First Mosins

[Lotema]

Got my first Mosin for my birthday last June as a present from my wife. I had an idea of collecting Russian weapons and so of course the Mosin was on the list. I had no idea how out of control collecting JUST Mosins was going to become! I've added at least another 20 since then, though sold a few to get some cash for an SVT. Bought some junk along the way but finally started collecting some real nice pieces. All thanks to the great community here on this forum!

My first though was a 1943 CAI import M91\30 sitting in a wartime stock...

[Dan4good]

my first was a 1956 chinese t53 from fleet farm early in 2013 and i brought to show my dad and he had one tucked away in safe i didnt even know he had and he gave me it same day that was a 1936 91/30 izhevsk but is sported barrel and stock chopped oh well. and i now have over 20 mosins m44's one m38 and one m91 and a ton of 91/30s ex snipers, ddr's, MO's hexes, rounds tulas and izhevsks laminates. i love my mosin collection but it has slowed ive been assembly ar15s these days.

[Ironnewt]

Mine was (is) a Izhevsk M38 , 1943. Makes huge fireballs!

[jimpierce7]

I decided I wanted to get back into shooting last year. It had been 28 years since I sold my guns to a pawn shop. Part of my getting sober journey.
I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a rifle and I wanted something bigger than a .22
I mentioned this on the first gun forum I joined and somebody offhandedly mentioned Mosin Nagants.
I started reading. And reading. "Honey come to bed" became a nightly call.
I started looking. As I did/do have the benefit of the internet I found Cal Guns.
I also found a 1942 Izhevsk 91/30 red letter. Matching bayonet. She will be my last one sold in the even I ever have to sell. She is my cheapest gun too. $170. My laminate cost more after shipping. lol
When I went to get this gun, it was after dark. I pulled into an empty construction yard. Gravel and dirt and the like.
The guy I was looking for was easy to find. About 6'7" or so. I didn't know it yet but he used to be a Marine. A BIG Marine. My only weapon is my mini-van. I mean my work truck!!
I was too excited to worry. He was the nicest guy. He broke down the rifle right in front on me. I'm sure the flash light was for my sake. lol







She will be next to get pics of with my new camera.

[outdooraddict]

My first Mosin and firearm ever. No big story really. After months of research, I came across the Mosin and fell in love with the ugly thing.

Local gun store had $99 sale. So I went and grabbed a box. I got this and guess it's a good one ;)




Sent from my iPhone 4S using Tapatalk

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.


I think that gun looks great.

[outdooraddict]

Just got my first a few weeks ago. A guy at work was taking to new about them. I started researching, feel in love with the history of the rifle and went and picked up my first '42 Izhevsk. Nothing special, but it's special to me because it's my first, and it is in pretty good condition !

[Junk Yard Dog]

I am glad to see that nobody is blaming the board for enticing them to buy a first Mosin That is until I got here at least Before I got this internet thing and came looking for info on the M52 sniper I didn't have any Soviet refurb Mosins. I was content with the collection of Finn's, SCW's, wartime bringhomes, and an early 90's unissued Soviet M44 that I had had for many years. That was 2005, somebody told me I could make lots of money selling people all the useless shi....perfectly good antiques I had stashed away in the sheds and barns on this eBay thing ( and they showed me how much they were making to prove it). So I sprung for a computer, then as I was raking in the cash from the su...customers someone told me I could ask the internet questions and maybe 10% of the time get an answer that was correct, so off I went. I ended up here were my question was answered, and then I started seeing all these odd looking Red Rifles ( literally red colored). I had been collecting commie relics since the wall fell, the idea of playing with their toys appealed to me after years of Cold War Soviet bullshit, so naturally I wanted a Red Rifle. Months later I had the FFL, had no choice in that despite how I hate dealing with Uncle for anything, nobody here carried the Red Rifles I was looking for. Within a week of receiving the FFL I had a 1943 M38 carbine, and a1943 M91/30. the first of many. many more. For three years there was a steady stream of long boxes coming in to the shop ( I had discovered GB) This was because people on the board kept enticing me with photos of things like DDR marked rifles, MO's , ex snipers, and of course all the issued Romanian rifles, more Finn's of course, lot's more Finn's. Between guns, ammo, gun related gear, more ammo, lots more ammo, I spent enough to buy a very nice car. I can't point to any one person as being responsible for enticing me to buy all that, showing me guns is like showing the circus fat lady a candy bar, the result is inevitable, I am going to want it. There is one exception however, Ron is fully responsible for the collection of Turkish Mauser's, he was the one who put that idea in my head by showing me post after post of all his $99 Tapco special 1893 Turks.

