Nagant Revolver M1895 with Russian Surplus Ammo

S

sharpie443

New member
I always liked this little revolver but i was never impressed with the new production ammo made by prvi. It seemed like very light target loads to me and were not the best in terms of accuracy. I was of the opinion that this revolver was not made to be very accurate because of that ammo. I think a lot of people downplayed the effectiveness of this revolver because of the ammo.

Surplus ammo for this revolver has been hitting the market lately and I picked up a few 14 round boxes of it. I was very impressed with the results. It had a lot more authority than the new production ammo and I was able to hit a 12" plate at 50 meters with it. Using the actual ammo that was meant to be used in this firearm changed my opinion quite a bit.

Video of the revolver and new ammo. I hit the plate twice in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af7WuCFn1A8
 
Pretty sure that stuff is corrosive. And it's not the ammo that makes the Nagant a joke, it's the gun. I had one. It was a cool pistol but the fact of the matter is that it had an abysmal DA trigger and only a tolerable SA trigger. And reloading was slow and tedious. And every time you pull the trigger you can almost feel your wallet getting lighter.

Not sure what you mean by "effectiveness" though, since the gun was made to be carried by officers mainly as a badge of rank, and to occasionally "persuade" people.

But 50 meters is impressive, especially with those sights.
 
It was actually used by police, Russian secret police services, Russian reconnaissance and scout troops used them with suppressors. German Russian reconnaissance and scout troops. Captured ones were also used by German troops in ww2.

The DA trigger is a joke but it dose mean that in a pinch you can squeeze off a round fast and that is probably all it was meant to be. In Sa its not bad in my opinion and not all that inaccurate with the real ammo. The Price isn't all that bad either in my opinion but i shoot .45-70 at $1 a round.
 
Pretty sure that stuff is corrosive.
Click to expand...
AFAIK all Russian & Soviet military ammo has corrosive primers, including today's production, because they supposedly perform better in extreme cold. This is why modern Russian military firearms have chromed bores.
 
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The Russian surplus I shot through a Nagant earlier this year still chronographed lower than what my Cartridges Of The World copy shows for original military velocities.
Denis
 
Truth be known, the 1894 Nagant pistol was obsolete the day it was manufactured.I have one as a curiosity, I've fired it and ho hum. The sealing cylinder, for all if it's complexity only gives it less than a hundred FPS advantage. Sure you can shoot it but it is nothing to write home about. The Russians used it because it was a issue weapon and with any handgun it was used very little in combat. The Germans converted the TT to 9mm and used that and no doubt they used some captured Nagants. They used any serviceable weapon they could get there hands on. The Nagant was used very little by the Germans because the ammunition was not in their supply system and it could not be converted to another caliber. As with the T34s they captured ( and there were thousands of undamaged ones ) as soon as the captured ammo was used up, into the water they went. It can be worked on and the trigger pull be reduced to 15 pounds, put why go to the trouble.It is not a good combat weapon, nor carry weapon nor anything else other than a curiosity . That is just my opinion and I'm sure there are those who think the 94 Nagant is the pinnacle of gun engineering. It is not even a Russian design, but Belgium.
 
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Well I'm a civilian so whether or not is is a good combat weapon is meaningless to me and you only need one carry gun. It's a fun gun to shoot and that's all that matters.
 
Whether you shoot much or not, it's one that belongs in your personal collection. I've yet to see one that's not in really good condition, and for the price you can't beat it.
 
I got one of those suckers. Not good for anything but a heck of a lot of fun to shoot.

I first started reloading by modifying 32-20 brass, but now ammo with re loadable brass is readily available I don't use the 32-20 stuff, its too short.

Admittedly the DA trigger really sucks, but the SA isn't that bad. The gun actually shoots pretty good. This target was shot at 50 ft.

Its one of the most fun guns I have to shoot. One of these days I'm going to take it and my Mosin to a Multi Gun shoot. I wont win, but I'll have a lot of fun.

I don't think I'd carry it as a self defense revolver. But I have a heck of a lot of other pistols and revolvers I don't carry either. There is more uses for a gun then SD. If that was the case the only gun I'd have would be my 642.

Guns are fun, and the Nagant is pretty close to the top of the "fun" list. Cheap to shoot too. I have a little 100 grn mold that comes out .312. for my 30 Cal Carbine. I use it unsized in my Nagant with 231 powder. Works pretty good and CHEAP.

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