Another new Mosin owner and an ammo question.

BCRider

BCRider

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For some time now I've had this itch at the back of my mind to "collect" one of each of the major main rifles from WW II. So yesterday I finally acted on this while looking at some Mosins at Reliable a short ways down the road in Vancouver. The condition of their stock was such that the darn things looked like new. So for $150 I just said "WTH" and got one along with a few packs of surplus ammo to try it out.

No pictures yet since I had a bunch of chores to do today and it's still all wrapped up in the brown paper and soaked in grease. But hopefully in the next few days. Besides, you guys already know what they look like.

Mine is a 1943 manufacture. Not sure yet which armoury.

My question is about the ammo. The surplus stuff I got looked sort of brass like when I looked it under the rather dim light around my computer. So I put a magnet to the case to confirm that sure enough, it's steel. But I was shocked to find that the magnet sticks to the BULLET as well. So now I'm wondering if this ammo is steel jacketed or steel core. Both the case and bullet have a copper colour with a rough looking silver grey tip on the bullet. The magnet sticks equally well to the coppery colour plating or coating as it does to the end of the silver grey tip. Could this be armour peircing rounds that I got? Or is this just the typical surplus ammo?

Now that I've got started I guess I'll need to be on the lookout for a proper military stocked Lee Enfield, a Mauser of some form and eventually a Garrand. I guess the money I saved buying the cheap Mosin will be made up for by the cost of the Garrand... :D And who knows where I'll find a Japanese Arisaka of some sort....

I'm looking forward to swabbing down this baby and getting it out to the range in the next week. I just hope the weather cooperates.
 
By your description I would bet that it is standard 1970's production 150gr Soviet light ball ammunition. It is the stuff Marstar brought in fairly recently. It is steel and quite accurrate. It is of course corrosive, so clean your rifle the same day.
 
the ammo you have is Russian copper washed steel case with a mild steel core .. not amour piercing but it will go through more steel than a lead core..
 
Bcviking said:
the ammo you have is Russian copper washed steel case with a mild steel core .. not amour piercing but it will go through more steel than a lead core..
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And in an interesting way, too - the copper jacket will peel back like a banana and the core will keep going. I found a few discarted jackets and steel bits in the sand pit where I had been shooting back in Ontario.
 
welcome to the family

first the good news, mosins kick a$$. The bad news is they multiply like rabbits when you are not looking. Except for you i don't know anyone who owns just one I have four and would like an m38 to keep them company. Yes steel case steel core penetrates stuff like crazy. It is very very corrosive. clean with windex first then do your usual cleaning with solvent. You really have to clean it the same day as firing, the rate it will corrode is so fast it looks like a special effect. enjoy.
 
Thanks for the info so far on the ammo. And yeah, I knew about the clean as soon as possible aspect of the surplus ammo.

It's nice to know that Windex will do a good job. With that in mind I'll likely take some to the range and run patches of it along with some WD40 to displace any moisture and then a gun oil. A few dry patches between each step and the whole thing should be well done with about 5 minutes of attention before putting it back in the sleeve to take home.

If the bullet has so much steel in it's makeup isn't it a bit hard on the barrel bore? Or is the barrel steel tough enough to laugh at it? Would finding some brass cases and reloading regular .308 (7.62) copper clad lead core bullets a wise way to go for the longer term or will this thing smile at a steady diet of surplus?
 
BCRider said:
Thanks for the info so far on the ammo. And yeah, I knew about the clean as soon as possible aspect of the surplus ammo.

It's nice to know that Windex will do a good job. With that in mind I'll likely take some to the range and run patches of it along with some WD40 to displace any moisture and then a gun oil. A few dry patches between each step and the whole thing should be well done with about 5 minutes of attention before putting it back in the sleeve to take home.

If the bullet has so much steel in it's makeup isn't it a bit hard on the barrel bore? Or is the barrel steel tough enough to laugh at it? Would finding some brass cases and reloading regular .308 (7.62) copper clad lead core bullets a wise way to go for the longer term or will this thing smile at a steady diet of surplus?
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The steel of jacketed surplus ammo is very soft, comparatively to the steel of the rifle. you will need to try very hard to wear out the bore of a mosin with surplus ammo so dont worry, you can shoot truck load of ammo:)
 
the mfs ammo that is out now

There is a newer ammo out called MFS. it is not corrosive and more reasonably priced than some of the other stuff I haven't shot enough of it yet to make a fair comment on it's performance (1 box). but the bullets miked consistently.
 
mg4201 said:
There is a newer ammo out called MFS. it is not corrosive and more reasonably priced than some of the other stuff I haven't shot enough of it yet to make a fair comment on it's performance (1 box). but the bullets miked consistently.
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I've shot a few boxes of MFS and it shoots ok. I don't find the price to be that wonderful when it comes close to the cost of commercial rounds, is double or three times more than surplus rounds, twice the cost of premium home loads, and has no reloadable brass.
 
