Hey guys,
So today a buddy of mine and I decided it would be a good day to head up to the range and put some rounds downrange
. We brought with us today my M38 Mosin Carbine, his M44 Mosin Carbine and a Lee Enfield No4 Mk1*. The rifle I will be focusing on for this report is my matching 1944 M38 Mosin Nagant carbine.
The rifle itself is in great shape, and has a very clean, shiney bore. The rifle is counterbored about an inch or so at the muzzle, but from what I can tell this does not affect shooting in any way. The rifle has a correct war time M38 stock which is a nice bonus, and features an original matched bolt and buttplate, with a forced match (refurbed) floorplate. This particular rifle was made in Izhevesk arsenal in 1944; and in 1949 was transfered to the Ministry of Defence, as is evident by the "MO" and double date stamp on the reciever of the rifle. The rifle overall is in beautiful shape, with original stock cartouches still visible (barely). An interesting note about this rifle, absolutely everything I can find is Izhevesk marked, including the barrel bands, reciever tang, barrel, all bolt parts, nose cap, sight, stock, trigger and trigger guard and buttplate.
The rifle:
beside the M44
reciever stampings
Down to the shooting:
Today was a fairly decent range day, with the temperature ranging from about 8-4 ish degrees over the course of the afternoon, with slight winds running right to left. The air was very moist and the sky was cloudy and overcast. I began shooting at 50m and worked my way up to 100m, shooting off a bench, using a front rest.
These Mosin carbines have a bad reputation for being both crudely made (in some cases true), inaccurate, painful to fire and overall very clumsy. I would like to set the record straight in that every one of these statements is false, in the several war time, and post war Mosin carbines I have fired. The carbine fired great, and cycled/fed 100%. Recoil was not at all unbearable or painful; as with any rifle if you take up a proper position with it, you will be fine. Do not fear the recoil! recoil sensitivity will lead to shot dispersion and will ultimately create a flinch. Anyway, enough of that, the rifle itself fired great, and was very comfortable to fire! I find the Mosin Nagant series of carbines to be a very handy, well pointing and compact little rifles. These carbines are capable of great accuracy and still being able to throw large chunks of lead downrange
The ammo I was using today were custom reloads, utilizing 150gr .311 FMJBT bullets, with Reloader 15 powder. I was using Winchester primers and 4th time fired Prvi brass. I found my best loadings worked with 44gr of RL 15, which gave me VERY consistant groups and remarkable (for a carbine) accuracy.
The ammo
I fired several shots throughout the afternoon, with my best grouping being two shots and measuring just under one inch! Here are the pictures to prove it
Overall shot of the rifle with the target
Overall this rifle was a blast to shoot and I am etreamly happy with the results. I would put this carbine up against any of my other rifles anyway, and I have a feeling it would do very well.
Not bad for a "noisy maggot"
Thanks for reading, any and all comments/feedback GREATLY appreciated!
So today a buddy of mine and I decided it would be a good day to head up to the range and put some rounds downrange
. We brought with us today my M38 Mosin Carbine, his M44 Mosin Carbine and a Lee Enfield No4 Mk1*. The rifle I will be focusing on for this report is my matching 1944 M38 Mosin Nagant carbine. The rifle itself is in great shape, and has a very clean, shiney bore. The rifle is counterbored about an inch or so at the muzzle, but from what I can tell this does not affect shooting in any way. The rifle has a correct war time M38 stock which is a nice bonus, and features an original matched bolt and buttplate, with a forced match (refurbed) floorplate. This particular rifle was made in Izhevesk arsenal in 1944; and in 1949 was transfered to the Ministry of Defence, as is evident by the "MO" and double date stamp on the reciever of the rifle. The rifle overall is in beautiful shape, with original stock cartouches still visible (barely). An interesting note about this rifle, absolutely everything I can find is Izhevesk marked, including the barrel bands, reciever tang, barrel, all bolt parts, nose cap, sight, stock, trigger and trigger guard and buttplate.
The rifle:
beside the M44
reciever stampings
Down to the shooting:
Today was a fairly decent range day, with the temperature ranging from about 8-4 ish degrees over the course of the afternoon, with slight winds running right to left. The air was very moist and the sky was cloudy and overcast. I began shooting at 50m and worked my way up to 100m, shooting off a bench, using a front rest.
These Mosin carbines have a bad reputation for being both crudely made (in some cases true), inaccurate, painful to fire and overall very clumsy. I would like to set the record straight in that every one of these statements is false, in the several war time, and post war Mosin carbines I have fired. The carbine fired great, and cycled/fed 100%. Recoil was not at all unbearable or painful; as with any rifle if you take up a proper position with it, you will be fine. Do not fear the recoil! recoil sensitivity will lead to shot dispersion and will ultimately create a flinch. Anyway, enough of that, the rifle itself fired great, and was very comfortable to fire! I find the Mosin Nagant series of carbines to be a very handy, well pointing and compact little rifles. These carbines are capable of great accuracy and still being able to throw large chunks of lead downrange
The ammo I was using today were custom reloads, utilizing 150gr .311 FMJBT bullets, with Reloader 15 powder. I was using Winchester primers and 4th time fired Prvi brass. I found my best loadings worked with 44gr of RL 15, which gave me VERY consistant groups and remarkable (for a carbine) accuracy.
The ammo
I fired several shots throughout the afternoon, with my best grouping being two shots and measuring just under one inch! Here are the pictures to prove it
Overall shot of the rifle with the target
Overall this rifle was a blast to shoot and I am etreamly happy with the results. I would put this carbine up against any of my other rifles anyway, and I have a feeling it would do very well.
Not bad for a "noisy maggot"
Thanks for reading, any and all comments/feedback GREATLY appreciated!
...just kidding! 
