Mosin Nagant or CZ 527?

R

rohhiram

Inactive
So I'm looking at getting my first bolt action rifle. I mainly just want to practice target shooting and get better. I'd like to have the ability to kill a deer at or under 200 yards if I ever decided to go. I've narrowed it down to 2 rifles that I think I like; a Mosin Nagant or a 7.62x39 CZ 527.

I've chosen those because of the cheap ammo, the bolt action, and the ability of the round to kill a deer. Looking around I think I can get a Mosin for between $150 and 200. A CZ 527 will cost around $600, which is the max I'd like to spend on a rifle. Do I go with the bigger round and cheaper gun? Or do I go with the nicer/newer gun and the (slightly) cheaper ammo? Any thoughts would be much appreciated!
 
The CZ is world's above a Mosin. Not to discount the Mosins at all but end of the day it's still a conscript rifle. If I was only going to have one and those were my choices I'd pick the CZ any and every day.

You could probably pick up a CZ 550 in 308 for a bit less. You'd still have access to any number of cheap steel case loadings and being a mauser action the rifle really isn't ever going to care. There's also military surplus around again and plenty of premium match and hunting loads. Just food for thought.

That being said I vote the CZ. It'll also give you the option of using irons or easily mounting a scope. Scoping a Mosin can be done but its a touch more work to be done.
 
My opinion; go for the CZ of the two you have listed. I do not have one but everything I've seen about them really makes me want one. I do have a Mosin, and they are fun, but there are better options for what you want to do. If you want a more potent round look at some of the economy class rifles like the Ruger American or Savage Axis. Both are dang good shooters for the money, and if you like a wood stock, I think Boyd's makes them to fit those rifles for around $100-150.
 
CZ is a much better option, realistically.

Mosins come in varying conditions that make a buy a gamble.
Mosins are frequently not zeroed to a 100 or 200 yard point of aim & can take some doing to get there.
Mosins kick a helluva lot harder than the little 527.
Mosins have a steel buttplate.
Mosins have lousy triggers.
Mosins are long & comparatively heavy.
Mosins are not simple to mount a scope on.

The 527 is extremely totable.
Excellent trigger.
Good sights, easily adjusted.
Easy to mount a scope.
Light recoil in 7.62x39.
Light & easy to carry, excellent brush gun.
Excellent quality.
Rubber buttpad, even though not needed for recoil it's good for non-slip anchoring on the shoulder.
Parts readily available.

I have three Mosins currently, have had several others here, have worked with three 527s.

If it came down to choosing one for your stated uses, unquestionably the CZ.
Denis
 
I am a big fan of the Mosin Nagant, but generally they are not as accurate as a modern rifle, particularly with the cheap surplus ammo that is out there. Some certainly shoot OK, if you find a ammo type your rifle likes, certainly minute of fascist invader out to 200 yards, but shooting at invading soldiers is different that shooting at a game animal, a clean kill is not a requirement.

I would expand your search to include .308, there is a lot of ammo out there under 50¢/round, primarily from Wolf/Tula, which is equal to the quality of the cheap 7.62X54R and 7.62X39 stuff (which is to say, not that great), but has the advantage of there being good ammo widely available, not something that can really be said for the Russian military calibers. You probably aren't going to be able to stop by Wal Mart and score a box of hunting ammo for a Mosin.

You also won't run in to Corrosive ammo in .308.

I am guessing you are looking at the CZ based on the ammo, that is the only bolt action 7.62X39 I can think of. Expanding to .308 greatly expands your options of rifles, everyone makes a .308 Win bolt rifle, and the money you save on a Remington/Ruger/Savage over the CZ buys a lot of ammo.
 
No warrantee with a milsurp. Any issues and you fix 'em yourself.
The Mosin's 7.62 x 54R is a way better than the 7.62 x 39 for hunting(good for any game you care to hunt, including big bears. The 7.62 x 39 and its 123ish grain bullet is marginal on deer. Good up to about 100 yards though, but not bigger game.), the rifle may or may not be accurate. Felt recoil is much heavier. Iron sights and trigger on 'em are crappy too.
 
Thanks for the tips everyone! I've been leaning towards the CZ, these replies only solidify my stance.

If I'm not buying a Mosin, I really want to get a quality rifle with a wood stock, new or like-new. I did look into some .308 rifles, because as emcon5 pointed out, the money saved by not buying a CZ could buy lots of ammo. But to be worth it IMO, the rifle would have to be under $500 with a wood stock. And I'm not planning on buying a scope right away, so I'd like iron sights (and I think they look pretty sweet too!)

From what I've found, the Remington 700s, Ruger 77s, and Tikka's are the same or more than the CZ 527, and I've heard mixed things about Mossbergs... Any other quality .308s I should look into? :confused:
 
mosin's are really neat rifles and have bonus of really cheap ammo, amazingly cheap considering it's a full-size cartridge. It is also a crudely made and very old rifle with not very great accuracy. it has potential to be a "decent" shooter if you dump lots of time, and mostly $$, into it. I love my Mosin Nagant's and have a blast working on them. I buy them because they are cheap and i can chop one up and try different things without destroying something of high value.

The CZ is a refined and beautiful rifle that has a great reputation for accuracy and ruggedness. There is no competitiion to which is the better rifle. the CZ just IS!!! I'm all for a new rifle owner getting a mosin mainly because of the cost of ammo allows for lots of practice and if you enjoy tinkering, then there are alot of simple ways of accuriing a mosin. but without changing the barrel, stock and trigger(lots of $$)) it will not live up to the CZ.