The board did supply me with at least 15 or more rifles directly off the For sale forum, in fact we can make that 17 now thanks to the two GEW88's I bought there this year. A few of the Red Rifles-

[neal45]

Those are nice displays and evidence of lots of fun collection. What a great hobby - the fun of collecting, researching, shooting, and for me, even cleaning them is fun. I even got into reloading (and lead scrounging) indirectly from collecting Mosins because I had to have a Berdan and then I had to shoot it. Reloading became a must because of the cost of Berdan cartridges from specialty loaders. And the reloading is as much fun as everything else.

[kamakazi339]

Ohh my first..... well ill just say I wanted a mosin since I saw enemy at the gates. I was young and it looked cool. My buddy was getting out of the Marines and he didn't want to move with his so he said hed sell it to me. I had no idea about it except it was a mosin. I was even thinking about getting a scope for it and making into one of those cool snipers I saw on the movie. I really wanted to learn about what I had and luckily I found this forum. The fact that everyone here could look at my TERRIBLE pictures and give me info on my rifle was awesome. And then I got to talking to Buckeyesgt and he got me hooked. Went from my first to now owning 12 of them (recently ive been buying ar parts for my second build and my wasr) But my first was my 1939 Izhevsk in a laminated stock



Shes not terribly rare or worth terribly much, but to me she is priceless

I would like to say thanks to all of you for saving me from becoming a bubba especially Buckeyesgt and JYD

One of these days im gonna have to do a family photo

[OLd_Sarg]

my first one, (key there first one!) I bought was about 2001 or 2002, I cleaned it for a few weeks it seemed like put it in a gun case and forgot about it for several years. It was a nice 91/30 1942 that is all I remember.
One day a bunch of guys I know had a range day and I wanted to shoot some firearms that had not been shot for a long time, I took the 91/30 and a M-48 Mauser, and a pile of other stuff. I shot the M-48 and the black rifle guys mobbed me they could not believe the shots I was taking and making with the Mauser. Then a wise punk said, Yes that is a Mauser bet the POS Russian can't hit crap, then launched into a story on what crap they were and on and on. Don't be picking on my kid! So I grabbed my yet unfired 91/30 and proceeded to blow up/knock down/ring nearly everything we had set up, after the first high shot I saw on the berm. There was a lot of stunned silence, I was the one that was truly blown away!
every one had to shoot it then.
So we had a small bidding war, and it was sold to bubba a week later (did not he was one at the time).
So I had to get one more.....................or so

[Junk Yard Dog]

Enemy at the Gates, when that movie came out it spawned an interest in the PU sniper that soon had fake PU's pouring out of Century and other suppliers. Time and again we would have to break it to some new member that what he had was a M91/30 hat somebody had slapped a repop scope and mount on, not a real PU sniper. That got real old after awhile.

