A $100 Hunting Rifle?
I’ll say this right off the bat: I’ve always been more of a handgun guy. I don’t hunt. I have nothing against hunting and such, I just don’t do it and, I must admit, I don’t have an interest in hunting. So the desire to purchase a rifle or shotgun was never really on my radar. That’s why TJ is a writer for the site. He hunts. He loves rifles. He knows a lot about them. That way, I could stick with my handguns.
Then a buddy of mine let me shoot some of his rifles…
From that point on, I was hooked. It wasn’t about hunting, it was about the precision and, of course, the rush of that powerful of a round. So I built an AR-15. I love my AR. There was just something missing from it. It’s like…jeez how do I put this?
Ok, you know when you have a car with an automatic transmission? When you’re driving, you’re just controlling the car. You take care of the steering, throttle and brake and the car handles everything else. The way your car performs is determined by a bunch of dudes with clipboards and impressive sounding acronyms behind their names in the manufacturer’s R&D department. In fact, you could put that car in drive then step out of it and that car would go until it either hits something or runs out of gas. You, ultimately, aren’t needed. When you’re driving a manual, however, you are a part of that car. You determine how it drives. If you want to run it like a bat out of hell or hypermile it like a lunatic, it’s 100% your choice. If you put that car in 1st gear and step away, the car shuts down. It is a symbiotic relationship between human and machine.
A bolt action rifle is like a car with a stick shift. Yes, it takes more work to use it but, in the end, it’s a hell of a lot of fun.
So I went looking for bolt action rifles. I wanted something that had some great range but with ammo that wasn’t going to break the bank. I wanted to be able to customize it. Most of all, the rifle itself had to be inexpensive. The Ruger American rifle had just been announced so I wasn’t keen on buying a first-run design with 0 reviews to be found. Plus, I only had a small amount of money from my birthday (gotta love cash as a present!). Have you ever tried to find a sub $200 rifle of good quality? Let’s just say “slim pickin’s” doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Then I stumbled across something in Ormond Beach, FL. It was a gun store like none I had ever seen. This place was beautiful! Waterfall out front, gorgeous interior and the prices were crazy low! Inside, there was this beat up box filled with these gorgeous antique rifles. They had Russian markings on them and the sign on the box said “Mosin-Nagant”. I had heard of the name but never looked into them. I grabbed my iPhone and looked them up on Wikipedia. Talk about an interesting history! I didn’t see a price right away but I figured, like most antique rifles, they would be expensive. Then I noticed the sign with the price had fallen into the box. It listed what you get: the rifle, original bayonet, ammo pouch, sling, tool kit , and oil canister…all for $100.
That had to be wrong. There’s no way that it could be that cheap…wait, no. That’s what it’s going for on GunBroker and other sites (gotta love smartphones). Well heck, I’m sold! Even if it turns out bad I’m only out $100 so I’m sure I could figure out something to do with it.
Why so cheap? You see, these guns were being manufactured in bulk, almost 24 hours a day by prisoners in a gulag somewhere in the Russian wilderness (among other places). To say there’s a lot of them is an understatement. We’re talking millions and millions of them. In 1943 alone, the year mine was made, they churned out 1,833,506 of them. There are so many, in fact, that there isn’t much value to them now or even in the near future.
So now I own a bolt action rifle from 1943. What now? Well, I said the rifle was cheap, but with that comes a price. I would soon discover that price…
Like any gun, my first item of business is to clean it when I get it home. This is where a new word was added to my vocabulary. It’s a word that all antique gun owners know but wish was never created. A simple noun, it became so much more. It invokes such horror and spite that it should be added to George Carlin’s “7 Words You Can Never Say” as the 8th word. I shall mention it only once, then it will be referred to from now on as “TWSNBN” (That Which Shall Not Be Named”). That word is “cosmoline”. I am sure that just by my act of typing it, there are many that shuddered and yet know not why.
This primordial goo, brewed in the deepest bowels of hell where even demons dare not tread, is used to preserve guns for long term storage. It is slathered over every square inch of a gun, presumably by some Lovecraftian type of creature whose appearance would cause instant insanity to any who dared look upon it. Removing this sludge is no easy task.
On the bright side, Ballistol seems to almost dissolve the stuff. In this initial cleaning, you will gain monumental knowledge of how your gun works because it will need to be completely stripped down and every square inch of it cleaned. As your hands, coated in this foul substance, struggle to grip any piece of the gun after only minutes into the cleaning, you will know the pains of Sisyphus.
I do not exaggerate.
After spending almost an entire day cleaning something that normally would have taken me an hour, the rifle was ready to go. Now I had to buy some ammo. I wonder if my local store sells 7.62x54R?
