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By Joe Weist
Dubuque, IA
While doing the work on the 91-30 (see TFS 173-11) I saw an ad in the Shotgun News for Finnish Mosin- Nagant M-39-Bs unissued and with free shipping for $229.00. I had seen one of these in Daytona in a gun shop last winter and had heard how good they shoot. It was so easy - with a cell phone call and the C&R license I ordered one from Wholesale Guns (www.gunsnammo. com). The same UPS man that would make me go through an FFL dealer at the office was now on the truck and had delivered me three rifles, and is very puzzled.
The rifle came like new, dated 1942 with a barrel made in Belgium. It was almost too nice to shoot. It had a very nice trigger pull. The front sight is adjustable for windage by a screw on each side. I made a 1/8" wide front blade for it and J-B Weld-ed it to the original sight. After I shot it I made a new piece for the rear sight that was a little higher and opened it wider to fit my eyes.
The groove diameter is .311", bore diameter is .301" and the throat is .312". Most of my bullets are sized down on the front band using the same die used in the story on the 91-30. I made a neck sizing bushing used for five different Mosins by now. The amazing thing is after five different rifles in this caliber the brass works the same in each rifle and has been only necked sized.
The first time out with the CBE 314190 bullet and 26 grains of 3031 my first group was .923". Well if it's not broke don't fix it. However, it never repeated this great shooting. I tried other loads, some okay and some not, so I fixed it. The more I shot it the more I fixed it. It soon ended up that there was no end to the fixing and I was running out of primers.
First the top wood was touching the barrel at the muzzle. The band on the rear wood was pulling the barrel down into the stock. The left side of the barrel had a lot of pressure at the muzzle end.
I shimmed up the barrel all around and clamped down the front clamp. For a few days it would shoot under 1 inch, but a few days later it would be shooting into three inches. I decided I didn't have much to lose if I worked on the bedding and if I was going to a match I still had my '03-A3 or M1. I pulled the action out and found brass shims on both sides of the recoil lug which were not bearing evenly. You could loosen up the tang bolt and twist the action around in the stock to where you wanted it with the shims in it. I pillar bedded it first and still it didn't do any better. Next I took out wood around both lugs and J-B bedded it to get the action squared up in the stock.
At the range it shot about like the 91-30 again - three in tight and two flyers. By now I have 400 rounds down the barrel and it's still not shooting like I think it should. All that was left to work on was the crown and it looked like Bill Large's hook rifling on a muzzle loader barrel. With some crowing balls it cleaned up okay. The accuracy improved somewhat and kept everything in 1-1/2 inches. But still I hear how good they shoot.
This time I put bedding under the chamber part of the barrel. This has finally helped it out. But if I could see iron sights better it would help. I see why 40 years ago the old-timers picked me up to go out and shoot their rifles.
My best load is 19 grains of 4759 and Don Eagan's ARD Bullet. Other good loads are 20 grains of WC680 with both the ARD and the Lyman 314299; 23 grains of RL-7 and the CBE 314190 bullet; 40 grains of 4831 with the Lyman 311284; 27 grains of 4895 and 30 grains of Ball-C with the CBE 314190.
Looking at the bore with a bore scope you can see light tooling marks in all grooves. After 10 shots it fouls up very heavy but doesn't lead. You can clean it and then you get one or two flyers and the subsequent shots will be under 7/8 of an inch. Maybe a few shots with jacketed bullets would smooth this up.
Photo Caption:
Left to right (loaded) CBE 316238, CBE 314190. Bullets as cast, CBE 316238, Lyman 311284, CBE 314190 and Lyman 311291
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