I picked up this Mosin Nagant 91/30 at the Reading MAAC show on Saturday. It is the first military surplus gun I've owned. It was made in 1943 in the Izhvesk arsenal. I purchased it from Eagle arms. They had about 30 of them on their table, but maybe 8 out of the boxes. This one was not the nicest in terms of the stock, it has been repaired at the upper corner of the buttstock, but it had the nicest bore of the 8 I looked at. Any way, I figure the repair shows that it was used, probably during the war. Also, it does not have the brass grommets around the sling slots, because during the war years they didn't spend the time or money on them. They wanted them in the hands of the soldiers.




Here is a picture of a target I shot with it, the first five shots i fired with it. The range was 50 yards, from a cheap benchrest. The first shot is the bottom one. When I pulled the trigger, I knew it was low. I tried harder on the next four, and they made a pretty decent group. I was having a bit of trouble though, because it kicks like a Russian mule!



I hope it's a decent shooter. Even so, it was quite fun. BTW, after the five from the bench, I shot five offhand at 50 yards. I flinched so bad on the first two that I didn't even hit cardboard, let alone paper. The extra holes in the bottom of the target are from rocks and dirt flying! The next three shots are near the upper right target, which is what I was aiming at, but you can't see them on the picture.