As it turns out, they do! Ok, let’s see how this cartridge compares to the AR roun..CRAP THAT’S A BIG CARTRIDGE! So as it turns out, this bullet is big enough to take down just about any animal in North America. This round was created in 1891 and is still in use today by the Russian military. It’s roughly 180 grain with a 2,600 feet per second velocity. My research has turned up people shooting this gun effectively past 1,000 yards. Not too shabby for a 120 year old design.
You can also get Russian military surplus ammo for this gun for a very low price but then you’re introduced to another interesting term: “corrosive primers”. The Russians, back in the day, used a primer that was inexpensive but had this tendency to leave an acidic residue inside the barrel that would eat away at it relatively quickly. It’s not like your barrel is going to be screwed up by the time you get home but you’ll want to do something to neutralize the residue as soon as you get home from shooting. Again, my precious Ballistol will neutralize said residue. There are other ways as well. Ammonia is one method. I’ve read numerous stories of Russian soldiers actually peeing into their rifles on a regular basis. So there’s a solution for you, if you’re into that sort of thing. I won’t judge. I will, however, respectfully decline your offer to try your guns. Nothing personal.
On the bright side, it looks like my gun never saw combat so no worries about urine stains on this one.
Now the gun is clean and I’ve got a hefty supply of ammo. Time to shoot it. Is it was a few months between when I bought it and when I finally got to try it, such as life. Either way, the big day came. All the benches were taken so I wound up having to shoot it standing up, which gave me even more respect for the soldiers that would have had to carry that 8.8 pound rifle in battle. (Side Note: I had never shot from the standing position before.) The bolt takes some arm strength to work. The trigger is a bit heavy but surprisingly crisp with a short pull.
The recoil, however, is something else. It’s not like my AR. This thing punches you in the shoulder. It’s good that the rifle holds 5 rounds because it takes the other 4 rounds to put your shoulder back in place after the first one dislocates it.
I’m exaggerating a little bit there.
I shot about 10 rounds just to see what the recoil was like and, as a result, there’s a nice red mark on my shoulder as I type this the day after shooting. I then slipped a Limbsaver recoil pad over the back of it and it made all the difference in the world! I would never have imagined that a squishy little rubber sock could reduce the felt recoil that much. It went from feeling like a 12 gauge to being a bit stronger than an AR chambered in .308. That is a huge difference right there. If you’ve never shot a 12 gauge or a .308 AR, I liken it to the difference between a firm punch in the shoulder and a slap on it.
All in all, it’s a great rifle and, considering the price, it should have a place in every collection.
So that’s the rundown of buying and shooting a Mosin-Nagant. As far as how to use it as a high quality hunting rifle? Keep reading…
While you can use it for hunting right out of the box, there are a few things that a factory new Mosin has that prevents it from being an awesome hunting rifle. For one, it’s heavy. It also has iron sights which, are more than usable for hunting, but many prefer a scope. If you’re willing to shell out a little bit more cash, there are some things you can do to really modernize it. First off, there are companies that make stock replacement kits. This replaces the heavy, wood stock and foregrip with a lightweight composite one. This will make it easier to carry and shoulder for firing. These stocks are relatively inexpensive and are available at many online retailers.
Secondly, if you want a scope, you’re going to need to shell out a bit more (not counting the price of the scope). The bolt design on a Mosin makes it difficult to mount a scope to the rifle but Brownells sells a scope mounting kit that fixes this issue by replacing the handle on the bolt itself with a low profile one that won’t smack into your scope with cycled. The kit runs about $50 BUT it requires some gunsmithing. The old bolt handle must be cut off then holes must be drilled and tapped. If you have the equipment to do it then by all means feel free. If you screw it up you’re not out much money. It’s not like you’re practicing on a $2000+ rifle.
If you’re not comfortable with the process, however, a gunsmith would be more than happy to do it for you and the price isn’t much (at least not in my area).
Regardless of which route you go, once you’re done you’ll have a pretty top notch rifle that could go toe to toe with just about any other rifle out there. Like I’ve said a few times in this article, the fact that the original cost is so low, there’s no reason not to tinker a bit. If you were modernizing a nice M1 Garand or something, that would be one thing. Slapping on a modern stock and cutting into a rare, antique gun is akin to painting a clown face on the Mona Lisa. These rifles, however, are just too plentiful to worry about. If it really bothers you, do what I plan to do: have one rifle that is kept original for collecting and get another one to customize.
Like what you read? GunNoob is now part of Pew Pew Tactical. Check out the rest of our awesome resources:
Leave a Reply