LJ-MosinFreak-Buck
Member
Okay guys, I've been seeing some Mosin-Bashing lately, though it is considerably less than on other forums. The Mosin Nagant rifle is probably the best mil-surp bang for your inexpensive buck. You get to own a piece of history that is entirely capable of hunting, plinking, or whatever else you could think of doing with this old war-horse.
Firstly, we have to realize that the Mosin Nagant has some problems. They aren't the greatest rifle in the world, and has its limitations. It is a crude, "clunky" firearm, as some call it, but a lot of use do see the beauty in these rifles. But what most don't take into account, is that these rifles were given to uneducated conscripts, who were told to defend their country at all costs. So naturally, they're going to be a little rough around the edges, but they will go bang. But most cases of them going bang, it leaves a little something to be desired.
These rifles, the biggest complaint that I see about them, is accuracy. Yeah, yeah. Yada yada. Some are accurate, little are really accurate, but most leave a lot to be desired in that department. But one of the nicest things about these rifles is that they are just so easily customizable, that why wouldn't you do something with it?
I'm more of a purist at heart, and don't do much to the mil-surps, but this article that I am writing won't involve any extreme sporterizing. Actually, it's quite the opposite. Your rifle can stay in the original stock with all of these modifications, and most would be none-the-wiser to your modifications. Hell, most of these you wouldn't really be able to notice without a closer look! So in my eyes, this is a plus.
I've been doing a lot of reading about this area lately, and have found a lot of useful links, plus some of my own experience in modifying these rifles, and decided to compile them all into one thread. This post will be long, so bear with me.
First thing we're going to talk about is the stock. This is where a lot of the accuracy problems are going to spring up, and in a lot of cases that I have read, is the only thing that needs tweaked to tighten up the groups.
There's a few things you can do the the original stock to accurize this rifle, without making it look like a bubba'd hack-job:
1.) Glass-bed the stock
2.) Pillar-bed the stock
3.) Free-float the stock.
Of these three things, I have no personal experience doing this myself. Though, I do have plans for doing so someday soon. The processes are actually pretty simple, and I will provide links and a general description of the steps required.
1.) Glass-Bed the Stock:
I have quoted and paraphrased this post from the forum "Gun and Game" and will provide a link as well. This member has gotten good results from glass-bedding his stock. (The same link will cover pillar-bedding as well.)
The author of this post suggests clamping down until you have epoxy coming out around the action. The link will provide pictures of his project. This method of bedding seems pretty solid, which follows the principle of consistency. It makes the receiver return to the same spot it was before firing, and after firing. It makes the rifle repeat what it did on the shot before, basically.
Glass-Bedding and Pillar-Bedding
2.) Piller-Bed the Stock:
Since the author of the post I quoted and edited (for some removal of needless wording) above included information on Glass-bedding and Pillar-bedding in the same post, I'll only be providing one link.
Here, the author did both a Glass-Bed and a Pillar-Bed to his stock, and this quoted and cited how-to from him reflects that. Like he also stated, you could either make them, or order them in from Rock Solid. Maybe they still make them, but maybe they don't. I haven't looked, mainly because these tubes are easy to make yourself. The author tells you how to do this in the above quote.
3.) Free-Floating the Stock.
Free-floating the stock is a pretty good way to make the rifle act the same way upon firing, every time. It allows the barrel to flex without the stock getting in the way, which could throw off your shot. (Keep in mind, I'm not going to get too technical in the dynamics of this, all this information is out there on the web, and I don't have the time to explain even the slightest detail on something that can be a problem with every rifle in the world. A free-floated barrel has the ability to be more accurate, like a lot of other on-line sources will be able to tell you.)
I've read a little about this to know that it is simple enough to do by yourself without any special tools. So here, I won't be quoting any body, but I will include a YouTube link for demonstration. (Also note, the YouTube video is not mine.)
What you're going to do is find some medium-grit sand-paper, not too coarse, but not too fine, either, otherwise you could either take too much, or spend the next two days doing this. The next thing you're going to want to do is either find a wood dowel, or even a socket from the tool-box that, when the sand-paper is wrapped around the dowel or socket, that it fills the barrel-channel nicely, but isn't too tight.
With your rifle apart, you can either use some gunsmithing black to find out where it's touching on your barrel, or you can just do the whole project by your hands and eyes. We're going to discuss the simple way.
Wrap the piece of sand-paper around the dowel or socket, and proceed to rub along the barrel-channel to begin taking away wood. You don't want to take away too much, so go slow. You can test if your barrel is floated enough by using a dollar-bill, running it from end to end of the barrel. If it snags, there's one place you can keep sanding. Do this until you have free movement with the dollar-bill. You can do the same to the top-cover piece, as well.
You should probably test this movement with the stock properly installed on the rifle, to make sure that when it's tensioned on the rifle, you won't have any snags or points of contact when the reciever is torqued down.
Here's the video on this:
Accurizing the Mosin Nagant Rifle
Another modification you can do to the stock is shimming it with cork, or another material. I'm not exactly sure on this subject, and I've only read a little bit about it. Can't find much through searching, but I can give you a description of what it's basicaly doing.
When shimming the stock, it's usually happening at the business end of the rifle, though sometimes it can be done behind the recoil lug as well, like stated in the quoted post from "Gun and Game" above.
What the individual will do is, after the shim-material is chosen, will place it at the very end of the stock, applying upward pressure to the barrel, or in the top-guard, applying down-ward pressure. It really depends on your rifle, every where I've heard. So I guess no two rifles are the same when it comes to this modification. So you can do this, or not, it's up to you. It might help.