BCRider said:
For some time now I've had this itch at the back of my mind to "collect" one of each of the major main rifles from WW II. So yesterday I finally acted on this while looking at some Mosins at Reliable a short ways down the road in Vancouver. The condition of their stock was such that the darn things looked like new. So for $150 I just said "WTH" and got one along with a few packs of surplus ammo to try it out.
Click to expand...

Your audience demands photographs, comrade!

You really want to check out http://7.62x54r.net/ It's a fantastic resource with enough photographic information to let you really nail down which exact variant (out of the 300+ made) you've got.

And yes, milsurpitis is highly contagious. I started out with an M44 a bit over a year ago, and now I have a 91/30, a LE No.4 Mk.1*, and an Arisaka Type 38. You should check Trade-Ex (site sponsors) out...
 
I got the gun cleaned up today and got to shoot 11 rounds with it during a whirlwind visit to the range before I had to go out to another affair.

The bolt opens easily and extracts the empties with a lovely toss to the side. No sign of any difficulty in extracting. I did notice that the angled shoulder of the cases were bulged and that about a third of the cases split in that area. I'm guessing that my chamber is cut a little on the deep side.

She puts up a good but hardly crippling sort of thump to the shoulder. I'll likely look at getting one of the slip on shoulder pads for any extended shooting. But for up to a dozen shots it's not really worth it.

The big issue at the moment is that even with the sights all the way down and with the front sight drifted to the right a bit the rifle is still shooting WAY high and right. At 75 yards I need to aim roughly one foot low and to the left to get a hole to appear anywhere near the center of the bull. With the need to aim so far off I haven't been able to get any sort of useable grouping out of the 11 shots fired. But again this was a very quick trip just to try it out.

The last three I shot were done in more or less rapid fire with aiming to see what it was like to work the bolt quickly. On that front she's a champ with slick fast reloads easily done.

I promise some pics tomorrow.

PS: The bore cleaned up really easily with the Windex, WD40 and gun oil. The first Windex patch came out black. The second quite grey. The third was as clean coming out as it was going in. A dry patch then one with WD40 on it did a nice job of getting rid of any final moisture and the gun oil and one last dry patch should keep it nicely ready for the next session. The whole cleaning job was about 7 minutes before packing it up. This also included a separate mop, drying, WD'ing and oil for the chamber.
 
Well.... I don't know about getting another Mosin unless this one proves to have some hidden issues that I don't know about yet. But I was already scouting the EE for a Lee Enfield.... :D

My chief intrest area for firearms will always be my handguns and using them to shoot in matches such as IPSC, IDPA and other club level similar meets. I really enjoy the action aspect of such shooting where you need to be accurate but you also need to be fast.

But a few of my club guys put on a 5.56 "AR" shoot fairly regularly and a couple of us are going to pressure them to include other classes for both SKS and bolt action WWII rifles to fill out the event a little more. If that happens and these milsurps end up as more than just occasional plinkers then I may well end up getting a "spare" or two.... :D
 
Based on the shoulders of the casings bulging and cracking two fellow shooters I was talking with tonight suggested that this is far from ideal and could actually be dangerous. So it looks like I'm going to take this one back along with the split cases as examples and try for an exchange grease blot to bring home and clean up for another try.

Oh well, at least I learned all the tricks to cleaning the darn things... :D
 
Keep your brass and start investing in reloading equiptment! I been laoding for my Mosin nagant m91/30 PU sniper for years now, The load I am working on right now for it is econimical I use 124 gr czech 7.62x39 fmj HC! BT diassasembled $5 for 20 rnds compared to $23 for 20 rnds and they pack a very nice punch our market is flooded with this ammo and buying a crate is my next investment it will work out to be .06 cents a shot if I buy a crate that is the cost of the bullet the powder and the primer and you can work up some mean loads for these rifles, the most accurate bullets I have put through it are .311 seirra HP BT's they ride the barrel nice and clean the grooves out too my barrel was very bad when I bought this rifle now it is almost to a mirror shine not bad for a 1942 battle rifle that has seen action in ww2 judging by the marks on it picked up a scope mount and bent bolt on ebay from the ukrain for $200 bought the rifle for $160 a little elbow grease the russian sniper manual and the right tools and I built myself a PU sniper rifle for under $500!
 
10-04 on reloading. I have my groups much better with my own loads compared to commercial or surplus. Still experimenting though.


As for the sight not going low enough, use a piece of heat shrink over the front sight and clip it about one millimeter higher than the existing front post. This will correct for shooting without the bayonet and will not molest your rifle in any way.
 
I have just started

I have just started to load for my mosins. I have only loaded 180 grain sierra pro hunters so far with mixed results. I have some hornady bullets I will try they are 174gr FMJBT and some 123gr as well. I bought sand bags yesterday to make the shooting more load test than shooter test.
 
I finally got a clean patch through my '43 91/30 from Westrifle today. She was dirty but cleaned up ok. 24 hrs with a good soaking of Hoppes Benchrest 9 did the trick. Now I need to find some ammo for it...
 
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