The Mosin-Nagant

A Mosin-Nagant is actually plenty accurate up to 1000 yards or more, at least for plinking steel. You just won't hit anything at that range with simple iron sights.

Safety? Is not safe, is rifle! /sovietrussian

Seriously, the "safety" is nothing but the cocking piece that the firing pin is screwed into; you just pull it back and turn it to the side a little to lock it against the receiver. The spring force is ridiculous (made worse by being a small metal piece that you can barely grasp properly with your fingers), so there's really no way to turn it on and off quickly. The best safety on a Mosin is to just not have your finger on the trigger.

It's actually possible to decock a Mosin, either by holding the cocking piece back with your thumb as you pull the trigger (like thumbing down the hammer on a single action pistol) or by turning the bolt handle downward very slightly after pushing it forward and pulling the trigger; this causes the handle to turn down most of the way itself, while the cocking piece decocks. The problem here is that there's even LESS of the cocking piece to grasp when it's sitting that close to the rear of the receiver, so pulling it back is even harder. If you want to recock it, it's best to just quickly turn the bolt handle up and down, as it cocks on open.

Plus the obvious problem of what happens if your thumb isn't holding it tight enough when you pull the trigger....

 

Safety? On a Mosin Nagant? Good one! Every time I try to turn it on, I become more and more convinced that this was a practical joke courtesy of Sergei Mosin. Its nearly impossible to activate if you have any type of grease or dirt on your hands, and even if your hands are clean its difficult. I can't imagine trying to use this when you are under fire and your rifle is caked with a quarter of an inch of Ukranian mud. The best safety on a Mosin Nagant is not to have your finger on the trigger (as chitoryu12 said), leave the bolt open (absolutely safe like this, and with a round in the magazine you can chamber it and be ready to fire quickly), or shoot your round before you need to make the rifle 'safe'.

 

Yeah I spent quite a bit of time on trying to pull it back, and its tough. I just leave it alone most of the time, it also worries me that it looks like it might slip, slide forward and have a reaction that I didn't want to happen, happen.

 

If the "safety" were to slip off the receiver and move forward, it would just put the bolt back into the ready-to-fire position. The gun won't go off if you don't pull the trigger, and you shouldn't be carelessly squeezing the trigger of a gun with the safety on anyway!

But yes, the cocking piece is indeed being held back by nothing more than a tiny bit of metal connected to the trigger when the gun is cocked. If it falls, the gun fires.

 

The Mosin-Nagant at 28 seconds into this video is pretty remarkable given it time in the ground. Even has it's scope.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e57_1369931280

Posted in "Metal detecting in Russia"

 

Wow. Most of those finds are remarkably well preserved.

 

I am a bit baffled by the condition of some of these items after so many years in the ground. Acidic soil. moisture and oxygen are the enemies of oxidizing materials. Perhaps the ammunition in unfired condition was in cosmoline ( sp?) or a grease paper and well boxed., perhaps the soil base and perhaps a type of swampy mud sealed off air. That T 35 that came out of the lake was pretty far north and covered in a thick muck. But that Mosin was pretty well preserved !!!

 

Peat.

 

I became the happy owner of an M19/30 Mosin Nagant (Izhevsh manufacture) a few years ago. It does look crude, but once sited in, shoots very accurate. Very fun to shoot. I have been shooting Russian surplus ammo (1970's vintage) purchased in the "spam can". The only negative of that, of course is the corrosive primers, but that just means doing a thorough cleaning after each shooting session. Oh yes, I also added a slip over recoil pad. This lengthens the stock a bit, which fits me better, and also preserves my poor shoulder