If you have the budget for the CZ, then go for it, if you don't then a mosin is an extremely reliable rifle that pretty much anyone can afford, but don't expect to win any competitions with it.......unless it's a mosin competition:)
 
As far as NEW, I think you'll have a hard time finding 308's with nice wood stocks. There are quite a few that are nice under $600, but you're looking at a polymer stock. If you could deal with a polymer stock initially and then purchase an aftermarket stock (Boyd's is always a great option) later, that opens your options up quite a bit. But, it seems like most 308's don't come with iron sights in that price range.

Actually, minus the wood stock, this seems like it would fit the bill for what you're looking for:

http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/78093

AND, since it is only in the $450 range, you could buy this stock from Boyd's and still stay under $600 total.

http://www.boydsgunstocks.com/Produ...-bull-barrel-channel-nutmeg-laminate-finished

I have Savage's Accutrigger on my Savage Mark II FV and LOVE it.
 
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Why are those two rifles your only choices? If you can pay up to $600, you can afford a decent rifle to punch paper and deer hunt. Not saying the CZ isn't decent, but that caliber is one of the very last I'd choose.
 
I was looking at those 2 cartridges because 1) They're cheap to shoot and 2) If I ever wanted to try to take a deer, I'd be able to. I'd say 95% of the shooting I'd do would be target shooting/plinking.
 
Get the CZ. There's no comparison. I say that as a proud owner of a Mosin and a CZ bolt action. My CZ is a .22, but I'd love to have a centerfire.

I doubt you'll ever get a Mosin as accurate as the CZ. Even with the 7.62X39, you have fairly accurate options such as the Hornady SST.

Recoil is minimal. Even on my Mosin with a Boyd's stock and a slip-on butt pad, it kicks the crap out of me. 40 rounds or so is my comfortable limit because I start to get a migraine after that. Shooting my Mosin when I first got it actually screwed me up and gave me a flinch that took many .22 rounds to cure. I would say, for this reason alone, it's one of the worse options out there for a target shooters' first rifle. They're cheap and very powerful, and they're designed to be something that someone can figure out with little intelligence or instructions. Somebody untrained can pretty easily hit a man sized target with one at 50 yards, and somebody with even a little more training could likely do it to 200 without adjusting the sights. That's what they're designed for. To get a lot of rifles with big bullets in the hands of a lot of people, and make them capable of hitting somewhere in a man-sized target.

The 7.62 should be plenty powerful and accurate enough for deer - though I would also say you'd have great choices in .223 which has even lower recoil and can be shot for pretty much the same price with steel cased ammunition. Steel ammo is going to be less accurate than most of what's out there, but is satisfactory for working on the fundamentals usually.

Making a humane kill at 200 yards with iron sights is pretty difficult with a new shooter. I've struggled at that distance on steel with a 7.62X39 because the ballistics are really not great at longer distances. I would really want a scope if I were shooting much past 100 with one, unless I was really confident I could make the adjustments needed for the ballistics at different distances out to 200.

I don't think you'd be at all disappointed with the CZ. They're very nice rifles.

Also take into consideration that you will hate yourself in a very short time for lugging around a Mosin when you could have had a much lighter rifle :D To function well, you will probably either need to buy a nicer Mosin in the $300-400 range or be willing to invest the time in doing a little work to the rifle. When I first got mine, there's no way I could have done anything resembling a follow up shot. The bolt was so sticky I had to grab the rifle in two hands and twist in opposite directions (sometimes while pulling back on the bolt knob) just to open it. It took some time to get that down. Those are the kinds of issues that aren't really conducive to a new shooter or hunter.
 
The point I am trying to make is they are not that much cheaper, especially 7.62X39 when you factor in the cost of the rifle. The ~$300 you would save picking up a Ruger American in .308 from Wal Mart buys a lot of ammo.

Surplus ammo is great for making noise, but usually not all that accurate, and as FMJ not appropriate for hunting, quality hunting ammo is not really any cheaper in those calibers than a more traditional (in America at least) rounds.

Checking Midway, hunting ammo for 7.62X39 is ~$25-$39 per box of 20, with 8 options available.
7.62X54R is ~$17-$25/20 rounds, with only 4 options available.
.308 Winchester starts at ~$16, and with 90 different options available for deer sized game, up to $40 for some of the premium stuff. Plenty of options for under $25/20,
 
Something to consider that may or may not be an issue. Some CZs will not detonate the hard primers on military surplus 7.62x39. J&G had an issue some years back with a whole shipment of CZs that wouldn't fire the cheap surplus stuff. Putting stronger striker springs didn't help either. CZ may have worked out the problem by now, but be advised that it could happen.

Of your two choices, the CZ would be my first choice, hands down. However, I agree with the poster who said look into another caliber. Both 7.62x54R and 7.62x39 are probably going to be drying up before too long, especially if another Dem gets into the White House.

Check Bud's Guns for CZs. I bought a beautiful .270 Mannlicher style from them.

Edit: I just checked Bud's Guns website, and they have a beautiful CZ550FS 308 Winchester Bolt 20.5" 4+1 Walnut Mannlicher for $737.00 with a "make an offer" option. I know that's a bit more than you mentioned in your post, but it's worth it.
 
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If you are looking at hunting with it and these rifles are your only choices do your prey a favor and go with the "poor mans 30-06 " Mosin ..:D, or consider the .308 as an option in the CZ.
 
Try Amazon.com, spend a whopping $4 on The Survivalist Papers, Volume 2015-1, Surviving With CZ.
Kindle book.

Covers two 527s, and other CZ rifles.
Amazon has a free PC ap if you don't have a Kindle device.
Denis
 
You will NEVER save money reloading 54r or x39. It costs me more than triple to reload for my mosin. Your range ammo will be really cheap. Less than 20c a round for either. If you plan to ever hunt with it, then grabbing a couple boxes of hunting ammo in either caliber to sight in and take a deer isn't going to hurt any.
 
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