This Reborn Ex-Sniper is a tack driver

[MarkV]

There doesn't seem to be much interest here for the Mosin Nagants but I thought I'd try one last time.

Many people believe that the Soviets took sniper rifles that were worn out and returned them to standard infantry rifles - they were less worried about accuracy in a non-sniper. This example will help to disprove that notion.

I'm prepping for a vintage Sniper Rifle two-man competition next weekend and wanted to zero my restored ex-sniper (1942 Izhevsk with a '42 Progress PU scope) and confirm whether it was going to be my competition rifle or not (I have 2 other M91/30 PU snipers). I shot it last week with MILSURP ammo and it was pretty good. I had started hand loading my own ammo and had 10 rounds that I shot at the end of last week's firing. I thought I had a pretty good zero but still wanted to confirm.

This week while loading with an inexpensive digital scale I had done about 20 rounds and the scale started to act strangely. I ended up with 3 rounds that I believed were under-powered - and knocked my loading tray over so they were mixed in with the bunch of 25. I got a new, much better digital scale for future use so that problem is now gone.

So, today I went out with 25 rounds to validate my zero using the hand-loaded match ammo - using 43.5 gns of Vargent Powder, Winchester primers and Sierra 174 gn .311 boat tail bullets.

First 5 rounds were fired at the lower left target and all placed just right of center. The next 5 hit 3 bulls and two just right.

The next 10 rounds were fired at the lower right target - and in each of the 5 I got one of the low powder rounds.

My last 5 rounds were to validate the fine adjustments I'd made in the first 20 and were fired at the center red bull. 4 dead on bulls and the last of the low powder rounds.

This thing is a tack driver.

[GIZMO8Z]

Awesome results, Mark! Have you posted pictures of this rifle? If not, I'd love to see it!

I've yet to begin reloading, but I have definitely noticed the difference among the various makers of ammo that I use. All of my rifles are generally accurate, including a few "tack drivers"... but I've noticed that when using some ammo it's almost like I can't even get rounds on target!

I'd LOVE to get my hands on an authentic Mosin sniper... If you could point me in the right direction via PM, I'd really appreciate it!

[MarkV]

Hi, Joe! Yes, the pictures are down the page. Here is the link: https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/firea...mplete-209382/

I'll drop you a Pm with the name of several places that are selling MN snipers.

[GIZMO8Z]

Beautiful rifle! Awesome that it looks AND shoots so great!

[mauser9]

Remember reading comparison in Shooting Times Mag. about a comparison between kAR 98k and mosin. Mosin did score very high in accuracy.

[ObKrieger]

The Mosin is an awesome rifle! It looks like you could have hunted a few fascist heads with this one...

[Wagriff]

I believe that most all the master snipers did handload their own ammo. That way, they knew that they could depend on the zero deviation differences that they needed. You really didn't want to take too many "second shots" as a sniper! The Nagants could stand their own against anything the Germans could field and did, indeed, give many of the Gustav's a severe headache. It's great to see you actually Firing this old veteran again! Can you imagine the History that it's seen?

[Adrian Stevenson]

Very nice results.

Cheers, Ade.

[StuG III]

Excellent shooting! Good luck at the competition.
At what distance were these fired from?

Tom

[MarkV]

These were just at 50 yards - First, I needed to validate that this one had the accuracy I needed for competition. Although most of these surplus war horses still perfom well, there are some that slipped through the refurbishing with shot out or marginal barrels. I also needed to zero the scope, especially since I'd switched to handoads.

For the competition, we'll be firing at silhouettes from 300, 600 and 1000 yards - no target ring; you are scored on target hit/miss.