Nagant Revolver question.

G

goose2w1

New member
My two young sons have really taken to my .38 special and love shooting it. My oldest, who is 10, is about to have a birthday. I would love to get him his own revolver to shoot, but can't afford a .38 right now. I have a C&R license and see that I can get a nice Nagant for $100. I was wondering how the recoil is compared to a .38? My son saw them online and thought they were really neat firearms. If recoil is the same"ish" as a .38, this might be a possibility. Just curious if anyone out there had any comparison/experience with the two. I know ammo might be a problem, but we do reload, so that can be taken care of.
 
The recoil on Nagants is very mild. Granted I've only fired commercial loads of 7.62 Nagant and .32 S&W Long (which don't match the velocities of the original military load), but to me it seems barely more than you get with a .22lr.
 
The Nagant has a trigger pull that isn't exactly suitable to a young shooter.

Why not introduce your younger kid in the obscure art of C&B revolvers and get him a Remington 1858 in .31 or .36?

Almost no recoil, no paperwork and no ammo around to be played with...

K.
 
...I would love to get him his own revolver to shoot, but can't afford a .38 right now. I have a C&R license and see that I can get a nice Nagant for $100... I know ammo might be a problem, but we do reload, so that can be taken care of.
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I would think by the time you've bought the Nagant, the reloading dies, and enough ammo/brass to make reloading worthwhile, you're pretty close to the cost of a .38.

The Nagant has a trigger pull that isn't exactly suitable to a young shooter.
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I thought the Nagant's SA pull wasn't that bad.
 
As cool as the nagant is, I wouldn't give one to a kid. To be shot cheaply, it has to be used with 32 long ammo. A young impressionable kid doesn't need the idea of using the wrong ammo reinforced. One day he might apply that lesson to something else and have a real catastrophe. That and the fact that the trigger pull takes three grown russian men or one grown russian woman to pull makes it wholly unpleasant to shoot.
 
The Nagants are very cool, but I would echo the others, not the best thing for a young shooter.

Maybe a used Ruger or H&R .22 if the .38 can't be had now.
 
If you're looking for a good, cheap, low-recoil, small-caliber revolver for a kid to use for plinking, IMHO an old H&R such as a 732, 922, or 929 is a better answer than a Nagant.

Old H&Rs use commonplace ammo loaded by Western manufacturers, the triggers are better, the purchase prices are similar, and the swing-out cylinder models operate more like a modern DA/SA from Ruger or S&W than a Nagant does. The only disadvantage is they're not as easy to mail-order.
 
I thought the Nagant's SA pull wasn't that bad.
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The SA trigger on the Nagant is not bad at all. If you're willing to shoot primarily SA, you can be reasonably accurate.

IMO, they're also more solidly-built than any H&R I've come across. The DA trigger pull on the Nagant is heavy, but still smoother than it was for either of the two H&R's I've owned (and sold exclusively on account of the lousy triggers!).

The only thing that makes it a less than an appealing choice is the ammo situation. One option that is out there is a replacement cylinder in .32acp, which may not be the most common of calibers, but far more widely available than either 7.62 Nagant or .32S&W Long, and also at a half the price.

That and the fact that the trigger pull takes three grown russian men or one grown russian woman to pull makes it wholly unpleasant to shoot.
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Yay for outdated stereotypes!
 
The SA pull is light enough, but a younger shooter may have trouble cocking the hammer. It is a fun little gun though.
 
IMHO, just about anything would be better for a youngster than a Nagant, with its heavy trigger pull and awkward grip, plus lack of proper ammunition.

Ordinarily I would recommend a .22. If he has already fired a .38 he might not want to "go back" to the .22, but the lower cost of ammo and the light recoil really do make it a great learning gun. It would take a lot of luck to find one at a reasonable price, but an S&W Kit Gun (Model 34) or Ruger Bearcat would probably be close to ideal.

Jim
 
You can get the Nagant and cylinder for under 200 bucks, and its a classic military arm, my first pistol was a P38, and it started my love of history, and collecting military arms.

Back at that time, 9mm was by no means common, but it didn't matter, because I spent as much time tearing it down, and cleaning it, as I did shooting it.

It taught mechanics as well, because you learned how it functioned during the tear down and reassembly process.

An HR, is just that, a Nagant, may have won the second world war.
 
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