The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

Yes pictures are posted at Wz48 site for Mosins. Mine is in very good shape with no erosion. The design leads to a noticeable expansion in the case. The firing pin does slam the hell out of the rim and chamber peening is a definite liability for dry firing. I will try to photo and post.

locomotiveguy wrote:Pretty raggedly looking Vandeda. I know mine puts a bulge in the case where the extractor is. Never a rupture though.

You can see the bulges at the base and the smack the firing pin imparts. I don't think its dangerous and it shoots well but maybe sticking with standard velocity ammo would be a good idea.

I was curious because a review here: http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/0 ... y-trainer/

noted what can happen when the extractor is worn. As you can see, they experienced sufficient bulging that resulted in a split. Clearly, the original worn extractor is quite worn when compared to a good one. I'm going to bring an empty case to see how it fits in the chamber to make sure it looks tight. If I did that with the current rifle, it would have been obvious that there was a problem.

Locomotiveguy,

It's funny, my cases look better than yours overall, but I got 4 splits out of 80 shots. Oddly enough, the splits are not where the chamber is damaged, but about 180 degrees on the opposite side. I wonder if there's a little more wear to the extractor than there appears. Or it could be a compounding effect of the damaged chamber and some wear to the extractor.

Where the chamber is damaged, it leaves a mark, but it's hard to see much bulging on most cases. And there was never a split in that location. This is a picture of the case where the damaged chamber is located. This is by far the worst one. Some you could barely see a mark:


This is what 95% of the cases look like:


And a split case. You can see the location of the strike and the split:


And finally, the 2 worst split cases:



Beyond that, it shoots pretty well. Once I got a feel for it, I was enlarging holes at 50 yds. So, the question is ... what would you do? Send it back and hope to get one a little better, or keep it and deal with the occasional split case?

How did you do with your replacement Vandeda? I picked up my second one from the FFL today. It's another 1954 about 2k away from my first one. This one has a matching shank & buttplate but the bolt doesn't match & there's a touch of light rust on the barrel shank & trigger guard. Wood is a bit nicer than my first one but both bores are sparkling and after shooting the new one today I think it's a touch more accurate than the first one. Weird thing about the first one is that when I took it out for the first time I didn't do a complete strip down & remove the stock. I couldn't hit a darn thing on that trip. When I came home I removed the stock & there was a weird 2-3" wooden shim under the barrel along with a ton of grease similar to the Finn stuff. I removed the shim & grease & the next time I took her to the range the groups tightened way up.

No replacement yet. I got the return label last Monday, but because of the snow this past week I am only going to have a chance to mail it tomorrow at best. Since I was unable to return it and was headed to the range this past Friday, I decided to see what it would do. I was hopeful at first because the cases were coming out good, but then I got a spit here and there. But, I would expect a replacement in about 2 weeks, assuming 1 week to get back to Bud's and 1 week to get the replacement.

vandeda wrote:No replacement yet. I got the return label last Monday, but because of the snow this past week I am only going to have a chance to mail it tomorrow at best. Since I was unable to return it and was headed to the range this past Friday, I decided to see what it would do. I was hopeful at first because the cases were coming out good, but then I got a spit here and there. But, I would expect a replacement in about 2 weeks, assuming 1 week to get back to Bud's and 1 week to get the replacement.

Best of luck on the replacement. I've been real happy with how both of mine shoot & so far I haven't had any case issues after about 350rnds through both in total.

I hope your replacement is a good one! I've really been trying hard not to order another one. I'd guess they won't ever be less expensive than they are right now.

ksbanker wrote:I hope your replacement is a good one! I've really been trying hard not to order another one. I'd guess they won't ever be less expensive than they are right now.

My FFL told me that Williams has a "Very Good not matching" category if you go through them and not Buds. I don't know the cost though.

Vandeda did you get the replacement yet?

Titanium, I did get it. It's a 1956 This one is much much better functionally. The chamber is in fantastic condition, almost appears that it was rarely fired. An unfired bullet is a tight fit. I had a chance to take it out yesterday and it shoots well like the last one with no real bulging issues. The metal is mostly good, a bit of surface rust here and there (mainly on butt plate and a bunch on the sling escutcheons), but I will take a bit of rust that I can clean up over a bad chamber. Bore is mirror. So overall, I'm happy with the replacement and look forward to taking it out more. I will get pictures when I get a chance.

I was looking at these last night, but I just can't seem to get excited enough about them to squander my limited gun-buying budget for one. I picked up a Romanian trainer a few years ago and it fills the need.

vandeda wrote:Titanium, I did get it. It's a 1956 This one is much much better functionally. The chamber is in fantastic condition, almost appears that it was rarely fired. An unfired bullet is a tight fit. I had a chance to take it out yesterday and it shoots well like the last one with no real bulging issues. The metal is mostly good, a bit of surface rust here and there (mainly on butt plate and a bunch on the sling escutcheons), but I will take a bit of rust that I can clean up over a bad chamber. Bore is mirror. So overall, I'm happy with the replacement and look forward to taking it out more. I will get pictures when I get a chance.

Good to hear. Your new one sounds a lot like Lotema's that he picked up a few weeks back. After fabricating a castle nut wrench I was able to remove the nut on both of my Wz's & get everything cleaned up & lubed. It solved the failure to fire issues I was having & both my Wz's shoot very well now. Funny thing is, last weekend Lotema & I did an ammo test in our 3 Wz's & they all absolutely HATED the expensive European ammo like Geco, Wolf, Eley etc & loved Remington Thunderbolts, CCI, and American Eagle.

SA1911a1 wrote:I was looking at these last night, but I just can't seem to get excited enough about them to squander my limited gun-buying budget for one. I picked up a Romanian trainer a few years ago and it fills the need.

I just love both my Wz's. I've always wanted to pick up a Romanian though. Is it pretty accurate?

Titanium Hammer wrote:

SA1911a1 wrote:I was looking at these last night, but I just can't seem to get excited enough about them to squander my limited gun-buying budget for one. I picked up a Romanian trainer a few years ago and it fills the need.

I just love both my Wz's. I've always wanted to pick up a Romanian though. Is it pretty accurate?

It is as accurate as I am, but that is not a good answer to your question. The most accurate .22 I own in a Chinese JW-15. I shoot is scoped.

I haven't gotten many pictures. Here's the two I have.

Looks really good Vandeda! Hopefully this one won't give you any problems. I've been absolutely loving the one I got from Williams. So much so, I've been thinking about getting another two of them, one for each of my sons.

Wow, that looks very nice Vandeda! How does she shoot?

Don't be fooled, I took pictures of the best features and it's not quite as nice as it appears. I left out the pictures of the rusty parts , in particular the butt plate that had a fair amount of rust (cleaned off) and the sling escutcheons that are really rusty (these are a lot tougher to do). Overall I'm very happy with it And, the chamber is nice and tight. I think it shoots pretty well, but I only got a few shots off at 50 yards with most off-hand. A lot less shots than I had with the original as I've just been busy. But hopefully I can get it out a few times this summer

Well I'm glad you got a good replacement.