So a young Marine asks me to put a rifle together for him, wants to shoot long range. He says I have a Mosin Nagant and I just about fell off my chair(not the kind of build I am accustomed to). But After the build and with some hand loads I think this just might do it............







I proof every rifle I build and I have to say my expectations were low with this chrome lined "machine gun" barrel but the proof is in the pudding these were all @ 100 yards calm and cool conditions:

These were both surplus ammo one with steel case and one with brass case, they were just some stuff a friend of mine had lying around his shop so I fired them just to see, I do not know the bullet weights or where they originate.



I didn't expect much more than this from this rifle.


I then fired 3 rounds of "Winchester metric" white box:



The group to the lower left were some break in shots that were fired before the proof shots and the barrel was cleaned between each of those shots and then between each of the groups fired.
Can't say for sure but I really think that a fellow could work a hand load for this that would indeed make it competitive........

What do you all think?

what machine gun barrel?

This barrel came looking more like this:



I think They came from Tennesee guns and understood them to be machine gun barrels from ruskie

What stock?  I want one!

I'd like to do something like that one day.  Whenever I scan Classic Arms I pause on that barrel/reciever combo half way down the page and wonder if I could pull it off.

The Finns made some very accurate rifles. I like the M39, but would love a Finnish M28-76 Target Rifle.
That caliber should be capable at 1k yards with good ammo.

Jim

So where can we get that stock from?

I got the stock from

http://www.loweldesigns.com/

He is a nice fella to work with and makes them all himself so he gets backed up from time to time.

The Finnish sniper rifle TAK-85 (still in service) is capable of minute of a man accuracy up to 850-900 meters when the shooter knows what he is doing. So 1000 yards is IMO doable with handloads, well built rifle and an excellent shooter.

Thanks!



 

Very nice.

What's a build like that run?????????

Nice work! I am tempted to try a build like this. What is the contour and length of the barrel? And are the machined flats for tightening the barrel?

The flat was left after the barrel was contoured(the flat was pre-existing), I did not want to remove any more material as this was to be a heavy barrel build. This was a 24" machine gun barrel that can be found in a link in an earlier post. It is now 23.5" as I cut that goofy crown off and recrowned it with a target crown; then threaded it to axcept Wigglesdabum's flash hider.

This barrel and reciever were put together like a Savage:

First the barrel was profiled on center then sized and then the sholder was threaded longer to accept the barrel nut.


We then made the Barrel nut:


Put it all together and headspaced it:



took it all apart after finding the timing for the extractor and cut the appropriate  relief for the extractor and put it all back together again.


Simple right.
there are lots of other interesting little things I do too but.......

Beautiful!

very nice work. One day I would like something like that.

Craig

Hell yeah I want a rifle like that.

Tough as nails and accurate to boot.

How much $$$?

Totally awesome sir! You do great work! Thank you for sharing this rifle build with us.

Coldbore, that is an awesome looking rifle you built and no doubt that Marine will be very happy with what you have done.

IM Sent

This world needs more people like you!!!!

I just wanted to drop some info here as I have had many inquaries on the cost:

There was a lot more work here than what is shown in these pics;
This action was trued, the bolt face trued, the lugs trued and lapped, the barrel profiled;threaded both ends; barrel nut made then chamber was tightened up a bit.
everything on the rifle was bedded, I had a lot of time in this and there are plenty of little tricks to making a rifle accurate.

Because this young man was a Marine and I appreciate what those young men do for our country I cut him a break on this build; but a build like this can easily exceed $600 in labor.

Let's see then:

$600 in labor
$100 for barrel/receiver
$??? for stock.

Still sounds like it'd be a hell of a deal for a tack-driving, bomb-proof rifle.

the stock I believe was 125. Not totally sure its been a while.

Awesome deal for such a stock, it is a thing of beauty.

OP are you taking orders?  If I supply the parts what do you think a turnaround time of this same setup would look like?

How did you recut the action threads?

What fixture did you use to indicate the action?

The action threads were cleaned up via single point touch up(there was no need to completely "rethread" the action) this is done in a fixture with a set of spiders in either end; the lug face is also trued in this fixture, after that is true there is another fixture that is fitted inside the raceway of the action and torqued against the trued lugs of the action. The face of the action is trued on this jig to ensure the face is cut true to the bolt raceway. I build all of the the jigs and fixtures in house.

This is not my first rodeo; I just thought this was an interesting project that others would like to see.

I do not do video tutorials or step by step how to's, I build rifles.

hahah, I can't believe i didn't put two and two together when I saw this thread the other day. I've been to your shop, I've seen that rifle, and yet I still didn't recognize it. Or your avatar/screen name.

