The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

I bought what I thought was a rifle online. The store is two hours away(same state). I thought I was just putting money down and would do the background check there. Well they sent me a barrel for a m91/30. I'm looking to see if I can at least find a reciever to put it into and piece together a rifle. It's in better shape than the barrel I have on my other m91/30, but I don't want to pull it off and change it all.

Was the auction description vague? Bad or no pictures? Did the description explicitly say you were bidding on a firearm, or did it say you were bidding on a part? If I bid on what I thought was a full firearm, and on winning I received a part of a firearm, and the auction description flat out said I was bidding on a full firearm then that outfit and I would be having words. Two hours away means I would be there to express my displeasure in person. Full M91/30's can be had for less than $400, sometimes less than $300, you are not going to be able to build one Johnny Cash style one bit at a time for less than that. Likely it will cost considerably more once you factor in having a gunsmith set the headspace, unless you are a gunsmith yourself or have one in the family who works for food. Once you are done spending $500-$600 you will have a parts master that isn't a piece of history, just a pile of spare parts assembled into a shooter. No matching numbers, different shades of metal finish, in short a disaster. Use the barrel as a paperweight, or better yet see if they accept returns, and get yourself a real Soviet refurb 91/30. Gunbroker.com has rifles, so do some of the online retail sellers, I see them pop up on this board, they aren't hard to find or that expensive.

First; Welcome to the forum.

More details of the ad the seller posted would help & also; How much did you pay? Without details we have no idea of what went down; & no real way to give advice regarding your barrel purchase.

regarding your consideration of "One Piece at a time"... Don't make matters worse by finding a receiver for the barrel... Don't forget you would have to buy the rest of the gun parts as well. Then there's the difficult task of putting the barrel on a receiver PROPERLY. The cost to cobble it together would be FAR greater than just buying an unmolested rifle at even retail price; And your Hobble Cobble parts gun would be worth far less than the value of the parts, and looked upon by collectors as a pile of junk at worst, and spare parts at best.

If you could find an entire rifle with a bad barrel for $$ cheap, you would be shittin in high cotton.

I have a stripped receiver from a T53 in the parts bin. Your biggest problem is that it would have to be shipped as a firearm, going to an FFL and a 4473 being done on it as it no longer qualifies as C&R eligible if you have an 03 license.

As Rongo stated, it isn't just a "screw it in and done" process, it may require machining in order to get it timed right and headspace within specs.