Getting Familiar With The Mosin–Nagant Rifle

The Russian Mosin-Nagant 3-line rifle, Model 1891 was one of the earliest bolt action military rifl es made for smokeless powder cartridges. The design and hyphenated name resulted from a collaboration between Imperial Russian Army Colonel Sergei Ivanovich Mosin and the Belgian arms maker Emile Nagant of Fabrique d’armes Émile et Léon Nagant.

Both rifle and carbine models, in military service for better than sixty years, have subsequently been manufactured in China, Finland, North Korea, Russia, Switzerland, France and the United States. Those still around from early production have octagonal receivers while those produced later have round ones. Despite the differences in receivers all Mosin-Nagants share a common characteristic. They have a massive, ungainly appearing action that could lead an observer to believe the firearm to be quite complex.

To the contrary, the design has proven to be so "soldier proof" it remains highly positioned amongst the simplest military bolt actions ever produced. Further, a receiver-mounted cartridge interrupter that interacts with the integral, fi ve-round magazine enhances the gun’s reputation as the most positive feeding of any design using rimmed ammunition. It was the ammunition itself that brought my initial research on the rifle to a screeching, though temporary, halt.

I’d been told of an old American Indian trick that made it possible for them to reload rimmed cases. They would scrounge up the spent rimmed cases remaining on the fields of their The rifle received for this article arrived with several accoutrements. One of which, its bayonet, is pictured here above the rifle. Note its length and multiple wound enhancing grooves. (Ouch!) black powder battles with the US Cavalry. The more inventive of the surviving warriors would later secure "strike anywhere" wooden matches.

The cut off match heads would be crushed into a powder and converted into a slurry. A measured amount of the slurry would be poured into an empty case, rotated rapidly between the palms of their hands and set it aside to dry. The centrifugal force of the rotation supposedly distributed the match head mixture evenly inside the case rim. After drying, the mixture remained sufficiently sensitive to react to the impact of a firing pin and ignite the black powder in the recharged, reloaded case.

I don’t know for sure whether or not the old Indian trick was successful and briefl y considered trying it out to see if it really works before fully realizing I knew no living American Indians old enough to confirm that it did or didn’t. As it turned out soon after returning to my research, it would be a complete waste of time to experiment with match heads and the re-priming of rimmed cases these days. But first, a few past and present details about the 7.62 x 54mm rimmed cartridge.

The 7.62 indicates the bore diameter in millimeters, which is .30 caliber. The 54 represents the length of the cartridge case in millimeters and the Rtells you the case has a rim. In production since 1891 it is the oldest round still seeing military combat service with several of the world’s armed forces. This despite the fact that most bottle neck rimmed cartridges were considered militarily obsolete after the First World War.

That particular notion is no longer a factor because the 7.62 x 54mm rimmed now boasts the addition of a boxer primer. Ballistic performance of the current cen-

Complete removal of the magazine is optional when field stripping the rifle. ter fi re cartridge is comparable to the .308 Winchester, though a bit outperformed by the .30-06 Springfi eld. If you type 7.62mmx54mm Rimmed Ammunition into your search engine and scroll down on the links you’ll turn up access to about seven pages from Wikipedia available for study or print-out. With them on hand or in fi le you can bone up on the works, such as Background, Dimensions, Performance, Availability and Derivatives.

Additionally is a list of firearms presently using the round and still more references. Among the latter is a link revealing Russia’s new sniper loading for the once-upon-a- Atime rim fi re. Perhaps this might be worth packing along on the next hunt, eh? Right about now I figure you’d rather bone up on the gun itself. Field Stripping, Plus/Plus Open the bolt, check the chamber, the magazine and protect your eyes. Hold the trigger to the rear. Slide the bolt back and out of the receiver.

If any cartridges remain in the magazine, opening the floor plate lets them fall out except for the uppermost one. It’s held in place by the previously mentioned interrupter that assures no problem feeding of the first round and every round to follow. Any cartridge you encounter being retained by this interrupter can be popped out the bottom of an open magazine with downward finger pressure. Secure the complete bolt assembly between padded vise jaws and pull back on the cocking piece (1).

It is under pressure from the spring (3). Rotate the piece counter clockwise, keeping it under control as you allow it to move forward. Either remove the bolt assembly from the vise or shift it so you can grasp the bolt head (6) Mowbray and Joe Pulco contains full information on 48 rifles and carbines from all over the world. This book is available through manatarmsbooks.com. by its locking lugs. Pull the head forward until it comes to a stop, rotate it counter clockwise a little more than a quarter of a turn.