I was pretty impressed when I saw that rifle up close and personal, but, I was picking up my rifle you had built,  and was sort of on a gun-high at the time.

Yeah, I'm conflicted. On one hand I hate seeing military rifles getting cut up, but on the other he did a damn fine job of murdering that poor defenseless rifle.



 

Look at it this way guys.

It's one rifle out of millions that were made.  No big deal.

The real bubba crimes took place in the 50s and 60s when all those beautiful Mausers, Springfields, and Enfields (among others) were so wantonly hacked to pieces by those cold, heartless, hunters who wouldn't spend a bit more for a Remington or Winchester at the hardware store.

Elmer Fudd is a war criminal.

Bubba done good!

There is nothing collectable about the Mosin nagant right now. Its a tool not a collectors item.

Nice job.

Shit I'd collect it.  And then shoot it.  A lot.

There's a difference between "Bubba-ing" a rifle, that is, slapping an ATI or similar stock onto it and calling it good; and performing the detailed and precision machining as done by the OP to obviously improve this setup.

It has all the makings of a high-end precision rifle, plus the advantage of having parts commonality with the very widely-available and very reasonably-priced mosin nagant.  I want this rifle badly!

Got a Mosin-Nagant with a sewer pipe bore and was actually loose in its stock for the basis for a duplicate of this. The local gunsmyth has agreed to build it for me since he was bored from his contract of cleaning up Katriana guns. Just curious if there are any more range reports or AAR's from shoots with it.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Nice job !!!!

Depends on the Mosin Nagant. Some are, some aren't.

Assuming this started as a standard refurb 91/30, yeah, it had about as little collector's interest as it could get.

DAMN nice work, though. This is a good example of a MN built up right.

It's a Game Changer!

Called Classic Arms on Monday after the direct deposit landed to order one of their barrels but they were sold out. The lady on the phone said that they were not going to get anymore and was evasive as to where they got them.

Would a Shilen 7.65 / 0.311" barrel with a 1/10" twist be correct for this build? The reason I was looking at this vs. the OP's use of a HMG barrel is that it appears to a less expensive route.

Thanks for the input.

Say again?

The Shilen custom barrel is going to be less expensive than the heavy MG barrel?

My Mosin Nagant has won a 100 yard shooting competition with a .383" group ...of course I wasn't the one shooting it:D

I can't find my pictures now but since it shot that group I have added a timney trigger.

I'm emailing that guy for a stock RIGHT NOW.

Yeppers, believe it or not.............

Tenn Gun Int. UK-59 spare barrel for $389


vs.

Shilen's
Chrome Moly Match Grade
Pre-turned ................... $ 200.00

Yes, it would be cheaper, and likely easier for a smith to deal with, being that it's a regular shape.

Just wanted to jump in here with some info on this build and others like it I have done.

When this was built the the MN Receiver and the UK-59 barrel (stripped, threaded and chambered) could be purchased together for around ($100 for both). With the cost of the two major components being so little it was very inexpensive to get started on a build like this one. I can say that these UK barrels have impressed me for their accuracy( I have now seen 3 of them on paper) but it is a gamble with them as I have had to reject a few for fitment and quality issues.

The Shilen barrel will indeed create an accurate rifle when fitted properly (I have done that too) and it is quite a bit easier to fit them to the action as there is no need for the barrel nut configuration when starting from a blank. Please keep this in mind; The $200 shilen needs to be threaded and fitted to the receiver and the chamber needs to be cut at additional cost to the owner. This is usually about $150-$200, Shilen does offer barrels threaded and chambered(though as far as I know not in 7.62x54R at this time) for $400 but they still need to be properly fitted to achieve the accuracy that shilen offers.

I have built rifles of all kinds starting from  actions like Lawton, Bernard and Surgeon and going to...........well Mosin Nagant actions, we build everything from bench guns to sporters in my shop and I can tell you with out a doubt that when we are working with good parts it is much easier to build an accurate rifle.

There are other barrels to look at, Pan-Nor, Green Mountain, E.R. Shaw, Douglas and Wilson are all good for one reason or another.

I did my apprenticeship with a fellow who holds a record at camp perry and it was fired through a $100 E.R. Shaw barrel on a mauser action..........  

The cost issue is a debate that could go on forever, I will say I enjoy The "old rifles" more as they are "hand crafted" and an old mauser that shoots very well because someone took the time and put forth the effort to "make it" shoot well will still get my attention before the Stiller action with tons of cash poured in to it.