so last time we talked about the sks

today well talk about the gun the soviets used before that

the nagant rifle

ok ok youre already complaining

clammy its a mosin nagant named after sergei mosin blablsbls ok shh

i know

this gun has an interesting history with drama

so back in the 1800s

lol

yeah this is an old design guys

back in the 1800s there was a revolution in arms design

it started around the mid 1800s and went on for decades

exciting time

we got stuff like

metallic cartridges

repeating rifles and revolvers

telescopic sights

it was really cool

so in like the 1870s the russians got into a fight with the ottomans

the russians had a history of doing this back when there were ottomans

but there was a problem

the russians were using single shot berdan rifles

like its a single shot breech loader

drop the block and pop one round in

meanwhile the turks had some slickass winchester repeaters from america goin like

pew pew pew pew pew pew

and the russians were like geeeeeeez this sucks

so they put out specifications for a new rifle

the round it would shoot is the 7.62x54r

guys this is a pretty good round

its still in service to this day

one of the oldest military rounds still in service

its like 120 years old

its kinda tricky tho

you see that very wide base sticking out

thats the rim

most other rounds dont stick out like that because they feed better

but rimmed rounds were still a thing in the friggin 1890s

so the russians were like hey build something to shoot this round

and a few guys submitted their designs

the two important ones being russian army officer sergei mosin

and belgian weapons designer leon nagant

they sent in a couple iterations and the committee refined their specs and got new iterations from the designers

and there was some

shall we call it

borrowing in design elements

so best we can figure mosin put in an interrupter in his magazine so that the rim on the cartridge wouldnt get stuck on the next round and jam the rifle

since mosin was an army officer this became property of the russian government and a state secret

then nagant took that idea and fiddled with it and patented it

plus made a couple other improvements like a simpler magazine floorplate and a cool stripper clip

so in the end the committee liked mosins rifle and used the small tweaks from nagant

but nagant was pissed

he complained that he patented the interruptor system first and should get the whole prize money

meanwhile the russians were like uh bro you stole that from our guys prototype and spread state secrets

but nagant was a pretty good designer and one of the few independent guys who hadnt been snatched up by some other country and the russians didnt want to lose his business

so in the end they just gave him his money

gave mosin a promotion

and tsar nicholas iii himself finalized the name simply as

three line rifle model 1891

a line is a tenth of an inch

so it just meant thirty caliber

a lot of times they just called it the model 1891

nagant stopped being mad and went on to design the very interesting nagant 1895 revolver for russia

its unique

mayble ill talk about that next lol

anyway back to this gun

which ill just call the mosin now that i explained all that drama

the mosin is a five shot bolt action rifle

its in the same power as the 8mm mauser and the .30-06

which is to say itll kill most anything outside of africa

its a very very simple system

very few parts and very simple parts at that

its also exteemely strong

straight up abuse is not enough to defeat the mosin

the mosin laughs in your girly face

and you have to work it rough

hit it like a mail order bride lol

she likes it

that stock is extremely durable and has a lovely steel plate at the end in case you need to crush any skulls

the sights go to like friggin 2000 m

incidentally the mosin sights were directly carried over to the sks the ak and the svd

theyre pretty solid

the original rifle is super long

and the bayonet is like a foot and a half

its over six feet put together

guys its kinda ridiculous lol

so im just gonna talk about the main few variants

the main one is the model 1891/30

91/30 for short

its got a couple slight differences from the original 1891

its slightly shorter than the original

like by a couple inches

metric sights instead of premetric russian measurement in arshins

which was like one pace while marching

then in 1938 they made a shorter version

its only 40 inches long

and towards the end of wwii they created the model 1944

the big change was they added a side folding bayonet

this is very similar to the mechanism later put on the sks

those are the three main types

lots of countries made them

they each have their own peculiarities

there were also sniper versions

in fact the famous soviet and finnish snipers of wwii used mosins a lot

my personal favorite is the m38

its just the most practical

its shorter than the 91/30

and lighter than the m44

its compact but packs a punch

i might need to take out some feral hogs with that bad boy

ill let you know if i do lol

like the sks there are a lot of these is the us today

the market was flooded for a while and they were ridiculously cheap

guys i dunno if you know what a hipoint is

but i bought two mosins for the price of one hipoint

lol

so there is a large aftermarket for mosin accessories

new stocks sights bipods scope mounts

but again

overall id just recommend leaving it as is

it works just fine and is super simple and bombproof

if you want to hunt itll take out anything in north america

it has a lot of kick

the m38 even moreso

but its not super punishing so its fun to shoot a real rifle

the accuracy is probably adequate

some can be pretty good but you kinda have to work and research

others are arsenal refurbished and are mostly accurate enough to hit a body at range but nothing more

but this is the kind of rifle where a hit to the shoulder might still be disabling

a real cool thing about these is its almost guaranteed some commie soldier held it

maybe he even shot at nazis

or got his head blown off lol

holding that kinda history in your hands is really something

you look at the soviet crest stamped into it and see the big year it was made

1943

you know its seen some shit

that kind of direct connection to history isnt something you can find often anymore

if youre the kind of person who bathes in cosmoline

then the mosin is for you lol

pew pew