308s like M&Ms :)
My Russian however likes .311-.312s

But my mosin knowledge is limited to milsurps, i never owned or as much seen one of those sporterised ones :)

So ye with mosins, slug to bore to be sure :)
 
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The Finns and Russians built very accurate target (and hunting) rifles off the MN actions, Finns using the M28 as the basis for some.

The Russians used them in Olympic Biathlon competition chambered in 6.5 Vostok (.311 necked down to 6.5 mm) until the Biathlon rules were changed.

I could fill a page here because I've built many custom rifles on this action. Yes, .311 bullets are the standard for a new 54r barrel. For those that handload it's usually rebarreled with a .308 groove barrel due to the large bullet (and barrel blank) selection available and it requires just a quick changeout of the expander ball in the sizing die.

Far as I'm concerned, $1700 is nuts, as are most current milsurp prices. Everyone says they can still only keep going up.
I heard the same about housing prices in 2006. Bubble? Only time will tell...
 
Sadly the days of $100 for a surplus are gone.

Mind you, you can stil pick up alot of rifle for around 500. But its not like we will see new made k31 soon.
 
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