Which Nagant would YOU choose?

S

Seaman

New member
During the 1890s military trials, the Nagant revolver was required to drop a horse at 25 paces.

The Nagant revolver saw action in the Russo-Japanese wars, WW1, the Russian Revolution, the Civil War, the Russo-Finn wars, WW2, Korea, Vietnam and scores of brush wars. When German Lugers froze up and jammed in the Russian winter, the Nagant worked.

Was also known to have used steel core bullets. With proper ammo the Nagant is quite accurate, however it is slow to reload.

Tho the Nagant DA pull is usually heavy, if you shop around some can be found with a 5-6 lb pull.

All in all, an enjoyable historic collectible. Good luck.
 
H

hardworker

New member
Saying a nagant was made for killing dissenters is like saying the springfield rifle was made to kill foreign conscripts or the colt 45 was made to kill Indians. Guns were made to kill. Everything else is splitting hairs.
 
M

Master Blaster 2

Moderator
I picked up a Nagant revolver with holster a couple years ago for $90 at a gun show. Looked brand new and this one had plastic grips. Even got a couple boxes of ammo for it at a different seller at the same show.
They are a great piece of history. No I havnt shot it and don't plan on it.
 
C

Colonel Custer

New member
In Defense of the Nagant Revolver

First I own a 1938 Tula with bakelite grips (prelastic) and am considering buying a 1935 Ish(cant pronounce it)mek with wood grips. They have a harsh trigger pull. But I will bet you cant find an archived news story were a child accidently shot somebody with a nagant. 14 lb trigger pull. I didn't buy the .32 cylinder. I have gone deer hunting with my model 44 carbine and took the revolver just to deal with coyotes. This gun is inexpensive, and easy to use. It is the devil to reload quick. I am a fan of the nagant revolver as a piece of working nostalgia. People want to compare it with modern day revolvers and to me it is like saying "well I think my Ferrari will blow your quarterhorse away."
 
W

Webleymkv

New member
To understand the Nagant, you have to understand the school of thought regarding handguns in late 19th Century Europe. First of all, the handgun was viewed more as an officer's badge of rank rather than a serious fighting tool by most powers at the time. The revolver was, at most, a last ditch self-defense weapon and/or a tool for shooting deserters as they tried to flee the battle. As such, so long as the Nagant's trigger still allowed for "minute of Cossack" accuracy it was plenty good enough.

As to the cartridge, it was actually not substantially more underpowered than most of its contemporaries such as 7.5 Swiss Ordinance, 7.5 Swedish Nagant, 8mm Gasser, or 8mm Lebel Revolver. One must understand that ideas about handgun effectiveness were quite different in the 19th Century than they were today. In a time before antibiotics and modern medicine, getting shot with anything was far more likely to be fatal. During this time period, cartridges like .32 S&W Long were quite popular for police use here in the U.S. Probably the two most powerful military handguns in use at the time were the British .455 Webley revolvers which, while much better than most of their contemporaries, are no power-houses by today's standards and the American .45 Long Colt which was chosen primarily for its ability to take down an enemy's horse. Once you understand the thoughts and ideas of the time, 7.62 Nagant seems like a perfectly suitable cartridge.

In today's world, the only purposes for which the Nagant is particularly well suited are historical interest and fun at the range. With exponentially better handguns available chambered for far more effective cartridges, choosing a Nagant for anything but the two previously mentioned purposes makes little sense to me.
 
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