So...
I wanted to get a dedicated deer/longer distance rifle. I have plenty of handguns, and an old break-open shotgun, and a .22 squirrel rig, but NO rifles. I wanted something in a caliber that would take most, if not all, North American game.
I'm also a working man. I'm young (25), and I have a wife and child, so I don't have a lot of discretionary income for futzing about with a gun. Some, but not a ton, and with the recent uptick in ammo prices, it's been precious little that I get to shoot anymore.
If you don't like "bubbas", sporters, or messing with "history", skip the post. Just keep going. If you think a hundred-buck block of reliable Commie steel makes a great platform to build something cool out of, you might want to continue. For you purists who weren't following directions... it's a '43 Izhevsk, about as common as dirt. I believe they made about seventeen million of these, so don't ride me about it.
So anywho... I decided to build me a little something. Here's the parts list, with prices:
So... here goes my story. I brought this thing out rock-stock at the range to see what she would do. Iron sights on it didn't work for me. I have decent eyesight, I just can't hit anything with any degree of confidence. The front sight was staked in poorly, so it moved around on me... and I got frustrated. It was long (28" barrel!) and bulky, and heavy - this was an infantry rifle? Really? I would imagine troops hating this thing! It was just unwieldy.
I installed the new stock, lopped the barrel, and read about mounting a scope. The barrel chop went well - my thanks to member goatwhiskers, who encouraged me to do it myself (the shop wanted sixty-five bucks, which just sounds loopy to spend on a hundred buck rifle.) I hacksawed it off, and leveled it using progressively finer files, then sanded it down, and finally polished it. Following that, I cut a crown with an oversized Phillips head screw chucked in my drill with jeweler's rouge, and the result was professional looking, and it shoots great.
After trying a crappy, cheap eBay scope mount and consequently trashing it, I found that by removing the rear sight leaf and base, I was able to access -- lo and behold -- a dovetail. It's 3/8", so I found a very nice set of all-steel Burris tip-off mounts. (Which are really high quality. They were pricy, but I recommend these heartily!) I cranked down a no-name scope, and I was off to the races. (AIM is the brand...a very basic 3-7x piece of glass.)
I loaded up some ammo. Now, this is a weird process for the 54R... brass is hard to come by (except S&B, which I was told sucked for reloading. I can confirm this IS true, because I apparently cannot learn through the mistakes of others.) Also, you gotta slug your bore - I've read of bores from .308 out to .317! I wanted something good for temperature swings, and I don't like barn-burner loads - I want to use as little componentry as possible, because the point of reloading is shooting more for the same money. I used some S&B brass with Varget (3.1cc) and CCI primers. I topped the whole mix off with 174 gr. Sierra Match Kings (.311 diameter - looking for bullets for a .303 British yielded what I was looking for.)
So today, I took the whole shebang to my local indoor range (100 degrees. I am not shooting outside, sorry.) The back of the range is 25 yards (look, I live in a major urban city, and to find any range that is private is hard...but an indoor one that lets you crack off 54R? Take what I can get.) The scope was walking off the rails, which I sort of expected. The rings are designed for a .22, and the recoil of a cut-down Mosin Nagant is pretty hefty. Anticipating this, I bought steel rings - all steel. I cranked them down HARD, and finally, they sat down and bedded in a little. I dialed this thing in for 2.5" high (I can't sight for a hundred, and as I know these barrels incline up a hair, I figured it would be a good starting point.) I am pretty sure the results speak for themselves. It's five-shot group. I just chucked my rifle case down on the range shelf, and steadied my hand on the case from a kneeling position, so it's not even a truly rested group. Center-to-center on the two farthest measures .435". The black dot way at the bottom of the square isn't a flyer, it's a mark I made for to aim at (because I was dialing in for a hundred).
So... what do you guys think? I'm really pleased. I could not care less what the rifle was/is worth, how I ruined its value, or the like. I COULD care about the fact that I now have a really nifty woods gun that I don't have to care too much about.
I wanted to get a dedicated deer/longer distance rifle. I have plenty of handguns, and an old break-open shotgun, and a .22 squirrel rig, but NO rifles. I wanted something in a caliber that would take most, if not all, North American game.
