I've had the good fortune to shoot Mosin Nagants and an M1 at past blogshoots, and of course Belles's Tokorev SVT40 anytime I get the hankering. Others as well I'm sure I'm forgetting.
I thought they were cool to shoot. The M1 almost seemed to not need my participation to put a round on target. But, I had somewhat of a "meh" reaction nonetheless.
Now that I've torn down one of the Mosin's Belle brought back from her trip up yonder, something existential has changed in my mind.
In the process of field stripping I came to know how the rifle was put together. In the process of cleaning I came to know how the moving parts worked, the Mosin bolt I found the most interesting.
Simple solution to a complex problem.
I find I'm searching for ways to make the Mosin bolt work better. (woe is me)
I've already ordered two recoil pads that fit up in place of the steel butt plate on the stock.*
I've yet to break down the other Mosin Nagant and clean it up. I'm saving it for this coming weekend, because my brain tells me that I know myself and I will want another rifle to break down and fondle.
The bad / good/ bad? thing is all of the sudden I really, really want an M1 Garand of my own.**
There's also this little niggling spark of a thought in the back of my mind about an Enfield.
must
sit
down
and
grit
my
teeth.
resist urges.
Do not look at me like that! It's a Mosin Nagant for crikey sake. At $139 it's hardly WWII collector's item. It's more like buying a rusted out 1968 VW bug with a seized engine. Ripe for a resto-mod.
I could put on a buffalo hide coat and a big fur hat I suppose, to damp down the recoil, but I'm pretty sure I'd pass out before I got through twenty rounds in this heat down heah.
** OOh! and a BAR too! what a tall cool drink of
I get the garand itch too. Usually its followed by something unexpectedly draining my gun fund. One day.
ReplyDeletePut the recoil pad on it if it means you'll shot it more often. Heck I'm confident if the Russians had the technology, they would have included it at the time.
ReplyDeleteThe idea is to shoot the thing often; in my opinion anything that helps that is okay.
As for the collector bug; Oh, yeah. I'm with you.
My current focus is an M1 Carbine ! Couldn't exactly explain we but I drool over them.
Just sold a M1 carbine a couple weeks ago; got tired of having a gun that NEVER went to the range. For some reason that particular M1 just sat in the safe and never got touched.
DeleteNow, what I really want is an M2 carbine. Looks just like the M1, but has this neat little lever that magically turns money into smoke and noise.
I put a brake on an M44 of mine and the difference is night and day. No recoil pad needed, but having one is a good idea regardless.
ReplyDeleteIf you want a brake on your rifle, I'll thread your barrel for you at the next blog shoot. You can then look at the multitude of brakes on the market and find one you like.
The WWII-era stuff is fun, I like rebuilding old machineguns from that era as well.
At this point, I think I have a dozen different MG rebuilds that fire the X54R ammo.
Then there's the WWII submachineguns I build and collect, like the Sten, the PPSH41, the PPS43, the Suomi M31 and KP44, the Czech Skorpion, Thompson, and MP40. There's also post-war cool stuff out there; my Uzis and H&K MP5 knockoff I'm building can attest to this.
It is a sickness, and it spreads as far as your wallet will allow, and sometimes farther.
The good thing is that they never devalue, and you meet some interesting people in your quest to collect them all.