Mosin-Nagant (thing)

I am a stone.
I do not move.
Very slowly, I put snow in my mouth,
then he won't see my breath.
I take my time. I let him come closer.
I have only one bullet. I aim at his eye.
Very gently, my finger presses on the trigger.
I do not tremble.
I have no fear. I'm a big boy now.
Ready, Vassili?

Now, Vassili. Fire!

Fire, Vassili! Fire!

-- Enemy at the Gates

Prelude

Perhaps the Russians just have a real knack for creating stellar rifles. Mikhail Kalashnikov is probably best known -- His AK-47 entered service in 1951 and continues to be widely used in one form or another to this day. A fifty-plus year service life is impressive, and no doubt the Kalashnikov assult rifle will be around for a long time to come.

Origins

It was late in the 19th century, and the modern repeating rifle had finally motivated mother Russia to investigate a replacement for the outdated Berdans rifle. A military commission was created to find and test new possibilities; During 1890 and 1891, two new weapon designs were submitted by the commission to the Russian military for testing as the new standard service rifle. One, a "3-line" (7.62mm) design created by the Russian Colonel Sergei Mosin. The competition was a "3.5 line" (8.89 mm) model designed by the Belgian, Leon Nagant. The Nagant was preferred by the army, and that design actually won the testing; however, due to typical Russian politics of the time, those votes were overturned in order to declare the "home team" Mosin design the winner. Mosin had been submitting designs for magazine-fed rifles since at least 1884, but the 1889 rifle was the first to be accepted.

"Mosin-Nagant?"

The Russian government made another political move on this one: in the name of national pride, they really wanted the Russian design to win, but the Nagant model was really nice. . . To compromise, they took part of each rifle and combined them into a new one; hence the "Mosin-Nagant" designation. Specifically, the combined Mosin-Nagant design uses the bolt action crafted by Mosin with the magazine design from Nagant's rifle. The Mosin designed bolt was somewhat complicated, but very robust and dependable. The five-round Nagant magazine was an unusual design as well; it used a "control latch" to relieve the top bullet of any pressure from below, and greatly reduce the possibility of a jam with the rimmed ammunition that was used. Nagant's magazine was adapted to the use of the 7.62x54mm ammunition specified by Mosin.

The Weapon

The Mosin-Nagant was known as the "three-line rifle" until 1917, when Russia began using the modern metric system of measurement. The basic model 1891 rifle was 130 centimeters long, and had a bayonet attachment. For most, the bayonet was an integral part of the weapon; sights were even graduated with the bayonet in mind. Of course, this may have been largely because no scabbard was issued, so it's not like there was anywhere else to put it. There was a carbine version, but it was only shortened by a few centimeters, due to concerns about the use of the then relatively new smokeless powder. It wasn't until 1910 that a proper carbine model was introduced, with a 51 centimeter barrel and a total length of 102 centimeters. Many slight modifications were made over the years, through WWII, and right up until 1944, a year before the Mosin was officially retired from use. These changes all made the rife more reliable, lighter, or easier to manufacture. Sometimes a step forward in one way was a step backwards in the other two. The 91/30 model is generally considered the definitive Mosin-Nagant.

The Sniper

Not only was the Mosin-Nagant the standard issue Russian service rifle until 1945, it was also adapted to use as a sniper weapon, as seen in the film Enemy at the Gates. Sniper development began around 1931, with custom made telescopic sights designed by the German corporation Zeiss attached to a model 81/30 Mosin-Nagant. Russian manufacturers quickly stole the Zeiss design in order to produce the Model PE scope. Later, because of complaints about the PE model scope leaking due to bad seals, an optical sight -- the PEM -- was created to replace it. These sniper models were supposedly manufactured from 1931 -- 1939, though Russia had a habit of continuing manufacture until all the parts ran out, even after the official production run was over. Sniper models were higher quality and received extra care not lavished upon the 17,000,000 standard issue Mosin-Nagants, including hand-polishing of the barrel.

Elsewhere. . .

The Mosin-Nagant was not used by Russia exclusively. The very first Mosin-Nagants were actually produced under contract with France, and many countries used captured examples or made their own versions of the rifle, including Poland, Romania, and China. The Finnish army during WWII was for some time largely armed with captured examples left behind during the attempted Russian invasion of that country. Many of these copies, particulary Asian models from Korea are vastly inferior to the original Russian models. Some, like the Czech and Finnish models, are every bit as well made. Mosin-Nagants were used through WWI and WWII, and would continue to see service by the Koreans and Vietnamese for some time. In some places, the Mosin-Nagant is still in use today as a sniper weapon, and some are used by sports shooters, though these weapons are often modified to fire some modern cartridge rather than the original 7.62x54R round.

Want one?

Just head to any public gun show in your area if you'd like to purchase an example. Literally millions of these rifles were made, so they should be readily available. Most examples can be purchased for less then $200.00 USD, due to the combination of wide availability and relatively low desirability compared to many other (re: American or German) WWII-era weapons. Sniper versions of the rifle sell for considerably more, as they are much rarer and somewhat more sought after. Special care went into the manufacture of the sniper weapons, and they are likely to be in better condition than surviving standard issue ones. If you purchase one, make sure you know what kind of ammunition it has been chambered for. Variants exist for all three different "7.62mm" rounds, some other common rifles sizes, and at least one country made .22 models for training. There also exists a 7.62mm MG round, which will likely destroy any Mosin-Nagant it is fired from, with catastrophic results. Be careful.