M39 picure thread!!!
- Thread starter Claven2
- Start date
Mosins are slowly but surely becoming much more appreciated. Even the cheap out of the box M91/30 late war rifles are giving great accuracy with 50 year old ammo. They certainly don't look like they should shoot well but they do.
Personally I really like Mosins and always have. When I first ran into them in the mid sixties most of them were beaten, worn out dregs from Spain. The very odd one had a decent bore but most were very badly pitted or even shot out. The ammo was just as bad, if you could find it.
Later I saw them in use by insurgents in Angola and learned a whole new respect for those proven and battle worthy rifles in the right hands. Semi Auto rifles may be flossy/glossy/###y but a bolt action in trained hands is a formidable beast. The Mosin is a rugged and reliable system. Some of them in excellent condition are amazingly accurate with good ammo. I have a M91/30 sniper I bought from Wheaty about a decade ago. It looks like it was dragged through every ditch and gravel pit in Europe. It has a replacement scope and it shoots better than I can hold. The only finish left on the metal is under the stock.
When I found my first Finn M91 refurb I was again very pleasantly surprised at how well these ancient rifles shot. Full length stocks don't seem to detract from that accuracy one bit.
I have owned several M39 rifles over the past twenty years and have always sold them off. Why? Because they just didn't seem to work out well for me. Most of them were worn heavily inside and out for one thing and in truth I have been looking for one that is excellent inside and out with an exceptionally nicely figured Birch stock. I have had a couple of very clean M39s with light colored straight grained stocks but not acceptable shooters in comparison to my other Finns, especially the M91 rifles including the Westinghouse.
Oh well. Right now it is about the only rifle I am seeking along with an all matching Kropatschek carbine in VG+ condition. Kropatschecks??? They are full of history and very under appreciated just as the Mosins were a short time ago and still are by some that really don't know what they have. On Tuesday I took my grandson to the range to sight in his new to him Mod 7 in 7-08. There was a fellow there shooting a very nice M91/30 with what appeared to be Chinese ammo. The rifle was in excellent shape but his groups were about a foot across. The shooter was terrified of the rifle's recoil. His reasoning was the steel butt plate would make felt recoil much worse than his Remington 30-06 with a factory pad. I explained to him that the recoil should be about the same because of the extra weight of the M91/30.
He didn't believe me so I put on my Past Recoil pad (bad shoulder) and shot a decent five shot group at 100yds that measured around 2.5in. The fellow settled down after that but complained because his groups were high. He didn't know that his battle sights were set that way on purpose. In this case, with his ammo about 6in high at 100yds. Once he settled down and held his rifle properly and used proper trigger control his groups shrank dramatically and he was duly pleased.
Maybe the sun will shine on my pointy head and a beautiful M39 will come available one day while I am still able to appreciate it properly.
Personally I really like Mosins and always have. When I first ran into them in the mid sixties most of them were beaten, worn out dregs from Spain. The very odd one had a decent bore but most were very badly pitted or even shot out. The ammo was just as bad, if you could find it.
Later I saw them in use by insurgents in Angola and learned a whole new respect for those proven and battle worthy rifles in the right hands. Semi Auto rifles may be flossy/glossy/###y but a bolt action in trained hands is a formidable beast. The Mosin is a rugged and reliable system. Some of them in excellent condition are amazingly accurate with good ammo. I have a M91/30 sniper I bought from Wheaty about a decade ago. It looks like it was dragged through every ditch and gravel pit in Europe. It has a replacement scope and it shoots better than I can hold. The only finish left on the metal is under the stock.
When I found my first Finn M91 refurb I was again very pleasantly surprised at how well these ancient rifles shot. Full length stocks don't seem to detract from that accuracy one bit.
I have owned several M39 rifles over the past twenty years and have always sold them off. Why? Because they just didn't seem to work out well for me. Most of them were worn heavily inside and out for one thing and in truth I have been looking for one that is excellent inside and out with an exceptionally nicely figured Birch stock. I have had a couple of very clean M39s with light colored straight grained stocks but not acceptable shooters in comparison to my other Finns, especially the M91 rifles including the Westinghouse.
