Cosmoline
Member
One of the most legendary of Mosin-Nagant rifles is the M28 series of Civil Guard rifle. It was built out of M91 parts with new match grade barrels and improved sights. I've had M28/30's before, but never found the original M28's in anything approaching workable condition. They saw the brunt of intense fighting in the Winter War, the Continuation War and the Lapland War. Not to mention frequent target practice and hunting by the Guardsman who kept them like personal arms.
After years of looking I found one for a good price and moved fast enough to grab it--an early issue with a SIG barrel and two-piece nose band. This one also has the special extra slot for forward-slinging by bicycle and ski troopers. Those were the ski troopers who inspired the creation of the 10th Mountain Division and earned the reputation as "Belaya Smert" among hapless Red Army conscripts cut off in the "motti" along isolated mountain roads. This one was originally issued to a Civil Guardsman in Mikkeli, which was to become the HQ of the Finnish military during the wars. It's impossible to know where the rifle was sent, but the Guardsmen were rotated out to the fronts over and over again.
The triggers feature a special spring that makes them a very nice two-stage trigger that breaks crisp. It feels totally unlike other Mosin triggers.
With this one, the bore is worn but serviceable. The two-piece nose cap is predictably coming apart, which is why they changed the design in later M28's. The barrel and receiver are in excellent shape. The barrel is remarkably heavy, but well balanced. It has a unique shape unlike any other Mosin's barrel. I believe it is heavier than the M39's barrel and I noticed that even after dozens of rounds it barely got warm to the touch.
Unlike the later 28/30 this one does not have the new style rear sight. It uses a slightly improved M91 sight. But it's still tough on my old eyes. With sharper eyes though you could really drive tacks with it. The stock is unfortunately showing its age. These stocks were notorious for being somewhat iffy, and I believe they were simply cut down from parts of old M91's. They are not the same as the later two-piece Finnish stocks. This one has stripped buttplate screw holes, stripped front band cap screw holes, a wrist crack, and a few other potential issues. It holds up OK but as you can see it's been cleaned of its finish in preparation for some repairs. Someone epoxied the wrist but I know it won't hold long. When it cracks again I'll be binding it together with a thin brass screw. I also plan on drilling out the old screw holes, inserting dowel and re-drilling them. That should get the Buttplate back together. Once that's done I'll pine tar it up again and it will be good to go.
Now for shooting! I had done my homework on these beauties, so I knew that the bores are tight and may approach .3085". I also know these are match-quality arms that tend to be far more picky about ammo than most Mosins. So I gathered and pre loaded over a dozen different combinations of bullets and powder in batches of 5 to run the full gamut from light ball to heavy match.
The first results with Barnes .308" TSX and some .308" match grade mid-weight bullets were horrific. Not just bad but really awful. Groups were high, right and scattered at just 50 yards. Some groups measured over a FOOT across, and that's shot from a good bench position.
But I pressed on, and I was rewarded. I got to the Lapua Scenar 185 grain loads and instantly the groups tightened up. Then I got to what looks to be a sweet spot load with Varget:
You can see two groups, one from when I aimed with the dot in sunrise position and the other when I zeroed in on the bull. With some sight adjustment this will be a real winner. Keep in mind that was after the barrel was already fouled and my eyes were full of glacial dust from the high winds. I got similarly good results with other heavy Scenar loads and also very promising results with D166 Lapuas. The factory 7.62x53R Lapua Match, which uses Scenars, was also very good. With another session of tweaking I should have an MOA rife on my hands. But you never, ever would have guessed it based on the initial results--some with very nice bullets.
It's probably not a Mosin for everyone. It has little in common with the workaday Soviet fare most folks know. And it's a harder rifle to find than the M39's and late model Tikka M91's that are available from the post-Winter War period. But if you want to get your hands on a rifle that almost certainly saw front-line combat in an epic confrontation, you would have a hard time doing better than the M28.
After years of looking I found one for a good price and moved fast enough to grab it--an early issue with a SIG barrel and two-piece nose band. This one also has the special extra slot for forward-slinging by bicycle and ski troopers. Those were the ski troopers who inspired the creation of the 10th Mountain Division and earned the reputation as "Belaya Smert" among hapless Red Army conscripts cut off in the "motti" along isolated mountain roads. This one was originally issued to a Civil Guardsman in Mikkeli, which was to become the HQ of the Finnish military during the wars. It's impossible to know where the rifle was sent, but the Guardsmen were rotated out to the fronts over and over again.
The triggers feature a special spring that makes them a very nice two-stage trigger that breaks crisp. It feels totally unlike other Mosin triggers.
With this one, the bore is worn but serviceable. The two-piece nose cap is predictably coming apart, which is why they changed the design in later M28's. The barrel and receiver are in excellent shape. The barrel is remarkably heavy, but well balanced. It has a unique shape unlike any other Mosin's barrel. I believe it is heavier than the M39's barrel and I noticed that even after dozens of rounds it barely got warm to the touch.
Unlike the later 28/30 this one does not have the new style rear sight. It uses a slightly improved M91 sight. But it's still tough on my old eyes. With sharper eyes though you could really drive tacks with it. The stock is unfortunately showing its age. These stocks were notorious for being somewhat iffy, and I believe they were simply cut down from parts of old M91's. They are not the same as the later two-piece Finnish stocks. This one has stripped buttplate screw holes, stripped front band cap screw holes, a wrist crack, and a few other potential issues. It holds up OK but as you can see it's been cleaned of its finish in preparation for some repairs. Someone epoxied the wrist but I know it won't hold long. When it cracks again I'll be binding it together with a thin brass screw. I also plan on drilling out the old screw holes, inserting dowel and re-drilling them. That should get the Buttplate back together. Once that's done I'll pine tar it up again and it will be good to go.
Now for shooting! I had done my homework on these beauties, so I knew that the bores are tight and may approach .3085". I also know these are match-quality arms that tend to be far more picky about ammo than most Mosins. So I gathered and pre loaded over a dozen different combinations of bullets and powder in batches of 5 to run the full gamut from light ball to heavy match.
The first results with Barnes .308" TSX and some .308" match grade mid-weight bullets were horrific. Not just bad but really awful. Groups were high, right and scattered at just 50 yards. Some groups measured over a FOOT across, and that's shot from a good bench position.
But I pressed on, and I was rewarded. I got to the Lapua Scenar 185 grain loads and instantly the groups tightened up. Then I got to what looks to be a sweet spot load with Varget:
You can see two groups, one from when I aimed with the dot in sunrise position and the other when I zeroed in on the bull. With some sight adjustment this will be a real winner. Keep in mind that was after the barrel was already fouled and my eyes were full of glacial dust from the high winds. I got similarly good results with other heavy Scenar loads and also very promising results with D166 Lapuas. The factory 7.62x53R Lapua Match, which uses Scenars, was also very good. With another session of tweaking I should have an MOA rife on my hands. But you never, ever would have guessed it based on the initial results--some with very nice bullets.
It's probably not a Mosin for everyone. It has little in common with the workaday Soviet fare most folks know. And it's a harder rifle to find than the M39's and late model Tikka M91's that are available from the post-Winter War period. But if you want to get your hands on a rifle that almost certainly saw front-line combat in an epic confrontation, you would have a hard time doing better than the M28.
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