i bought a mosin nagant.

Over the years I had 7 different Mosins.
At most 3 at the same time.
None were anything to write home about for accuracy.
Except for the worst looking one.
Which I still have today.
The dark bore looked as bad as a castiron kitchen drain pipe.
The importer actually stamped the muzzle so deeply that you could see it looking down the bore!
The rear sight leaf was ripped off the base.
No bolt, no mag no small parts.
The original stock was shattered and was more like a spike than a butt stock.
That mosin looked like it had just come in off a battle field (not in a good way)
Today with 205gr sp Russian Bear ammo, it can shoot better than my crappy eyes can shoot it.

txcookie said:

Dang Gunny....

So I guess you like the MN? Any advice for a new owner?

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Look for a non refurbished rifle. The actions are smoother and the ejection is so much better.

While prices have gone up they are still the most cost effective milsurp out there and ammo steel cased is the least expensive compared to other calibers going back to WW2 and such. But yes it seems like every week when I check gun broker or other sites people are asking more and more lol.

These days to find one one at a somewhat reasonable price best to find a pawn shop special or private sale. On gun broker it has gotten ridiculous to where a seller is asking $500 or more for a run o the mill one plus charging shipping, and if they take a credit card say they will hit you with a 3% fee for that...lol! Then on top you still have to pay a transfer fee when it arrives at your end. That all adds up to another $100 besides the original sale amount.,

Way back when I first handled a few at a gunshow I thought, meh, just a 2x4 with a pipe on top. Eventually I "saw the light". So now I have 5 of them! I reload for 3 of them and accuracy is actually surprising and with 2 of them that will rival even my Swedish Mausers. Kind of like a not so good looking girlfriend that can cook really well. My 91/30 has beaver tooth, dull drawfile, finishing on the receiver, but the function and accuracy is way, way better than you would believe. I must admit I am quite smitten by them.

txcookie said:

how can you tell if its been refurbished?

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Here’s a quick write up of what to look for, I’m sure there are other things as well:
https://www.russian-mosin-nagant.com/refurbishment/index.html

The lowest price I recalled for a Nagant rifle $125. circa 2004 and the lowest price for a real K98 in crates $85. about 20 years ago.
Sadly was a poor college student, later I managed to get some.

txcookie said:

how can you tell if its been refurbished?

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When I say non refurbished, I’m talking about the ones that were done to creat work in Russia during the Cold War. These rifles were disassembled and put into parts bends. The parts were, inspected, refinished And then assembled into complete rifles. The stocks had a cheap Shellac finish applied. After that they were packed away.
It’s very hard to find any Mosin that didn’t go through some type of repair, or refurbishment during it’s service life. But they were returned to duty. These tend to have little, or no Shellac on the stocks. Most of the ones I have, have an oil finish on the stocks.
After it cools off a little, today, I’ll take some out for a group photo.

Here are some of my Mosins that weren’t refurbished before being imported. The three on the right are M91 Dragoons.


The one on the end at the right is a 1926 Izhevsk Dragoon that has some carving on the butt stock. It’s also a Spanish Civil War rifle.

I remember at a gun show a dealer had newly arrived m44s for $85. I tried to get it for less ( what I had in my pocket) but no dice. I remember $249 NIB Saiga too.

I had 3 at my top, had less than a 100 in each, sold two a while back for over 250 each, then took the bad rusted one and Sportsterized it, love it, it's the keeper with less than 300 in it...

txcookie said:

Gunny that's a cool collection. So its bolt, barrel, but plate, and magazine have matching numbers. I am not seeing any force marks at all. the stock is shiney and looks good. Im too ignorant to tell whats it is but I know that its all matching. The stock does not have a number on it, just weird little stamps and such.

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You are correct. The SN# is on the barrel shank, bolt body, floorplate and buttplate.
Depending on where and when the rifle was refurbished the re-stamping of the numbers can be different. Here are the three type of forced matched.
#1 Scrubbed and re-stampede.
#2 Lined out and re-stamped.
#3 Scrubbed, or lined out and electro penciled.
Here’s one of my common refurbished rifles, it’s a 1940 Tula.


The bolt body it Tula but the cocking piece is Izhevsk. The bolt was scrubbed and re-stampede.



You can see the gridding marks on the floorplate where the old numbers were removed ad then re-stamped.




On the butt you can see the the factory refurbished mark, the square with the diagonal line.


Now the Finns were not worried about the floorplate ad buttplates matching, they just restamped the bolts.

txcookie said:

Well its kind of confusing. There is no deformation or anything at all only the stamped number in the medal so i was thinking it was all original. The but stock does have the square with the diagonal line.

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I have a few things to take care of today, but when I get home I’ll try to get some more pics.
Most often the floorplate will have a flat spot where the numbers are. I’ll get a pic of one that has been restamped and one that’s original.

txcookie said:

Well its kind of confusing. There is no deformation or anything at all only the stamped number in the medal so i was thinking it was all original. The but stock does have the square with the diagonal line.

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Here’s those floorplates.
The two on the left are unmolested. If you look close at the lied out floorplate you can see that it was scrubbed ad restamped then later, lined out ad restamped. The one on the right was scrubbed and not renumdred.

Here’s a look at the rifles that the floorplates belong to.
First is a 1936 Tula 91/30 (Spanish Civil War) All parts match except the bolt.


Next is a Finn Sako M39. You can see the spot on the receiver where the Russian crest was removed. The buttplate was scrubbed.

Here’s one of my old ones. It’s a 1898 Izhevsk Dragoon that is Finn stampede. I bet it’s seen it’s share of action.