Oh well. Right now it is about the only rifle I am seeking along with an all matching Kropatschek carbine in VG+ condition. Kropatschecks??? They are full of history and very under appreciated just as the Mosins were a short time ago and still are by some that really don't know what they have. On Tuesday I took my grandson to the range to sight in his new to him Mod 7 in 7-08. There was a fellow there shooting a very nice M91/30 with what appeared to be Chinese ammo. The rifle was in excellent shape but his groups were about a foot across. The shooter was terrified of the rifle's recoil. His reasoning was the steel butt plate would make felt recoil much worse than his Remington 30-06 with a factory pad. I explained to him that the recoil should be about the same because of the extra weight of the M91/30.
He didn't believe me so I put on my Past Recoil pad (bad shoulder) and shot a decent five shot group at 100yds that measured around 2.5in. The fellow settled down after that but complained because his groups were high. He didn't know that his battle sights were set that way on purpose. In this case, with his ammo about 6in high at 100yds. Once he settled down and held his rifle properly and used proper trigger control his groups shrank dramatically and he was duly pleased.
Maybe the sun will shine on my pointy head and a beautiful M39 will come available one day while I am still able to appreciate it properly.
Wormald1995
CGN Regular
- Location
- near toronto
The first mosin i bought for my collection is a 1941 sako m39 with war time stock and which appears to be non refurbished. Once i got it home i realized it wasnt a run of the mill mosin nagant.
My second m39 came to missing a stock, its a 1941 vkt which i believe it to be a ex Sov snipers rifle due to the filled in holes in the receiver. The receiver has a grease hole so i doubt the russians would use a old receiver to build a PE as they had access to brand new ones. My guess is it ended up in a finnish parts bin and was turned into a SOV m39 then decommissioned. But ill never know i guess!! I restored it with a post war stock set.
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My second m39 came to missing a stock, its a 1941 vkt which i believe it to be a ex Sov snipers rifle due to the filled in holes in the receiver. The receiver has a grease hole so i doubt the russians would use a old receiver to build a PE as they had access to brand new ones. My guess is it ended up in a finnish parts bin and was turned into a SOV m39 then decommissioned. But ill never know i guess!! I restored it with a post war stock set.
1944 vkt
Mine is a 1944 VKT in VG-excellent condition, purchased from SIR for $128 in the early or mid '80s (I've lost the paperwork and hang tag), and she still works well. Her limiting factor these days is my old eyes & current glasses with open sights - maybe 4MOA from a supported position, realistically. Photo/situation specifics - a Mule Deer button buck taken on an antlerless tag at about 90m with Igman 150gr SPs, shooting from kneeling with a side-of-fence-post support.
Regards,
Joel
Mine is a 1944 VKT in VG-excellent condition, purchased from SIR for $128 in the early or mid '80s (I've lost the paperwork and hang tag), and she still works well. Her limiting factor these days is my old eyes & current glasses with open sights - maybe 4MOA from a supported position, realistically. Photo/situation specifics - a Mule Deer button buck taken on an antlerless tag at about 90m with Igman 150gr SPs, shooting from kneeling with a side-of-fence-post support.
Regards,
Joel
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Thinks!
I had a few others over the years but after a lengthy search I found this one. She's a definate keeper.
Cheaper than some one sold on EE for 1200 plus....
Wow those are selling fast. I knew they were inbound but I thought there would be more of them.
I got no. 17. Hopefully it really is a VKT. Some of them has sako stocks but were advertised as VKT guns. Descriptions might not be accurate?
I got no. 17. Hopefully it really is a VKT. Some of them has sako stocks but were advertised as VKT guns. Descriptions might not be accurate?
All of them are postwar refurb?
Hard to tell. A bit of a dice roll on some of them, while some are clearly post war refurbished. Tradex does not list the type of stock joint. But at this price and condition it's below current EE market price in either case.
