- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
The 7.62X54R has the same powder capacity as a .30/06 and is ballistically very similar. The rifle is robust and reliable, and looks good in its own way. I carried one for a while, but could never get my handloads to shoot with factory FMJs, and found the recoil objectionable, particularly in the summer when there would be only a T shirt between that wicked curved butt-plate and my shoulder; after a year or so I finally gave up on the Red beast, when I considered spending far to much money on reworking the whole thing . . . something about silk purses from sow's ears came to mind.
The prices of these rifles and the short length of the carbine version does make them appealing for a rough and tumble bush gun, but like many military rifles they do have some limitations compared to their sporting counterparts. The split bridge makes the mounting of a scope or receiver sight more difficult than it would be otherwise, although they are a good candidate for a scout scope, a pal of mine down south has one so configured. The trigger on mine was nearly atrocious, and there is no simple way to improve it as it has creep and over travel built into it, rather than the crisp two stage triggers typical of western military bolt guns. This single feature removes this rifle from the camp of anyone who is serious about marksmanship. The curved butt plate might have served well in caving in the skull of an enemy combatant, but it does no favor to the man who has to fire this thing. There is no rifle that I've fired which has given me as much recoil discomfort as the Mosen Nagant carbine, and this includes rifles up to the .500 Nitro; I often wondered what the Russian government had against their own troops when they adopted that butt plate. I suppose a Russian great coat made a pretty good recoil pad, but its little wonder they so enthusiastically adopted the little 7.62X39 and only kept the 7.63X54R for their GPMGs.
The prices of these rifles and the short length of the carbine version does make them appealing for a rough and tumble bush gun, but like many military rifles they do have some limitations compared to their sporting counterparts. The split bridge makes the mounting of a scope or receiver sight more difficult than it would be otherwise, although they are a good candidate for a scout scope, a pal of mine down south has one so configured. The trigger on mine was nearly atrocious, and there is no simple way to improve it as it has creep and over travel built into it, rather than the crisp two stage triggers typical of western military bolt guns. This single feature removes this rifle from the camp of anyone who is serious about marksmanship. The curved butt plate might have served well in caving in the skull of an enemy combatant, but it does no favor to the man who has to fire this thing. There is no rifle that I've fired which has given me as much recoil discomfort as the Mosen Nagant carbine, and this includes rifles up to the .500 Nitro; I often wondered what the Russian government had against their own troops when they adopted that butt plate. I suppose a Russian great coat made a pretty good recoil pad, but its little wonder they so enthusiastically adopted the little 7.62X39 and only kept the 7.63X54R for their GPMGs.
