Moron Mosin

The Mosin Nagant has two primary features that make it a desirable rifle.  First it is reliable.  Second it is cheap.  That's it.

Compared to just about any other bolt action battle rifle it's not really all that good.

The M-1891/30 is a shortening of the original M-1891, and they still didn't shorten it to the same length standards everyone else went to around the start of WW2 (compare Lee-Metford with Lee-Enfield)

The M38 and M44 carbines are shortened past that point.

The 7.62x54mmR is a full power battle rifle round looking for a long barrel.  The carbines do not have that barrel, expect a gigantic fireball.  Expect some muzzle blast.  Expect some surprised looks in the other lanes.  Even the basic rifle has this to a larger degree than other main battle rifles of the same era.

That 'R' in the cartridge name?  That means "rimmed".  This is often a problem with box magazine guns because if you get the rim of the ready round behind the rim of the round below it, you've got a jam.  The Mosin design mitigates this a bit with its magazine design, the follower drops in such a way that it's a lot harder to get the rounds in wrong and there's a nifty little spring catch at the top.  What it does is segregates the ready round from the others in in the magazine.  I believe that was originally to give a constant feed pressure for the shooter, but it also has the effect of keeping the rims from getting tangled.  This magazine is also emphatically a five round unit, not 5+1.

This little spring tab you can't really see holds the second from next round.

Round being held by the tab.  Photogenic Finnish ammo provided by Willard. 

Round in feed position.

The action of the bolt closing trips the tab and releases the next round into the feed position.

While we're on the topic of feeding, let's talk about the bolt.  It's fairly complicated when you compare it to other guns its age.  A lot of that has to do with being late to the game and everyone else patenting the more obvious routes to a workable bolt than any real advantage or improvement; but it does work.

The bolt is strong, but it is clunky.  The handle is awkwardly placed and short.  They often hang-up just after unlocking, but before opening and there's just no easy way to apply extra leverage without changing your grip on the gun.  It's a "cock on open" design so you're fighting both the striker spring and the rounds resistance to primary extraction.  What works for me is to not treat it like a door latch.  Hit that fucker hard from below to slap it open!  This might be how the Russian, then Soviet, conscript was trained because it's surprisingly natural compared to treating it like a Remington 700 or Winchester 70.

This is not a gun to be treated daintily!

The safety.  Ye Gods, the safety.  The standard answer is, "Iz gun, iz not safe!" but nominally there is a safety.  I mentioned the striker spring earlier... I think it was originally designed for a truck.  To engage it you put on your boots of giant strength® and pull the cocking knob back (against spring pressure) then rotate it counter clockwise about 30˚ and let it come forward to the safety step.  The knob is not well shaped for this and it's not easy to get a good grip on it.

Fired.

Cocked.

Safe.

To date I have not had great luck with clips for these guns.  I'm told that much of the problem stems from poorly made reproduction strippers, but they don't seem to be a well designed clip either.  Poor designs never respond well to shoddy craftsmanship and lack-luster quality control.

The sights are typical tangent with a U-Notch.  You'll have to work hard to find a Mosin still marked with Arshins and virtually all of those will be an original M-1891.  Part of the process of converting existing rifles to the M-1891/30 standard was changing the sights.  If you have an 91/30 with an arshin rear sight, you have a collectable!

Marked in meters from 100 to 2,000 in 50m steps.

Set to 2,000m.  Yes, more than a mile.  Can you even see who you're shooting at?

If you buy surplus ammo, it will almost certainly be corrosive.  This means you want to get to cleaning the bore as soon as you can.  Corrosive ammo is also why you're going to find more an a few "dark" bores when you're Mosin shopping.  At one time that bore was machined smooth and shiny, if it's dark, it's no longer smooth.  Bring some windex to the range and flush out the bore before putting it in its case will do.  Or you can just pay a bit more money for non-corrosive ammo.  Read carefully when you shop!

I am sure I missed a hundred things and I am also sure I will be writing about this topic some more.