The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

Went out to the range again today, brought both, my 91/30 and my M44 Molot. Wanted to try hitting a 12oz bottle at 50 yards out.. Been mostly shooting at the big sticky targets, and I can't say that I've been all that accurate with them.. M44 went first and I did not expect that I would actually be able to hit anything, definitely didn't expect that it would be on my first shot. Next I set up two targets and tried it again.. Two shots - two dead bottles.. I was really surprised.. Kept setting them up and they kept popping on me.. I tried hitting them with the 91/30 and it was nowhere near as accurate. Decided to give it a little R&R for the day and went back to the M44.. Here's what it looked like to a fly on the backstop.

Not sure why, but the forum won't let me embed the video, so here is a link to it instead, if you'd like to see..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prC0O1Pg5EY

Started to lose my accuracy a little towards the end, so I won't write beginner's luck off just yet. Will have to take another couple of trips to figure it out, but I was wondering.. Are 50 yard open sight shots on a target of that size difficult to place? I don't have much to compare it to, and I've seen some of the members' range reports on this forum that are more than impressive..

This is the rifle I used today..

To embed you have to remove the s in front of the http before it lets you do it. ;)

Chiroptile wrote:Went out to the range again today, brought both, my 91/30 and my M44 Molot. Wanted to try hitting a 12oz bottle at 50 yards out.. Been mostly shooting at the big sticky targets, and I can't say that I've been all that accurate with them.. M44 went first and I did not expect that I would actually be able to hit anything, definitely didn't expect that it would be on my first shot. Next I set up two targets and tried it again.. Two shots - two dead bottles.. I was really surprised.. Kept setting them up and they kept popping on me.. I tried hitting them with the 91/30 and it was nowhere near as accurate. Decided to give it a little R&R for the day and went back to the M44.. Here's what it looked like to a fly on the backstop.

Not sure why, but the forum won't let me embed the video, so here is a link to it instead, if you'd like to see..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prC0O1Pg5EY

Started to lose my accuracy a little towards the end, so I won't write beginner's luck off just yet. Will have to take another couple of trips to figure it out, but I was wondering.. Are 50 yard open sight shots on a target of that size difficult to place? I don't have much to compare it to, and I've seen some of the members' range reports on this forum that are more than impressive..

This is the rifle I used today..

and the bottle goes BOOM.

Many of us have different rifles which just seem to work good for us and our eyes and shooting habits. I imagine if I were an expert marksman I could explain this kind of stuff but I am for sure not that. I seem to do very well with an M27 which I can not explain. I have many excellent shooting rifles but my old (70) eyes seem to like the feel and effect of shooting an M27. My very favorite M27 is my RV27 which for some reason seems to work best for me? I rarely shoot carbines because I always shoot at 100 yards and that to me seems to be at the ragged edge of what they are capable of shooting with any accuracy. I generally start a rifle at 50 yards and then move on to 100 yards rapidly if everything seems right. With all the shaking that I do these days all my shooting is from the bench and no doubt that has an effect too. I also have real long arms and I find the rifle has to be longer to make me feel comfortable with it so carbines are never a favorite. I tend to really like the feel of an M91 for comfort with the bench shooting.

Everyone has his likes and dislikes and for the most part that is controlled by our ability, physical size and condition, and mostly by our shooting habits. I have just about every bad shooting habit a person could have and as I get older they are further exaggerated by my physical condition. So it is a constant battle at the range to try and over come these bad habits. I tire faster now and I find when I do I become a really bad shot, not that I am good to begin with! I shoot for relaxation and fun now so that has a big effect to. Life is supposed to be filled with things you enjoy or you need to make better choices in what you do. So I still shoot and try to make it enjoyable at the same time. Good Shooting and Good Times! Bill

Reminds me of a quirk wrung my glocks... For the longest time I was far more accurate with my sub-compact 40S&W than with my full size 9mm, when practically speaking the full size 9 should have had all the advantages (especially in terms of reduced recoil and a longer sight radius).

Thank you Weldon..

And yeah, I was starting to feel like Zaitsev a little bit until I slept on it this morning and remembered that Hickok rang his gong at 230 yards with a Smith 500.. I'll let you guys know if I can ever pop one of those at 100 yards.. Or if I could see it at that distance, for that matter..

I wish we could use reactive target at my club. Paper is fun but that looks like a blast...........get it? A blast.

For my aging eyes the rear sight seems to make all the difference. The older style rear sight with the slight groove works for me in any rifle configuration. The war time rear sight with it's narrower groove is a struggle. With the exception of my T53 but is has a wider site notch than my M44s. Good shooting by the way. My local range does not allow reactive targets so we wait for the hedge apples to fall from the trees. Hedge apples make great 100yd targets.

I am relieved to see someone else has trouble seeing the notch in the rear sight as I was beginning to think I was the only one who had that problem I do much better with the older sights too. Never noticed the T53 has a wider notch I will have to check that out! Thanks Bill

Never underestimate a Molot carbine. Most of them have pristine bores.

I like to put up a target at 50 yards then try to shoot the staples with my Hungarian M44 I get them once in a while.

I attended a shoot in Havre, Montana where targets were set at ranges from 100 yds. out to 985 yds. Only open sighted rifles were allowed, no scopes, red dots or anything with glass lenses. Each shooter was allowed 5 rounds to be fired at the target of his/her choice One of the shooters stepped up to the firing line with his Mosin Nagant 91-30 rifle in 7.62x54R with 5 rounds of his hand loads and chose the 985 yd. target, a steel gong measuring 2.5 ft. x 4.0 ft. His first two shots were very near misses, his next 3 shots made the steel plate ring loud and clear. Sights on his Mosin were the standard military found on all 91-30 MN rifles.

I have had the same problems that you are describing with my 91/30 , until I read about how these rifles are sighted with the bayonet attached or extended on the m-44s and also use the six O'clock holds so I tried it and it worked