[Titanium Hammer]

Back around 1997 or so I walked into one of the local gun shops to look at getting an AR. I was staring at all of the AR's behind the counter when I turned around and saw rack upon rack of carbines with folding bayonets on them. I walked over and grabbed one and gave it a good looking over. I was so used to handling Remington's & Winchester's that my mind kept telling me this Russian carbine was a piece of junk and would probably blow up in my face on the first squeeze of the trigger & the $59.95 price tag on it only confirmed my suspicions. I made a mental note to myself to jump on the Internet and see what type of information I could find on these things to back up my suspicions that they were junk and dangerous junk at that! Several hours later after plowing through page after page of confusing numbers, symbols, odd Russian names that I couldn't pronounce, and nothing substantial to back up my theory that anyone pulling the trigger would probably face years of facial reconstruction surgery etc, I gave up and didn't think about Mosins again for 10+ years. Being a bit of a foreign movie buff, particularly foreign WWII movies I would continually see these Mosin rifles. Well I decided it was time for more research on these rifles. Thankfully the Internet had grown up by then and good information was now plentiful. I decided I was going to jump back in and research as much as I could. I spent hours each night on all kinds of Mosin related sites and even hovered on here for a year or two before signing on. My first Mosin was a 1933 hex Izhevsk 91/30 refurb. I had spent the better part of a month running around to gun shops around the area searching for Mosins but the pickings were slim to none. One day I walked into the closest gun shop to my house and didn't see any Mosins. As I started to walk out the door I took one last look at the counter and couldn't believe my eyes! There she was! They had just brought a 91/30 out from the back. I couldn't believe my luck. She was a hex and had the brass tab handguard. I couldn't believe my luck! It didn't matter that the handguard was dark brown and the stock was blonde. She was going to be mine so long as the bore checked out. Sure enough it did and she came home with me. Since then I have often kicked myself and wondered if there were any gems in the racks of M44's I saw when this whole journey started. I've since moved on from refurbs and picked up some real nice pieces and this 91/30 doesn't make it to the range much now but she will always be one of my favorites. Behold, Svetlana!

[WeldonHunter]

For me it all started with this Polish M44 I bought on a trip to the Big 5 with a buddy that was looking for a 22lr for his kid as his first gun. I saw this, an M1969 Romanian Trainer and a VZ24 Mauser and bought them knowing nothing about any of them. That was about 1998 and I paid $69.99 for the M44, $69.99 for the Trainer and $89.99 for the Mauser. They only had some Remington Core-Lokt 8mm and no 7.62x54R. I later found some surplus for both at a gunshow. I shot them for on and off for a few years, still knowing nothing about them really but enjoyed them and the attention they received at the ranges.




That was before I found this place. I had moved from California to rural Louisiana where I can shoot whenever I want and decided to look for ammo for them. I was already well on my way to having a large stockpile of ammo when I found this forum while researching the M44. I had also kicked myself over the years for not buying more of the Mosins and Mausers. I had already decided I was going to start looking for more but this place gave me a bit of a push shall we say. The M44, M1969 and VZ24 were the only milsurp rifles I owned at the time but I had a few other more modern rifles and one .44 Mag Ruger Redhawk. Then this happened.

[slcampbell]

