I decided to do a series of surplus rifle reviews. There’s a lot of WW2 era center-fire military rifles out there for cheap, Mausers, Mosin Nagants, Enfields and Carcano’s to name some. I wanted to start with the Mosin Nagant 91.
I went to an identification website and found out I have one made in 1938 at the Izhevsk plant in the Soviet Union (former). It’s 48 1/2 inches long overall, doesn’t weigh much, it’s kinda skinny actually with reddish brown wood and chambered in the 7.62 x 54R caliber. It came with a sling, oil can, some other misc cleaning stuff and a long spike bayonet. You could stick somebody from across the room with this thing it’s so long. It has a flat leaf adjustable rear sight that goes all the way to 2000 meters, although I’d think that was a stretch. The windage appears non-adjustable except by drifting the front sight with a punch and hammer. It had a shiny bore and did shoot fairly well, I stress “DID”. I left it sit for 2 weeks without cleaning and apparently I had some corrosive ammo as now it’s a rod of rust with a black pitted bore 🙁 oops. It was advertised as non corrosive, I suggest unless it’s new American made ammo you consider it corrosive. The surplus stuff is cheap though, 440 round tins for under 100$, just clean it right away. So what do you get for $79.99 plus tax??? Well you get a imported M91 shooting a cheap round that’s close to the 30’06 as far as ballistics go. It isn’t quite as powerful but close. I see an array of bullet weights and styles. I was just shooting old surplus military ball, 150 grain I think. I had 2-5 round stripper clips and was using those to load her, you don’t need them though. The action really isn’t all that bad and smoother than it looks like it would be. The trigger is heavy but not so ridiculously so that you can’t shoot it decently. So with decades old surplus ammo I was shooting groups in 4-6 inch groups from the prone position with no rest and no optics, just used the sling USMC style. Some might look at that and scoff, well, consider it was day 1 and the fact the ammo wasn’t good enough to commit suicide with as far as I’m concerned. I can only imagine I would have those groups down to 2-3 inches with quality ammo. We’re going to have to imagine because like I said, the old girl is trashed, rust everywhere. 🙁
So what can you do with this?? I read a TGR review where a guy called himself a “poor shooter” as in not having any money “poor”. There you have it, you have a hunting rifle that will very capably take game up to small bear size with the right load. You have a ranch or farm rifle for predators, you have a fun target rifle you can buy and practice technique with for dirt cheap. You have a piece of WW 2 history and that in itself is why I bought it. Watch “Enemy at the Gates” and see what the Russians did to the Germans with this old war horse. For $79.99 and tax and 440 rounds for $90 it seems like a no brainer. I will buy another one and next time not wait 2 weeks to try to clean it. All in all a fun and interesting rifle to own.
As always thanks for reading and happy shooting.
By: Cary Kieffer
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- M91
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- M91
Cary Kieffer
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