mosin scout rifle

[billy]

Has anyone ever made a scout rifle out of a 91/30 or seen one ,if so how did you like it? What was done to make it a scout rifle?

[Mikey]

billy - I believe the concept of a 'scout rifle' includes short and scoped.  I know you can scope those actions and I think (I think, I think,) there are forward scout style mounts but just ain't sure.  There are kits available for scoping the action and these usually include a bolt conversion kit and parts.  There also has to be more than a fair degree of accuracy, they gotta shoot good. 

Many, many of the rifles in the 7.62x54R caliber, the 91/30s, M38s and M44s can shoot incredibly well for a mil-surp and perform even better when scoped.  I would first see if yours shoots well.  My criteria is about 2" benched at 100m and if my eyes aren't that good that day I will drop it to 1" at 50 yds.  If my mil-surp performs that well with my open eye(s) it will perform better with a scope, I have found. 

If you want to re-stock the rifle there is a multitude of aftermarket parts available for those rifles. 

Graybeards has a whole list of sponsors and I believe one, Mid-South, is a major distributor of lots of stuff and if you're lucky you might be able to do all your shopping in one stop.  HTH.  Mikey.

[jmayton]

I have a m44 that I made into a scout rifle.  I purchased a mount, rings, and scope off of ebay (UAG was the seller) for $40.  I went cheap because I didn't know if I would like this set up.  The rings were junk and placed the scope too high, so I used a good set of low weavers that I had lying around.  After mounting the scope I learned the value of lock-tite because the entire mount came loose.  The mount actually does not lie straight with the bore, so the scope has to correct for this mis-alignment.  However, it shoots great (1.5-2 moa) and I've killed 5 hogs with it this year and and tempted to take it deer hunting in the fall.

It still has the factory stock, but I found a neoprene slip-on recoil pad that also holds 7 rounds.  I put a cheap leather sling that I had on it as well.  All told, I have about $125 in the gun.  I might upgrade the scope and mount later, but for now it works fine.  It's a bit heavey though, so a synthetic stock would help in that area. 

One other suggestion, try to find a mount that bolts through the rear sight pin rather than two bolt from either side.  Mine's not a bolt-through and I think that has something to do with the alignment issues as well as durability...you can only put so much torque on a steel bolt screwed into an aluminum mount.

[siamese4570]

Billy: I made one up using an M44.  All I did was get an S&K mount that replaces the rear sight and put a cheapo BSA 2X pistol scope on it.  Works great!  Mount is rock solid but a little pricey.  Of course you can do it yourself and save any gunsmith fees.  The best thing is that you can return the rifle back to stock condition if you want to.  Also the M44' tend to have cleaner barrels than some of the 91/30's and the barrel is already short.  Mine will do 1.5 - 2" at 100 yds.  That's with reloads of course.  If you do reload remember that the bores are not true 30 caliber.  Mine prefers .311-.312 (303 caliber) bullets.  Good luck and happy tinkering!

Siamese 4570