I finally got to shoot my Mosin Nagant rifle that I had purchased at the gun show in Hampton. I went to the range in Wakefield on Wednesday and let loose. To my immense relief it shot flawlessly. Next to my Mossberg shotgun, the Mosin has quite a kick. The 7.62x54r round is a really large caliber. I put 40 rounds downrange, including 20 new Wolf rounds and 20 of the 1980 Bulgarian surplus ammo. Neither gave me any problems.

Firing at 50 yards I was able to get 1″ groups which I though was pretty good. I really enjoy shooting the Mosin. It is my first wood and metal gun and I love the smell and feel of it. I love that it is a part of history and was used by millions of Russian soldiers during WWII.

Due to the fact that the Bulgarian surplus ammo was what is termed “corrosive” I cleaned the bore with a weak ammonia solution to clean the salts left by firing the ammo. If you don’t get rid of the salts they will attract moisture, possibly rusting and pitting the bore.

After I got back from the range I disassembled the Mosin and carefully cleaned it. It was recommended that you pour boiling water down the barrel to further remove any remaining salt, which I did. Then I used Ballistol to clean and lubricate the rifle. The rifle came with the original cleaning rod and kit but I chose to use a boresnake instead. Maybe next time I will use the original kit.

When you take apart the bolt for cleaning you have to be careful that the firing pin spacing is correct. The cleaning kit comes with a tool to measure the minimum and maximum gap between the firing pin and the primer. To little and the pin will not strike the primer, too much and you could drive the pin completely through the primer, not a good thing.

I took a video of me shooting which I will embed here, along with a photo showing the Bulgarian ammo I used. That’s it for now.