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Russian Mosin-Nagant Rifles FdH

Russian Model 1891 Mosin-Nagant rifle, caliber 7.62mm Russian.

RUSSIA WAS NOT the first nation to adopt a smokeless-powder cartridge for military use, but they were ahead of the United States by one year; they adopted the 7.62mm Russian cartridge in 1891, while the U.S. adopted the 30 Gov’t. (30-40 Krag) cartridge in 1892. The cartridges were similar; both were based on a rimmed bottlenecked case, were of the same caliber (bullet diameter .308”), and loaded with round-nosed full metal-jacketed bullets. The 7.62mm Russian cartridge has a larger body diameter than the 30-40 Krag round, thus the Russian cartridge was the more powerful of the two. While the 30-40 cartridge was not much improved during the brief time the Krag-Jorgensen rifle was the official U.S. military shoulder arm, the 7.62mm Russian cartridge was improved from time to time and loaded with a great variety of bullets to adapt it to various military needs. Improvements began as early as 1908 when the Russians adopted the 150-grain spitzer bullet and loaded it to equal the ballistics and range of other military cartridges in use at that time.

As was the usual practice of most nations when major changes in a shoulder arm and cartridge were considered, the Russians, about 1883, appointed a committee to advertise for, study, test and make recommendations for the adoption of a new rifle and cartridge. After a few years of study two rifles remained under consideration. One was designed by a Belgian inventor and arms manufacturer named Emile Nagant, the other was designed by Sergey Ivanovitch Mosin, a Russian military man connected with the arsenal in Tula, Russia. After much study, experimentation and testing, the committee decided to use the Mosin bolt and receiver design and couple it with the Nagant-designed magazine. The final result was the Model 1891 Russian rifle, later to be known as the Model 91 Mosin-Nagant.

In 1891, and even later, Russia lacked adequate facilities to make the new rifle in sufficient quantities. As a result, the first M91 rifles were made at an arsenal in Chatellerault, France.

Russia eventually began producing the rifles, but they apparently could not make enough to meet their army needs, so large contracts were placed abroad. Shortly before 1917, two U.S. firms made around 1,500,000 of these rifles. Remington Arms Company, in Bridgeport, Conn., made over 750,000 and New England Westinghouse, in Springfield, Mass., made the rest. Remington and Winchester loaded many thousands of rounds of 7.62mm military ammunition for Russia during this same period. Smith’s The Book of Rifles states that the SIG firm in Switzerland and the Steyr arms factory in Austria also made M91 rifles at one time. These figures, plus the far greater quantity that Russian arsenals made in the intervening years, indicate that many millions of Mosin-Nagant rifles were made.

The Model 91 and the later Mode 91/38 Russian rifle are quite plentiful, as they have been since the 1920s. Before Remington and Westinghouse had completed their contracts with Russia, and with many thousands of the new Russian rifles still in the U.S., the October revolution in Russia came and the contracts were canceled. This resulted in no small financial crisis for the firms making the rifles and ammunition. The U.S. government softened the blow by buying a great quantity of these rifles (one book says 600,000), many of which were later shipped to Russia. The U.S. was also short of rifles at our entry into WWI, and over 280,000 of these government-purchased Russian rifles were used for training U.S. troops during the first part of the war. Eventually, this last bunch of M91s were sold to NRA members through the Director of Civilian Marksmanship for less than $3.50 each. Many of those made by Westinghouse were sold to private firms who resold them “as issued” or remodeled and converted to the 30-06 cartridge.

After WWII, surplus arms dealers found more Russian rifles abroad and apparently imported a great many into the U.S. They were regularly offered for sale all through the 1950s and 1960s. Probably few Russian rifles were taken home by American servicemen during WWII, but veterans of the Korean conflict considered them prizes.

The M91 Mosin-Nagant rifle was used by the Communist forces in Viet Nam. It seems that the preferred sniper rifle of the Viet Cong and North Viet Nam marksman was the M91 or M91/30 Sniper Rifle fitted with a short telescope sight.

Mosin-Nagant Rifles

There are several rifle variations based on the M91 M-N action. I will briefly describe the principal ones. First, of course, is the M91 rifle with a 30.5” barrel, weighing about 9.75 pounds. The first of these had sling swivels; later on swivels were omitted, and slots cut into the stock through which the sling could pass. Then there is the M91 Dragoon rifle, its barrel 28.8” long and weighing about 8.75 pounds. The top of the receiver of M91 rifles is octagonal in shape and usually color casehardened. Later models had a round receiver top, including the M91/30 standard rifle (28.7” barrel, and about 8.75 pounds) and the Sniper’s rifle—about the same except fitted with a telescope sight. Several types of mounts and scopes were used on these sniper rifles. The scopes are the short and low-powered hunting type, attached with high-bracket side mounts. The scopes usually had built-in windage and elevation adjustments, and usually with one or both of these adjustments also built into the mount. The mount base, attached to the side of the receiver, was designed to let the scope and mount bracket be easily detached. The sniper rifle had a long bent-down bolt handle. Both M91/30s have a globe front sight.

Russian Model 1891 Mosin-Nagant action; late version with the rounded receiver ring.

There were also three M-N carbine models. The Model 1910 has a 20” barrel, weighs about 7.5 pounds, and has an unprotected blade front sight. The Model 1938 also has a 20” barrel, weighs about 7.6 pounds, and M1910 blade front sight. The Model 1944 has a 20.4” barrel, weighs about 8.9 pounds, and has a globe front sight. All M-N rifles and carbines have elevation-adjustable rear sights and are chambered for the 7.62mm Russian cartridge.

The Mosin-Nagant Action

An odd and unusual action, it has few features which can be said to have been copied from other actions. In fact, it has a number of features unique to it. In a way the action seems a fairly simple one, as indicated by its relatively few parts, but at the same time it has a complicated three-piece bolt assembly. Its design and manufacture is complicated because it has to accommodate a rimmed cartridge. Many small and minor parts are eliminated in its design; there are no separate safety or bolt-stop parts, and the number of trigger and bolt-stop parts is four. Even the novel magazine interrupter feature has only three parts, of which one is the ejector. Although the action is somewhat crude and is not easily operated, it is nonetheless quite reliable.

The Model 1891 actions with octagonal-topped receivers show much better workmanship throughout than do those with rounded receivers. This is especially true of the actions made by Remington and Westinghouse, doubtless because these plants were swarming with Russian inspectors (about 1500 of them, according to one report) to see that every part was made just so. The actions made in Russia, especially during the war years, are rather poorly finished.

The receiver is a one-piece steel forging machined to final shape. The inside of the receiver ring is bored and threaded to receive the barrel shank. The breech end of the barrel is flat except for an extractor hook recess, taking up about one-third of its face. Most receivers have an inside collar, against which the barrel abuts; this ring is cut away on the right for about one-third of its circumference, to make room for the extractor. Very late wartime receivers don’t have this inside collar. The rear of the receiver ring is milled out to receive the dual locking lugs on the bolt head.

The recoil shoulder under the receiver ring is quite heavy but narrow, affording only about a ½” x ” bearing surface against the stock. However, a crossbolt is used in most of the stocks of these rifles to reinforce the wood in the recoil shoulder area.

A portion of the bottom of the receiver, from the recoil shoulder back, is milled flat. The magazine-well recess in the bottom of the receiver is milled out to approximate the shape of the rimmed 7.62mm Russian cartridge, with a sort of tunnel or chute milled out in the narrower front half of the well to allow passage of the cartridge head as the cartridge is pushed into the chamber.