I'm also a working man. I'm young (25), and I have a wife and child, so I don't have a lot of discretionary income for futzing about with a gun. Some, but not a ton, and with the recent uptick in ammo prices, it's been precious little that I get to shoot anymore.
If you don't like "bubbas", sporters, or messing with "history", skip the post. Just keep going. If you think a hundred-buck block of reliable Commie steel makes a great platform to build something cool out of, you might want to continue. For you purists who weren't following directions... it's a '43 Izhevsk, about as common as dirt. I believe they made about seventeen million of these, so don't ride me about it.
So anywho... I decided to build me a little something. Here's the parts list, with prices:
- Mosin-Nagant M91/30 Rifle -- $99.00
- ATI Sporter Stock -- $59.97
- Scope Rings for Dovetail Tip-off Mount -- $11.99
- Long Eye Relief Scout-Style Scope -- $49.99
- Sling (w/swivels - ATI stock has swivel mounts drilled and tapped.) -- $14.99
So... here goes my story. I brought this thing out rock-stock at the range to see what she would do. Iron sights on it didn't work for me. I have decent eyesight, I just can't hit anything with any degree of confidence. The front sight was staked in poorly, so it moved around on me... and I got frustrated. It was long (28" barrel!) and bulky, and heavy - this was an infantry rifle? Really? I would imagine troops hating this thing! It was just unwieldy.
I installed the new stock, lopped the barrel, and read about mounting a scope. The barrel chop went well - my thanks to member goatwhiskers, who encouraged me to do it myself (the shop wanted sixty-five bucks, which just sounds loopy to spend on a hundred buck rifle.) I hacksawed it off, and leveled it using progressively finer files, then sanded it down, and finally polished it. Following that, I cut a crown with an oversized Phillips head screw chucked in my drill with jeweler's rouge, and the result was professional looking, and it shoots great.
After trying a crappy, cheap eBay scope mount and consequently trashing it, I found that by removing the rear sight leaf and base, I was able to access -- lo and behold -- a dovetail. It's 3/8", so I found a very nice set of all-steel Burris tip-off mounts. (Which are really high quality. They were pricy, but I recommend these heartily!) I cranked down a no-name scope, and I was off to the races. (AIM is the brand...a very basic 3-7x piece of glass.)
I loaded up some ammo. Now, this is a weird process for the 54R... brass is hard to come by (except S&B, which I was told sucked for reloading. I can confirm this IS true, because I apparently cannot learn through the mistakes of others.) Also, you gotta slug your bore - I've read of bores from .308 out to .317! I wanted something good for temperature swings, and I don't like barn-burner loads - I want to use as little componentry as possible, because the point of reloading is shooting more for the same money. I used some S&B brass with Varget (3.1cc) and CCI primers. I topped the whole mix off with 174 gr. Sierra Match Kings (.311 diameter - looking for bullets for a .303 British yielded what I was looking for.)
So today, I took the whole shebang to my local indoor range (100 degrees. I am not shooting outside, sorry.) The back of the range is 25 yards (look, I live in a major urban city, and to find any range that is private is hard...but an indoor one that lets you crack off 54R? Take what I can get.) The scope was walking off the rails, which I sort of expected. The rings are designed for a .22, and the recoil of a cut-down Mosin Nagant is pretty hefty. Anticipating this, I bought steel rings - all steel. I cranked them down HARD, and finally, they sat down and bedded in a little. I dialed this thing in for 2.5" high (I can't sight for a hundred, and as I know these barrels incline up a hair, I figured it would be a good starting point.) I am pretty sure the results speak for themselves. It's five-shot group. I just chucked my rifle case down on the range shelf, and steadied my hand on the case from a kneeling position, so it's not even a truly rested group. Center-to-center on the two farthest measures .435". The black dot way at the bottom of the square isn't a flyer, it's a mark I made for to aim at (because I was dialing in for a hundred).
So... what do you guys think? I'm really pleased. I could not care less what the rifle was/is worth, how I ruined its value, or the like. I COULD care about the fact that I now have a really nifty woods gun that I don't have to care too much about.
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