Surplus Nagant Revolvers are back.

The pre-1942 dated Nagants are much better for finish and fit than the WWII production. Same with the rifles.
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Oh, I dunno ..... mine's a '44 Izhevsk, and has a deeper color than all but one of the blued guns I have ever owned, and that was a Colt. Fit and finish is excellent, very little wear .... and locks up tighter than any other wheelgun I have ever had.

I imagine that by 1944, some of the pressure was off..... the front was nearly 1000 miles from the factory by April of that year.
 
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Mine is a '39 Tula and really looks good. Although I can see some machining marks on the flutes in the cylinder. It locks up pretty tight but not as tight as my Smiths. OLGA goes to the range with me Everytime I go and will kill soup cans all day [emoji3]
 
Glad I got mine some years back for a decent price. A buddy got his too, but mine is less worn with better grips. Both will shoot a fair 2" group at 15 yards, using single action. With use, the SA and even DA pull isn't as bad as claimed. Tried the old 'nut under the mainspring' trick, but saw no real improvement in trigger pull.
I handload using .32-20 brass and Lee die set. That die set isn't always available - too me awhile to find it. Think they make them in small batches periodically?
My loads with a 98 grain lead bullet clock around 750FPS. My .32 XTP loads clock a bit better at 800 FPS. Not blazing by any means. But it could ruin a bad guy's day if used for defense.
The lead loads are great for spinner targets. No damage at all on a .22 spinner when whacked. .22WMR will crater it.
 
I heard the C&H dies and the RCBS dies load the actual gas seal cartridge, but they are 98 and 168 dollars each, respectively. Grafs sells bullets for 12/100.
 
Actually the Russian surplus they are selling now, if its the same as the 14 rounds per box stuff I already have, is milder than the commercial ammo. The pics look like it, same box, and the cases do not have the flanged mouth that seal the chamber when firing. When I ordered the last batch I was told it is target ammo.
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The military surplus is definitely much more potent than the commercial ammo. For a while there was Russian target ammo that came in yellow 14 round boxes and had the same tapered case mouth vs the flange crimped case mouth of the commercial stuff. That stuff would bounce off a piece of plywood. This stuff isn't that. Some other companies still offer the milsurp ammo for it. Anyway, I still have an unopened spam can of the Nagant milsurp ammo and a bunch of loose as well. As infrequently as I shoot my Nagant, that should last me a good long time. I only wish I had picked up a couple more spam cans of surplus Tok ammo when they were $87 each. The moral to the story is: Get 'em while ya can because you'll want 'em when ya can't.
 
The military surplus is definitely much more potent than the commercial ammo. For a while there was Russian target ammo that came in yellow 14 round boxes and had the same tapered case mouth vs the flange crimped case mouth of the commercial stuff.
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So which is this?

http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/product/productId/24718

Looks like the same stuff I have, and was told is target ammo. Guess I'll have to set up the chrony when I get it to find out. I think I have some S&B around to add to the comparison as well. Now, waiting for UPS,:D and warmer weather.:eek:
 
I would like to know your crony results. That's the stuff I shoot my pistol is way more accurate with it and it seems to have more bang than the factory PPU stuff.
 
Cheapshooter what is pictured is the military surplus, and no place in the add says "target". That looks like the same stuff I got from AIMSurplus a few years ago. The stuff I got blows the socks off the Fiocchi and Hotshot/.prvi ammo. If I remember correctly, the russian target ammo (not mil-surp, came in a white or yellow 14 round box) had a deeply recessed bullet. Do the bullets in your nagant ammo look to be the same and recessed the same as those in the grafs picture?

EDIT: After looking at some ammo pictures online, I'm thinking there were surplus full power and target power loadings. If your 14 round boxes have an image of a target on them, you probably have a very light load. Anyway, someone on the grafs site left this review about the ammo back in 2012: "Reliable and pretty clean burning. As accurate as the new production PRVI stuff. Shot out of a 1936 Nagant revolver, it averaged 824.8 fps. PRVI 98 grain ammo averaged 637.2 fps for comparison." There was also a review in 2014 that claimed higher power than commercial stuff.
 
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Looking back, the ammo I currently have most of is what's left of ten boxes of the surplus that was mentioned in a thread of March 2012. I think the target stuff I had was from an earlier order. Gonna have to go to the vault, and see exactly what I have. Just don't shoot the old 1895 all that much to remember.
 
For 250 I could get a revolver and 140 rounds of ammo. Including the holster and everything needed to maintain it. Ammo from grafs and the Nagant from AIM. It's more and more tempting by the second! :D
 
Cheapshooter what is pictured is the military surplus, and no place in the add says "target". That looks like the same stuff I got from AIMSurplus a few years ago. The stuff I got blows the socks off the Fiocchi and Hotshot/.prvi ammo. If I remember correctly, the russian target ammo (not mil-surp, came in a white or yellow 14 round box) had a deeply recessed bullet
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Just checked the vault. Right you are. Except the yellow boxes with the target on the side are 50 round. The bullets appear to be lead swagged wad cutters, or SWC, and are seated a lot deeper.
I also have some Fiocchi, so weather permitting I can run all three over the chrony just for grins.
 
For 250 I could get a revolver and 140 rounds of ammo. Including the holster and everything needed to maintain it. Ammo from grafs and the Nagant from AIM. It's more and more tempting by the second!
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If you want to stay in the milsurp guns, and Communist Bloc I would suggest the more modern, easier, and cheaper to feed 9X18 Makarov chambered CZ82.
More accurate, better shooting, and more versitile than the Nagant. I'm not sure what the retail market is on them right now, but the C&R distributor prices are still pretty reasonable.
 
CZ82s are great, so are P64s. But a collector has to have a Nagant revolver. It's not about the looks of the gun or the ammo it shoots. It's about the history.
 
I might have to hit up my local FFL tomorrow and get them to send there FFL to AIM so I can get a Nagant! They are still in stock.
 
I've chronographed Russian surplus from J&G at 919 FPS. 5 shots at 25 yards best group was 2 5/8 inches.

PRVI Partisan at 637 FPS, 3.5 inches at 25 yards.
There's a wide range of velocities out there.

Some Nagants are better than others, I wouldn't consider the average one to be especially accurate.
Denis
 
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