Made the trek out to the desert to shoot my two Mosin Nagants, a Finnish M-39 and a Soviet 91/59. Using my reloads both rifles grouped well under two inches at 50yd. (Winchester case, Winchester WLR primer, Sierra .311 150gr SP, and 52gr of IMR 4350) I also shot some Bulgarian 1984 light ball and Soviet 1984 light ball. The 91/59 shot everything well, the reloads were spot on, the Bulgarian shot lower and to the right, and the Soviet shot higher and to the left, all groups were inside the three inch bull’s-eye. The Finnish M-39 shot the reloads an inch and a half above point of aim at 50yd, while the Bulgarian and Soviet surplus both shot four inches high and two inches to the right at 50yd. While the Soviet ammo is usually priced hight than the Bulgaria nammo both shot well in my guns. The barrel on the M-39 is VG while the barrel on the 91/59 is EXCELLENT.
This was my second trip to the range with these rifles. The first trip was spent tinkering with the sights to ZERO them. It was great fun just being able to shoot these two MN collectables and enjoy their small groups.
If you reload I suspect flat base bullets of .311 to .312 diameter are going to give best accuracy. My next trip I’ll try some reloads using VARGET which is a little faster than IMR 4350.
Looking around the .NET I was able to find all the original accessories for my M-39, green leather sling, multi-tool, brass muzzle cap, stripper clips, and cleaning kit. There is also a nice reproduction of the M-39 bayonet available.