This is pretty much all you can really do to the original stock to gain some accuracy. There are, I'm sure, other methods out there, but this is just a generalized guide, basically giving the reader an idea of what he or she could do to squeeze a little more accuracy out of their Mosin Nagant.
Firstly, we have to realize that the Mosin Nagant has some problems. They aren't the greatest rifle in the world, and has its limitations. It is a crude, "clunky" firearm, as some call it, but a lot of use do see the beauty in these rifles. But what most don't take into account, is that these rifles were given to uneducated conscripts, who were told to defend their country at all costs. So naturally, they're going to be a little rough around the edges, but they will go bang. But most cases of them going bang, it leaves a little something to be desired.
These rifles, the biggest complaint that I see about them, is accuracy. Yeah, yeah. Yada yada. Some are accurate, little are really accurate, but most leave a lot to be desired in that department. But one of the nicest things about these rifles is that they are just so easily customizable, that why wouldn't you do something with it?
I'm more of a purist at heart, and don't do much to the mil-surps, but this article that I am writing won't involve any extreme sporterizing. Actually, it's quite the opposite. Your rifle can stay in the original stock with all of these modifications, and most would be none-the-wiser to your modifications. Hell, most of these you wouldn't really be able to notice without a closer look! So in my eyes, this is a plus.
I've been doing a lot of reading about this area lately, and have found a lot of useful links, plus some of my own experience in modifying these rifles, and decided to compile them all into one thread. This post will be long, so bear with me.
First thing we're going to talk about is the stock. This is where a lot of the accuracy problems are going to spring up, and in a lot of cases that I have read, is the only thing that needs tweaked to tighten up the groups.
There's a few things you can do the the original stock to accurize this rifle, without making it look like a bubba'd hack-job:
1.) Glass-bed the stock
2.) Pillar-bed the stock
3.) Free-float the stock.
Of these three things, I have no personal experience doing this myself. Though, I do have plans for doing so someday soon. The processes are actually pretty simple, and I will provide links and a general description of the steps required.
1.) Glass-Bed the Stock:
I have quoted and paraphrased this post from the forum "Gun and Game" and will provide a link as well. This member has gotten good results from glass-bedding his stock. (The same link will cover pillar-bedding as well.)
The author of this post suggests clamping down until you have epoxy coming out around the action. The link will provide pictures of his project. This method of bedding seems pretty solid, which follows the principle of consistency. It makes the receiver return to the same spot it was before firing, and after firing. It makes the rifle repeat what it did on the shot before, basically.
Glass-Bedding and Pillar-Bedding
2.) Piller-Bed the Stock:
Since the author of the post I quoted and edited (for some removal of needless wording) above included information on Glass-bedding and Pillar-bedding in the same post, I'll only be providing one link.
Here, the author did both a Glass-Bed and a Pillar-Bed to his stock, and this quoted and cited how-to from him reflects that. Like he also stated, you could either make them, or order them in from Rock Solid. Maybe they still make them, but maybe they don't. I haven't looked, mainly because these tubes are easy to make yourself. The author tells you how to do this in the above quote.
3.) Free-Floating the Stock.
Free-floating the stock is a pretty good way to make the rifle act the same way upon firing, every time. It allows the barrel to flex without the stock getting in the way, which could throw off your shot. (Keep in mind, I'm not going to get too technical in the dynamics of this, all this information is out there on the web, and I don't have the time to explain even the slightest detail on something that can be a problem with every rifle in the world. A free-floated barrel has the ability to be more accurate, like a lot of other on-line sources will be able to tell you.)
I've read a little about this to know that it is simple enough to do by yourself without any special tools. So here, I won't be quoting any body, but I will include a YouTube link for demonstration. (Also note, the YouTube video is not mine.)
What you're going to do is find some medium-grit sand-paper, not too coarse, but not too fine, either, otherwise you could either take too much, or spend the next two days doing this. The next thing you're going to want to do is either find a wood dowel, or even a socket from the tool-box that, when the sand-paper is wrapped around the dowel or socket, that it fills the barrel-channel nicely, but isn't too tight.
With your rifle apart, you can either use some gunsmithing black to find out where it's touching on your barrel, or you can just do the whole project by your hands and eyes. We're going to discuss the simple way.
Wrap the piece of sand-paper around the dowel or socket, and proceed to rub along the barrel-channel to begin taking away wood. You don't want to take away too much, so go slow. You can test if your barrel is floated enough by using a dollar-bill, running it from end to end of the barrel. If it snags, there's one place you can keep sanding. Do this until you have free movement with the dollar-bill. You can do the same to the top-cover piece, as well.
You should probably test this movement with the stock properly installed on the rifle, to make sure that when it's tensioned on the rifle, you won't have any snags or points of contact when the reciever is torqued down.
Here's the video on this:
Accurizing the Mosin Nagant Rifle
Another modification you can do to the stock is shimming it with cork, or another material. I'm not exactly sure on this subject, and I've only read a little bit about it. Can't find much through searching, but I can give you a description of what it's basicaly doing.
When shimming the stock, it's usually happening at the business end of the rifle, though sometimes it can be done behind the recoil lug as well, like stated in the quoted post from "Gun and Game" above.
What the individual will do is, after the shim-material is chosen, will place it at the very end of the stock, applying upward pressure to the barrel, or in the top-guard, applying down-ward pressure. It really depends on your rifle, every where I've heard. So I guess no two rifles are the same when it comes to this modification. So you can do this, or not, it's up to you. It might help.
This is pretty much all you can really do to the original stock to gain some accuracy. There are, I'm sure, other methods out there, but this is just a generalized guide, basically giving the reader an idea of what he or she could do to squeeze a little more accuracy out of their Mosin Nagant.