3 years ago my oldest daughter and son-in-law drove 90 miles to take me out to lunch and the gun range for fathers day, that day I shot my first Mosin. ( I never forgot that ) A few weeks later at a gun show I bought my first Mosin, a 1938 Tula 91-30 that started me on an unending history quest about Mosins. I soon decided I needed a carbine but my son-in-law gave me the M-44 in the pic. for Christmas that year. ( same son-in-law that gave me a T-53 this year for my birthday ) A few days ago on Easter I asked my S-I-L if he remembered which one of his Mosins was the first one I had shot, he said sure it's the M-44 that I gave you that Christmas. That makes my first 2 Mosins real special.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Back around 1997 or so I walked into one of the local gun shops to look at getting an AR. I was staring at all of the AR's behind the counter when I turned around and saw rack upon rack of carbines with folding bayonets on them. I walked over and grabbed one and gave it a good looking over. I was so used to handling Remington's & Winchester's that my mind kept telling me this Russian carbine was a piece of junk and would probably blow up in my face on the first squeeze of the trigger & the $59.95 price tag on it only confirmed my suspicions. I made a mental note to myself to jump on the Internet and see what type of information I could find on these things to back up my suspicions that they were junk and dangerous junk at that! Several hours later after plowing through page after page of confusing numbers, symbols, odd Russian names that I couldn't pronounce, and nothing substantial to back up my theory that anyone pulling the trigger would probably face years of facial reconstruction surgery etc, I gave up and didn't think about Mosins again for 10+ years. Being a bit of a foreign movie buff, particularly foreign WWII movies I would continually see these Mosin rifles. Well I decided it was time for more research on these rifles. Thankfully the Internet had grown up by then and good information was now plentiful. I decided I was going to jump back in and research as much as I could. I spent hours each night on all kinds of Mosin related sites and even hovered on here for a year or two before signing on. My first Mosin was a 1933 hex Izhevsk 91/30 refurb. I had spent the better part of a month running around to gun shops around the area searching for Mosins but the pickings were slim to none. One day I walked into the closest gun shop to my house and didn't see any Mosins. As I started to walk out the door I took one last look at the counter and couldn't believe my eyes! There she was! They had just brought a 91/30 out from the back. I couldn't believe my luck. She was a hex and had the brass tab handguard. I couldn't believe my luck! It didn't matter that the handguard was dark brown and the stock was blonde. She was going to be mine so long as the bore checked out. Sure enough it did and she came home with me. Since then I have often kicked myself and wondered if there were any gems in the racks of M44's I saw when this whole journey started. I've since moved on from refurbs and picked up some real nice pieces and this 91/30 doesn't make it to the range much now but she will always be one of my favorites. Behold, Svetlana!

That rack was full of 1943 Trials rifles, hex receiver rebuilds, and 1944 Tulas, every one with a DDR stamp, MO, or both That's how it always is when you walk away from something. Since the very first "gun" the same thought has crossed every shooters mind on trying something new and untested. "Oh please Lord don't let this thing blow up in my face"

[Mike]

I got my first a couple of years ago, I had heard of Mosins when I saw a crate of them at my LGS at $115 each. They were interesting but I wasn't looking for a bolt action rifle at the time. However, just for fun I did some research on the internet and came across this forum. Shortly after that I went back to the LGS and came home with this, 1940 Tula in a pre-war stock.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I probably overlooked hundreds of SCW era Mosins at shows back in the 70's and 80's, even the 90's as I was hunting US milsurps at the time. Many were sporterized anyway, and my eyes would glide right over such without pause. I was offered what the owner claimed was a Korean War era Soviet M44 back around 1989-90, He also claimed the odd looking sling was made from human skin. That did it and both he and the rifle went out the door.

[sgtheindl]

About a year ago I had never fired or even held a gun in my life. A buddy said him and his uncle were going shooting and I was invited. They just placed a pistol in my and told me to shoot...which I did and LOVED IT IMMEDIATELY. Fast forward a month, at Cabelas with the same buddy. We see behind the counter what we recognized as a Mosin Nagant from some of the videos games we had played over the years and he ends up buying one (1942 Izhvesk). Went shooting for a second time and again had an amazing experience shooting the Mosin. A week later I went and bought one myself. The gentleman at Cabelas asked me if I wanted a hex or round (mind you this is when they still have them in the back in boxes and not all on the rack). I had no idea what the difference was so I just said round since I was uneducated about Mosins. Turns out I ended up with a 43 Tula Ex-sniper so it wasn't the worst decision ever even though I still have a tinge of regret over it. Anyways, that all snowballed into a milsurp addiction that I can't afford . Heres a few pictures.

017-DSCI0017.JPG

026-DSCI0026.JPG

029-DSCI0029.JPG

[qz2026]

dj... nice, really nice '27 at a great price. Looks like an early non-Ukrainian refurbed import. I'm jealous over this one.

[qz2026]

BTW, here is my first one. Still has a special place in my heart. I remember posting it here asking how I should date it since it was basically scrubbed. We landed on that it must be a '42. The picture should also dispel an qualms about counterboring. That rifle and this forum propelled me into putting together quite a collection. But, this is the one that started it.