Rotate it clockwise 90 degrees and remove it from the bolt body (2). This frees up the bolt guide (5). Slide it forward and off the body. The guide has a slot at its rear end that is about to come in very handy. You see, the firing pin is threaded into the cocking piece. The slot on the guide slips over the flats on the firing pin and you can use the guide as a wrench to unscrew the pin. Careful now. Every turn on the pin is going to relax its spring.

Once the pin is completely undone from the cocking piece the spring will want to jump out the front of the bolt body and the cocking piece will drop free. It isn’t absolutely necessary to remove the magazine floor plate (29) and follower (24) assemblies at this time but I opted to do so. Invert the barreled action. The floor plate release button is located in a recess just forward of the trigger. Push the button to the rear and swing open the plate. Squeeze it and the follower together.

This will open the end of the plate enough to clear its hinge pin (32). Withdraw the plate from the housing along with the follower. Two spring keepers mounted in the stock retain the two barrel bands (16). Individually depress the keepers and drift the bands toward the muzzle. You’ll have to rotate each band to get it over the front sight (17). Withdrawing the cleaning rod beforehand signifi cantly lowers the frustration factor of maneuvering the bands.

Two guard screws stand in your way of removing the barreled action from the stock. The rear guard screw (9) is located in the tang just aft of the receiver bolt way. The front screw (23) is seated in the forward end of the guard. You have to invert the rifle to get at it. Once both screws are backed

out, the metal can be lifted from the wood (33) with magazine/trigger guard housing attached. Further Disassembly The trigger spring and bolt stop (20) are retained by a screw (21). The trigger (18) is mounted to the receiver by its hinge pin (19). This pin is fairly loose and requires no serious effort with a drift punch to remove it in either direction, at least it didn’t on the rifle I received for this article, however, the same might not be true of the Mosin- Nagant that arrives in your shop.

If Mosin-Nagant (Speci cations subject to change without notice) (Order parts using ZMN identi cation system.) your rifle is more stubborn than mine, support in the form of a nylon bench block, available from Brownells, is recommended as it would be for any pin resistant to removal. The feed interrupter and ejection spring (11) shun pins and are held to the receiver by a screw (10).

Regardless, once the screw is removed a pin punch can come be useful in cases where the ejector (12) must be nudged forward to dislodge it from its groove.

Additional disassembly of the magazine, normally required only for part replacements, should present no ob- 1 Cocking Piece (ZMN0001) 2 Bolt Body (ZMN0002) 3 Firing Pin Spring (ZMN0003) 4 Firing Pin (ZMN004) 5 Bolt Connector/Guide Bar (ZMN0005) 6 Bolt Head (ZMN0006) 7 Extractor (ZMN0007) 8 Assembled Bolt (ZMN0008) 9 Rear Guard Screw (ZMN0009) 10 Ejector Spring Screw (ZMN0010) 11 Ejector Spring/Feed Interrupter (ZMN0011) 12 Ejector (ZMN0012) 13 Receiver (ZMN0013) 14 Barrel Assembly (ZMN0014) 15 Handguard (ZMN0015) stacles once you have become thoroughly familiar with the schematic.

With the Mosin-Nagant there are no tricks involved with disassembly or reassembly. All operations should follow the proven practice of making certain the position of all components are exactly the same after reinstallation as they were prior to removal. This is particularly true when dealing with the bolt head of a Mosin-Nagant. If not properly reinstalled, firing the rifle will almost certainly result in property damage, personal injury, or both.

AG 16 Barrel Bands (ZMN0016) 17 Front Sight (ZMN0017) 18 Trigger (ZMN0018) 19 Trigger Hinge Pin (ZMN0019) 20 Trigger Spring/Bolt Stop (ZMN0020) 21 Bolt Stop Screw (ZMN0021) 22 Magazine & Trigger Guard (ZMN0022) 23 Front Guard Screw (ZMN0023) 24 Magazine Follower (ZMN0024) 25 Follower Spring Assembly (ZMN0025) 26 Follower Hinge Pin (ZMN0026) 27 Lower Follower Spring (ZMN0027) 28 Spring Retaining Screw (ZMN0028) 29 Floorplate (ZMN0029) 30 Floorplate Latch (ZMN0030) 31 Latch Screw (ZMN0031) 32 Follower Upper Hinge Pin (ZMN0032) 33 Stock (ZMN0033) 34 Buttplate (ZMN0034)