ok i was hunting quail and spotted a very large piece of brass on the ground. curious i picked it up and it read 7.62 x 54r. i had no clue as to what that was. later i found a piece of 1 1/2'' square tubing with 1/4'' wall that had holes clean through it. that made up my mind. then i saw the big 5 ad. russian rifle in same cal. my father sent me the money($91 out the door) for my birthday. now i hear about military ammo or factory ammo. what is the difference. turnners had a box of 20 for $4.50. does anyone know any more about the gun or caliber. i haven't been able to shoot it yet and the stock needs to be refinished but i did clean it. if it goes bang and can hold 1 1/2" at 100 yds or so i'll be very happy. it is my first rifle.
I have a buddy that bought one of those from Big 5 Sporting goods, cleaned it up, and loves it. ###Shoots very tight groups with his hand loads. ###But you better get very savvy, very quick on what kind of ammo, especially surplus military ammo, you go and shoot around the countryside, or even at a shooting range. ###If a magnet is attracted to the bullet on the end of that cartridge, then look out -- it will have a steel core that is indeed capable of going through a steel target. ###But it is also very capable of starting a serious fire from a richochet. And full metal jackets are not legal for hunting big game in most areas.
I bought a couple of those for my boys back when they were $25.00 each. ###A primitive looking gun, they do drive tacks. ###With factory ammo the boys can group an inch at 100 yards. ###You should enjoy the gun.
mosin nagants are GREAT rifles, watch the movie "enemy at the gates" for lots of mosin and mauser action.
these guns KICK LIKE A MULE, and the short carbines throw FIREBALLS at night. a slip on recoil pad will tame the beast.
they are also very accurate guns, the 7.62x54r is in the 30-06 power range. you have to watch out the surplus ammo IS Corrosive, which will rust your gun quick if you dont clean it properly.
get some wolf ammo for it and you wont have to worry about corrosion, but will pay more.
with any surplus rifle be sure to get matching numbers and check the bore for quality.
gooc luck with the rifle and tell us how it goes when you shoot it.
thanks alot guys i really appreciate the 411. gunman i belive the wolf ammo is what turnners had $4.50 for twenty if i remember right i will post after i shoot it but today it looks like at least another week.
The 7.62 x 54 is a rimmed cartridge used in several style rifles mostly by Eastern block countries. The Moisin Nagant is the most common rifle made by Russia and Poland. The Russians also made a semi auto rifle called the Tokarev. It was also known as the 'Russian Garand" and you could find them for sale 10 years ago for about $300.00. Wish I would have bought one. My friend did and they shot well. The Russians also had a semi auto sniper rifle called the SVT Dragonov. China and Romania also had versions of the SVT. These were available for around $1000.00. To rich for my collection but I did shoot one a few times.
The bolt action Nagant does shoot well but "Kicks like a mule" and the solid steel buttplate doesn't help any! 'If you do shoot surplus ammo clean the rifle right away. There was a lot of corrosive ammo. An old timer said the best way to neutralize the corrosive ammo was to use a soapy water solution on the first few patches followed up by traditional cleaning.
I've got 3 moisins, the 39, 91/30 & the m-44, all three are accurate rifles, try loading them with 36 grains of imr 4895 with a 123 gr soft point, cuts the kick way down & destroys squirrels at 100 yrds
I got one for a first rifle back in 1960, I still have that rifle. The 7.62 x 54R is a pretty good hunting cartridge, more like a 308 that an .30-06. I would not ###think twice about buying one of the SVT Dragonov's it would make a pretty good rain rifle for New England White Tails. ###If you hand load, I would suggest ###a good 180 gr bullet say a 180 gr Hornaday RN and have a blast.
I also bought one of these from big 5 years ago. I hit the stell deer at 500 meters with open sites at the range easy. They do kick but thats part of the fun. Watch the gun shows. They sell synthetic stocks scope mounts & alot of things for these guns. I buy My ammo for it there also. They sell soft point hunting ammo for them there too. I have took it hunting before. I have not shot anything with it. But they are fun guns
I cheated with my last moisin, I went & got my C&R FFL for 35 bucks then bought it from century for 40 ###bucks. I reload so playing around with the load ###is fun, download for squirrels up load for everything else lol
Member
Knows The Secret Handshake
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks