Mosin-Nagant, good gun or not??

Also I think you assume all MN 91/30's are the same when taking collectibility into account. I have around 8 or so right now and would pick a Mosin over any other milsurp rifle. when you start getting into all the little details on the years, armories and what not you can get some cool rifles. As for the argument that if they cost $300 no one would buy them, well I disagree. I got a N.E.W MN 91 with SA stamps for $280 and would pay $300 in a heartbeat for a Remington or some of the finns even an all matching Chinese M44. People dont care about the old 91/30 so i think that helps keep the price and interest down when there are people that will say the US rifle is best in every way.
 
I'm with CLC. A Finn for around $300 is generally a good purchase. And a Remington M91 would be a great buy. I'd never pay more than $150 for an MN91/30. I'd probably pay around $200 for an M44 or M38, these days. But some of those older/odder/non-Russian models, I'd probably pay around $300 for if I had the cash.
 
A friend of mine has killed many deer with his. He put a cheap scope on it and added a bent bolt handle. I doubt he has $175 in the whole thing.

I think it's great that there is a reliable, reasonably accurate rifle available to people who can't or aren't willing to lay down the huge price of a new high-powered rifle.

I do agree that the safety stinks. I hunted with mine once just for the novelty of it and I just kept the bolt handle up instead of messing with the cumbersome safety.
 
Rifle Traits:
Mosin Trigger? Fail
Mosin Ergos? Fail
Mosin Accuracy? Fail
Mosin Handling? Fail
Mosin Action? Fail
Mosin Durability? A
Mosin Firepower? A

Like any other gun out there, for the most part is with the shooter. If one would take the time to learn to shoot the thing, all those "fails" go out the window.

The Mosin has been around a long time, and its still being used in Afgan and other countries. The reason it's still being used is because "fail" comments are totally bogus.

Like anything else, you get out of it what you put into it. The Mosin is a relatively simple rifle, used by educated and illiterate alike.

A bit long I agree, but that extra length comes in handy to dampen the movement when shooting off hand.

Accuracy is more then adequate. Granted there are some abused rifles out there with bad barrels, you'll find the same thing with any surplus rifles, including our Garand and M1 Carbine.

If one takes care in picking a good barrel, and learns to shoot the thing, it will do what it was intended to do. It also works quite well in CMP GSM Vintage Rifle Matches.

Find someone who will put on a CMP Vintage rifle clinic and learn to shoot the Mosin. I'll put one on for free if I can get enough people to justify holding it.

You'll be impressed with the Mosin.
 
Mosin Trigger? Fail
Mosin Ergos? Fail
Mosin Accuracy? Fail
Mosin Handling? Fail
Mosin Action? Fail
Mosin Durability? A
Mosin Firepower? A

This merely serves as proof of bias and nothing more.
 
You can fix the raccoon trap trigger I'm less than an hour unless you have the manual dexterity of a raccoon, then it'll take two hour
 
They're only good as beginner rifles. Most of us went through the Mosin phase and moved on to something more serious like a K98 or M1.
I find it completly laughable when people bring Mosins and fire them for score next to Garands. Its the giveaway of a confident beginner at most.

Worst of all, with its V notch sights it can never hope to measure up to the 200yd (let alone 300yd) match targets. You'll be lucky to simply hit the black regardless of your own skill. Your skill in aiming (sight picture and all that crap) is the smallest variable with this rifle.
 
Let's exclude the Finnish Mosins, and Hungarian or Polish 44s.
How popular would typical Russian MN 91/30s, 44s, 38s, 91/59s be if there were no surplus ammo widely available at about .20/rd.?

If all of the x54R ammo were to cost what newer .308 costs, how much would the popularity decrease?

This question might apply to common Yugo Mausers with 8mm surplus at about .25/rd.
 
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The price of the surplus ammo isnt a big issue for me. I would shoot the mosin regardless of the price becouse I really like to shoot mosin's. Of course it doesnt hurt. :)
 
I shot Russian rifles and handguns before most of you guys were born. The ammo was pricey and the rifles and pistols were all over the place, but for some reason hardly anybody wanted to buy them. They were so cheap a box of ammo cost more than the rifle usually did. I went through the rebarrel stage (30-40K) and even a wildcat 8x54 like the Finns do. I saw reworks to 30.06 at auctions and yard sales. The one thing you did not see was cut down and lightened Russians with scopes. Mausers, .303Brits, Arasakas, '03 Springfields, and even 30-40 Fenceposts were cut down and stripped to hunt with. The Russian battle rifle is just that, a battle rifle of crude design. A few years ago the SKS was everybody's darling, but now that the cheap ammo is drying up I don't see a lot about it on the forums anymore. The American shooter has spoken, "Cheap is good".
 
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