Mosin Nagant 91/30

Everyone has had one, or seen one, or four dozen. It is estimated that approximately 37,000,000 have been produced.

Sure there are certain models that are rare or collectable, but more often than not people just have the $80.00 – $100.00 version. I never much understood treating a Mosin like a safe queen, but most people that own them never take them out to the range.

Let’s be honest, they kick like a mule, the sights are rarely on. The trigger has the finess of a stubborn, pissed off Rhino. The finish on the wood scratched and chipped as the slightest bump, and it rattled. Lastly there is non stop complaining about ammunition and inaccuracy.

So I decided to give one an update.

It all started with a lot of YouTube videos, and reading forums, to get the ideas and see what products existed, and how easy they are to install.

The next place I went was eBay, I wanted a front sight tool, and bore laser specifically for 7.62x54R and I wanted them cheap, since I only planned to use each one once.

Once I had my parts I went ahead are removed the stock, rings, and front sight. Then I got out the punch set and hammer to remove the pins from the rear sight.

Then it was time to get out the torch and start heating the silver solder holding the rear sight. A few minutes with the torch combined with a few whacks with a mallet and punch, it slid right off. It turns out there is a 3/8″ dovetail that the rear sight mounts to.

I went back to the internet, I found a rail that would clamp down onto the dovetail, and had multiple set screws to level it. To provide a solid mount. I also took the time to find a scope that fit what I wanted. There are a number of “long eye relief” scopes on the market. But then I noticed complaints that general terms like “long eye relief” weren’t enough, you wanted a manufacturer that listed a specific range, from the shooters eye, that the scope was intended for. That narrowed it down dramatically.

Next, the trigger had to go. So I picked up a Timney trigger, and bedding pilars that had already been milled out for the Timney. Timney doesn’t joke or embellish, it really is 1 screw and 1 pin to install.

Next, it was time to slug the barrel. I went through a pile of fishing weights, and found one larger than the bore. Then lubed it and tapped it through using segments of dowel rod. Turned out the barrel is actually 0.312″ not 0.311″ so I was able to find a better fitting projectile.

I decided to add a bolt on muzzle brake, and a new stock and then started researching how to pilar bed.

I’m not going to explain how to pilar bed this rifle, there are already many videos and instructions all over the internet, I will saw that I used a high grade carnauba automotive wax as a release agent and it worked very well. This video is the one that I referenced several times and found to be the most beneficial: https://youtu.be/-66A6_ib5FI

At the end, I put the 7.62x54r bore laser in the chamber, and lined the cross hairs on the scope with the dot of the laser at 50 yards. The thinking is that would be a good starting point when someone goes to site it in.

Here is the final product:

Here is the video of the first shot going down range. The kick was drastically reduced. The accuracy dramatically improved.