How to Make Your Mosin Nagant 91/30 More Accurate

The Mosin Nagant family of firearms are among the most prolific and common collectible firearms available on the market today. These bolt action rifles were produced by Russia starting in the late 1800's. Chambered in the 7.62 x 54 r (rimmed) cartridge, these firearms have a ballistic profile falling somewhere between the 30-06 and .308 rounds. At the writing of this article, they can often be purchased for less than $150.

This article is being written to help the new owner of the Model 1891/30 Mosin Nagant get the most accuracy out of their firearm.

The first step in "accurizing" your 91/30 is to give it a complete and thorough cleaning. Most of these rifles were packed in cosmoline, a firearm storage medium not unlike Vaseline. Cosmoline is easy to remove with some heat (it melts at a relatively low temperature), some mineral spirits, and some elbow grease. I suggest removing your rifle from the stock by unscrewing the two action screws. These screws are located at the rear of the bolt channel and in front of the internal magazine on the underside of the rifle. Next you must slide the bands on the front of the stock forward by depressing the retaining springs. Once these bolts and bands are removed, simply lift the barrel and receiver out of the top of the stock. At this point, you are more readily able to heat the individual parts. Make sure you use something like a disposable baking pan to catch the soon to be dripping cosmoline. Once easy option for heating these parts is to hang the parts inside a closed vehicle on a hot day. There are numerous resources for removing cosmoline on the web.

After you have removed the cosmoline, clean the rifle as you normally would.

Next, replace the rifle in the stock and take it to the range. Shoot 15 to 20 rounds through it and then clean it again before it has a chance to fully cool down. You will be amazed at how dirty the barrel will be. Take a photo of your target to use as a benchmark.

At your first range session, don't be surprised if you are shooting 8 to 10 inches high. This seems to be common on some MN's. If this is the case, ensure your rear leaf sight is all the way down. If you are still shooting high with original sights, you can shrink a small piece of shrink to fit electricians wire cover (available at tool and hardware stores) over the front sight post. Make it a little too long then trim it until your POI is acceptable.

If you find your rifle is not grouping well, there are a number of things to try.

First ensure you are doing your part. (Check out my article on How to Shoot Accurately (Rifle))

Have the bore/muzzle checked by a competent gunsmith. Some, albeit few, MN's simply have bad bores. A few dollars here will save you a lot of time and headaches down the road.

Try "corking" the barrel. This is accomplished by placing one or two thicknesses of cork gasket material (available at any auto parts store) about half an inch wide between the bottom of the barrel and the fore end of the stock.

If this does not seem to work, try shimming under the lugs that hold the action in the stock (where the screws that you took out attach to the action) with a few thicknesses of a cut up business card. Cut your "shims" with scissors and then use a regular hole punch to allow the screw to pass through them. Ensure your action screws are tight but not overly tight.

In order to get the maximum accuracy out of your rifle, you might want to consider mounting a telescopic sight or scope. In my opinion, the most important part of this process is how the scope is attached to the rifle. The scope must be held securely in place to ensure proper point of impact (POI) despite repeated recoil and the jars and jostling commonly associated with handling a rifle. Excellent mounts are available from S&K Scope Mounts and Darrell Mounts (See my article How to Install a Scope on you MN Using Darrell Mounts). In addition, there are a number of after market iron sights, such as Mojo Peep Sights, that you can add to your Mosin Nagant. None of the products listed above require permanently altering the weapon or help from a gunsmith.

After using the steps outlined above, I was able to bring 6 inch 50 yard groups down to 1.25 inch 100 yard groups on my MN 91/30. Enjoy your fun and historic firearm.

If you have questions or need to know where to find any of the items listed here, click on the "Contact" button under the title. I am a fan of these firearms, and am in no way associated with any of the companies listed above.