Have some Questions about shooting my Mosin.

M

Mosin-Marauder

New member
Hey all, I got a Mosin Nagant a while back, so far I've fired fifteen rounds in it, equivalent to 1 box of 7.62x54R rounds. And I have hit on target with great precision within 50 yds. For example, i shot it at 35 yards at a 16 oz Mr Pibb bottle and hit center of mass my second shot. And shot a 2 liter bottle at the same distance and hit both times, but when I shot at 100 yds at a bullseye, I struggled to hit the paper, same goes for 100 yards at a jug. Am I doing something wrong? As far as I know I am aiming right, I have the rear sight set to 100 meters. I am aiming to where the front sight is near level (give or take) with the rear sight. And in advance. No I'm not putting a scope on it. I want to practice and improve my shots with open sights. Sorry for typing a book, just want to get better at shooting my first gun I bought. Thanks in advance.
 
this is common with old battle rifles. the rear sight does not set to 100 meters. it sets from from zero onward. mosin nagants have a 300 meter zero which puts them over a foot high at 100 yards. you'll either have to replace the front sight with a taller post or you'll have to learn the proper holdover.
 
if you want to get a handle on where your shots are going, put a target up at 100 yds, but put it on a background of white paper a couple feet larger than the target on all sides. (backward wrapping paper would work ) aim at the target like you have been, fire 10-20 rounds without trying to correct your point of aim. only after shooting that big group, go up and find the center of your group. if that group is a foot high, measure down from your bulls eye that distance and put a big "X" you can see from the firing line. go back and aim at the X like you aimed at the bulls eye. use that to get a feel for your holdover.

if the group is left or right, you can correct it in your sight picture or tap your front sight over accordingly... if it is not way off, I'd just live with it until you get a good feel for the rifle.

alternately, you can shoot into a target on a dirt berm and see where the dust kicks up. that's usually how I do it. it's not very precise though.
 
First, congrats on you choice to keep the rifle as issued and not bubba'ed.
and learning to use iron sights.

I'm not sure where, from your post, the bullet is impacting 100 yards. Most Mosin's shoot high.

Mine was 8 inches at 100 yards. I wanted it to be sighted at 100 yards when the sights were set at the 100 mark.

There are disputes what the 100 means, whether its yards, meters, paces, or what ever. That doesn't matter. I wanted my set for 100 yards without replacing the sights and keeping it "as issued".

You need to determine how much to move the sights to get it on.

Its not that difficult.

Measure the sight radius, (its been a while since I did mine but I think it was 22 inches.

There are 3600 inches in 100 yards (100 X 36) so we want to divide the sight radius by 3600.

22/3600 = .00611

Every movement of .00611 of the sights will move the impact 1 inch at 100 yards.

Again mine was 8 inches so I had to move the rear sight down (8 X .00611 = .0488 inches) .0488 inches.

If you are shooting high, you need to lower the rear sight .0448 (in my case) or raise the front sight .0488 inches.

You cant raise the front sight on the Mosin. So you have to lower the rear sight.

To do this, remove the sight from the base. (there is a drift pin that it pivots on that comes out easily. Turn the sight over and look at the flat side of the sliding part of the sight. If you mill, file or grind on that flat bottom it will allow the sight to be lower when it sets on the sight base, which will lower the rear sight.

I put my sight my milling machine and milled it down .0048. Put it back on the rifle and now it hits point of aim at 100. Plus when I set the sight at the 200 mark, its on at 200, same for 300 & 400. My range only goes to 400 but I have no reason to believe the sights wouldn't be on at farther distances.

Like I said I have a milling machine, most people don't. You can do the same thing with a file, being careful not to take too much off, and to keep the file flat.

When you put the sight back on the rifle you can't tell its been modified. The Civilian Marksmanship Unit has matches were these rifles can be used in competition. The CMP Rules require the rifles be ass issued but do allow the above modification to the sights because you are using the original rear sights.

Now the above was based on the idea the rifle shoots high. If it shoots low, you need to lower the front sight 0061 for every inch at 100 yards. That's not hard to do, you still keep the original sight.

If its off left or right then drift the front sight. If your shooting right, the FRONT sight needs to be moved right to bring the impact left, and if shooting right, the sight needs to be moved left to move the impact right (that's opposite of the direction one needs to move the rear sight, but the rear sight on the Mosin cant be moved left or right.

These rifles are old and crude, but they are shooters. Once one has the sights lined up, and learns to shoot the rifle, they are excellent shooters.
 
I will go out and fire a box at 100 yards aiming at the same place. Also, about aiming, would b I want to cover the X up with my front sight or should it still be visible?

Oh and In response to kraigwy. I don't really know how I would go about doing that. I'm 14 and this is really my first gun that I've started to shoot regularly. I could probably file the sight down a bit, but I'm not sure how precise it would be. Moving the front sight doesn't seem to hard, I just tap the front sight left or right with a small hammer and a punch. Anyway, thanks so much for you guy's help. Anymore advice would be appreciated.
 
Usually they shoot high at 100yds. You need to raise the front sight. This is easily done without screwing the collector value by using some heat shrink tubing (check the electrical supplies at the hardware store) and apply that to the front sight. Leave it long and check your target impact point then if it now shoots too low just trim the tubing until the point of impact in on at 100 yds. The rule of thumb is: move the rear sight in the direction you want the bullets to hit & move the front sight in the opposite direction you want the rounds to hit. There is a lot of info on the 'net how to fiddle with these rifles without ruining the collector value. If you start removing metal you have trashed the collector value.
 
Id second not removing any metal. Being new to rifle shooting, you will want to get your shooting technique down and find yourself shooting a fairly consistant group size and placement. It would suck to file down your sight only to realize a month later you found a better cheek weld that throws your poa back off or that your trigger.the culprit, not the sight
 
OP. The shrink tubing on the front sight post method is the least expensive, and if you have the patience for it, the easiest way to get your rifle shooting to point of aim.

An alternative is Smith Sights for not a whole lot of money. It does change the rifle some to install such a sight, but in the end the rifle you have now, "as is", is what, $99? So the collector value is diminished and you sell it for $80? To many, a rifle so modified might even bring more than a "collector edition," maybe even $120.

What will really pickle your noodle is that when you purchase a new lot of ammo, it may not shoot to the point of aim you have so painstakingly established with your current lot. For this reason I suggest Smith Sights, or perhaps heavy ball ammo, if your shoulder can take it.

YMMV
 
MosinMarauder wrote:
Also, about aiming, would b I want to cover the X up with my front sight or should it still be visible?
Click to expand...

Try balancing the bullseye on top of the front post- we call it "dotting the I". The way I see it, why cover up half your target with a front sight?
 
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