About a year ago, I bought a Mosin Nagant and an ATI sporter stock to practice bedding; something I had not done before. If it went wrong, I wouldn't have destroyed a really nice rifle, right? 
For $150 + $100 it was about as cheap as I was gonna get it.
I took the rifle out in stock configuration and hated it. My groups at 50 yards were about 12" using iron sights and my own handloads. The length of pull was way too short. The trigger was rough and crunchy. It could only get better from there! After returning home, I did some inletting and floated the barrel using a dremel and sanding bit. The action was bedded using epoxy steel and everything went well. All the info on how to do it came from various online tutorials and videos.
The next day, I went back to the range and, with the same load recipes, shot groups half the size! I wondered just how well I could make the gun shoot and so a project was born.
A little about me: I'm not an expert marksman and am not a gunsmith, just a guy who really likes shooting and keeps looking for ways to improve my shooting. I learned a lot about accuracy from this rifle, about technical processes and reloading, bullet selection, bedding and of course, shooting technique.
I ordered a Bushnell 2-6x32 LER scope and Darrell's scout mount which is as reviews said: rock solid. It has not budged since being installed. I also ordered a Huber Concepts adjustable trigger and it made a world of difference. All in I spent about $540, rifle & stock included. Then, I sold the wood stock for $70 so net net it worked out to $470. The next step was to work up accurate loads and see just how small those groups would go.
Here's the rifle. Sorry to all milsurp purists. This type of modification is usually met with hostility from the milsurp crowd.
Here's the shooting setup: nothing special! The helmet bag has a towel in it. Most shooting was done at 50 yards, occasionally at 100.
Finally, today, I got down to less than 1" (at 50 yards). This doesn't sound particularly impressive, but to go from 12" to 0.448" on such a cheap gun and to have as much fun shooting it as I did is worth sharing!
Bullets Used (all .308)
Hornady 150gr FMJ BT
Hornady 110gr FMJ
Hornady 110gr VMAX
Hornady 165gr BTHP Match
Nosler Partition 150gr
Nosler BT 150gr
Sierra 168gr HPBT
Speer 165gr BTSP Match
* All the BT and match bullets were accurate, the best being the Sierra. I tried lots of different combinations of powder & bullets...too many to list.
Powders Used
Varget
H4895
IMR3031
Win748
BL-C(2)
Brass is PRVI all from the same lot and only WLR primers were used.
For $150 + $100 it was about as cheap as I was gonna get it.I took the rifle out in stock configuration and hated it. My groups at 50 yards were about 12" using iron sights and my own handloads. The length of pull was way too short. The trigger was rough and crunchy. It could only get better from there! After returning home, I did some inletting and floated the barrel using a dremel and sanding bit. The action was bedded using epoxy steel and everything went well. All the info on how to do it came from various online tutorials and videos.
The next day, I went back to the range and, with the same load recipes, shot groups half the size! I wondered just how well I could make the gun shoot and so a project was born.
A little about me: I'm not an expert marksman and am not a gunsmith, just a guy who really likes shooting and keeps looking for ways to improve my shooting. I learned a lot about accuracy from this rifle, about technical processes and reloading, bullet selection, bedding and of course, shooting technique.
I ordered a Bushnell 2-6x32 LER scope and Darrell's scout mount which is as reviews said: rock solid. It has not budged since being installed. I also ordered a Huber Concepts adjustable trigger and it made a world of difference. All in I spent about $540, rifle & stock included. Then, I sold the wood stock for $70 so net net it worked out to $470. The next step was to work up accurate loads and see just how small those groups would go.
Here's the rifle. Sorry to all milsurp purists. This type of modification is usually met with hostility from the milsurp crowd.
Here's the shooting setup: nothing special! The helmet bag has a towel in it. Most shooting was done at 50 yards, occasionally at 100.
Finally, today, I got down to less than 1" (at 50 yards). This doesn't sound particularly impressive, but to go from 12" to 0.448" on such a cheap gun and to have as much fun shooting it as I did is worth sharing!
Bullets Used (all .308)
Hornady 150gr FMJ BT
Hornady 110gr FMJ
Hornady 110gr VMAX
Hornady 165gr BTHP Match
Nosler Partition 150gr
Nosler BT 150gr
Sierra 168gr HPBT
Speer 165gr BTSP Match
* All the BT and match bullets were accurate, the best being the Sierra. I tried lots of different combinations of powder & bullets...too many to list.
Powders Used
Varget
H4895
IMR3031
Win748
BL-C(2)
Brass is PRVI all from the same lot and only WLR primers were used.
