Mosin for $99

About 15 years ago when Woolworths was still in business, they were getting in cases of military surplus rifles. Garands were $125, British 303's $59 and Russian Mosin Nagants $49. I picked up a Swedish Mauser and a British 303 because both were in good condition and decent guns. The Nagants simply looked like a piece of junk so I didn't have much interest in them. The Garands I'm still kicking myself for not purchasing. I was holding off for the 308 version which they never got in.

Unless I found one of the Winchester made Nagants, I'd probably pass, even at $99.
 
The Mosin Nagant is not a piece of junk. It's cheap because it's simple and ugly, but they shoot nicely and cheaply, and the carbines are especially fun to shoot.
 
vellnueve said:
The Mosin Nagant is not a piece of junk. It's cheap because it's simple and ugly, but they shoot nicely and cheaply, and the carbines are especially fun to shoot.
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Obviously depends on your definition of junk I suppose. To me, they are junk and due to the vast numbers of them in existence don't even have the value of the Japanese Ariska or the Italian Carcano and those two are definately junk.

They are functional rifles and I guess if you are desperate enough to want one, there's nothing wrong with it but there isn't much investment value in them.

I still say save your money up and buy a better gun, there are still a lot of cheap military surplus arms out there that actually are good rifles. The German or Swedish mausers, the British Enfields or even some Czech or South American mausers. They may cost you $200+ or essentially double the cost of the Nagant but they will hold their value better and appreciate better, the Mausers especially since they are sought after for reboring and sporterizing.
 
Milsurps 4 Me said:
You mean Westinghouse or maybe Remington? And to pass on one of those for $99?!?!?

I take it you've been out of the loop of surplus guns for some time now eh? [laugh]
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No, I wouldn't pass on one of those but I'm not likely to ever run into one for $99 either.

I'm not huge in the surplus gun market but I have four, one English, one Australian, one Swedish and one US.

I did once come across an 1895 Winchester lever action made for the Russian government using the same ammo as the Nagant. Didn't have the funds at the time to buy it however, it was WELL over the $99 price range and this was quite a few years ago.
 
Aragorn243 said:
Obviously depends on your definition of junk I suppose. To me, they are junk and due to the vast numbers of them in existence don't even have the value of the Japanese Ariska or the Italian Carcano and those two are definately junk.

They are functional rifles and I guess if you are desperate enough to want one, there's nothing wrong with it but there isn't much investment value in them.

I still say save your money up and buy a better gun, there are still a lot of cheap military surplus arms out there that actually are good rifles. The German or Swedish mausers, the British Enfields or even some Czech or South American mausers. They may cost you $200+ or essentially double the cost of the Nagant but they will hold their value better and appreciate better, the Mausers especially since they are sought after for reboring and sporterizing.
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The reason why there are a vast number of Mosin Nagants out there is because they were so easy to import in large numbers where as most surplus rifles from other countries were either destroyed or imported in lesser quantities. In fact the recent flood of K98 capture rifles are only herebecause they came from Russian.

As for investment value, you couldn't be further from truth. Some early, but still fairly common Mosin Nagants fetch upwards of $300 and more by collectors.

I've seen standard out of the box 91/30 Mosins with frosty bores out shoot even some of the nicest K98s and Czech Mausers out there. Thats not even including some of the Finn Mosin Nagants which are often the best shooting surplus rifles out there and IMO are equalled only by Swedish and American surplus rifles.
Most Mauser type rifles including Czech variants are sought after for sporterizing simply because of the Mauser action. Its one of the best designs produced and is still used to this day. There are thousands of surplus Mauser actions out there for cheap money that people use for sporter projects so I don't think anyone is buying $250 Russian capture rifles to turn into Fudd deer hunting rifles.
 
Well, you're welcome to all the $300 Nagants you desire. I'll help by showing zero interest in them thus helping to keep the cost of the more common ones down in the $99 range where they apparently are.

When somethings cheap, there's a reason for it and all the excuses in the world don't change that. Someone said, they are common and they are ugly, that's the reason they are cheap.
 
madmarc0 said:
I bet that's what you said about those 125.00 Garands too! [laugh2]
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No, what I said about the Garands at the time was:

I don't have that much money to spend on a rifle that has three + serial numbers on the various parts and that I cannot legally use to hunt with.

I have no quality issues concerning a Garand, it's a matter of use. Knowing what they are going for now, like I said, I'm kicking myself for not getting one but I will NEVER be kicking myself for not buying a Nagant. There are so many other guns that will do so much better investment wise that I would be foolish to waste it on a Nagant instead of any one of those.

I have within the past half dozen years gotten very interested in WWII re-enacting for which a Garand with or without matching serial numbers would be super but again, I'm presented with a rifle which costs more than I'm willing to part with.
 
Aragorn243 said:
.... I will NEVER be kicking myself for not buying a Nagant. There are so many other guns that will do so much better investment wise that I would be foolish to waste it on a Nagant instead of any one of those......
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Never say never.
My M39 Finn is worth 3 times what I paid for it.
My brand-spankin'-new Polish M44 is worth 4 times what I paid for it.
I've got Swedes, K31s, and Lee Enfields that cost me $75 each.
How about a 1917 Enfield for $125 and an unissued Garand for $150?

OTOH, my 401K is worth squat.
If I had put $75K in milsurp guns 10 years ago, I'd be grinnin' hard enough to hurt myself.[crying]

Jack
 
Aragorn243 said:
To me, they are junk and due to the vast numbers of them in existence don't even have the value of the Japanese Ariska or the Italian Carcano and those two are definately junk.
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Have to disagree with you there, at least concerning the Arisaka. After WWII, a fellow by the name of Hatcher did a study of firearms used during the war, and found the Jap Arisaka to be one of the strongest, best made rifles he'd seen. Problem was: 1) towards the end of the war, the Japanese were cutting every corner possible, and these "last ditch" rifles did not have the same fit and polish of earlier models, and 2) U.S. troops tried shooting .30-06 ammo through them after the war and frequently blew themselves up. This resulted in some very bad feelings about the rifle that have continued through today.

By the way, I also have paid "Mosin Nagant" money for some Finn rifles that are worth 3 to 4 times what I paid. Sometimes you luck out!
 
Aragorn243 said:
Obviously depends on your definition of junk I suppose. To me, they are junk and due to the vast numbers of them in existence don't even have the value of the Japanese Ariska or the Italian Carcano and those two are definately junk.
Click to expand...

So what your saying is you classify Mosin Nagants as junk guns because there were so many produced (about 37,000,000 in many variants from Russia/Soviet Union). That's a whole lot of junk guns. Well I hope you don't find your self in a gun fight with the biggest POS being the AK47 & variants, with over 100,000,000 made and counting there are going to be a lot of ticked off military's out there.
 
Ok, to clarify things:

Enfield - good quality, some variations due to stage of war production
Springfield - excellent quality
Krag - excellent quality
Swedish Mauser - excellent quality
German Mauser - good quality, some variations due to stage of war production, some could be excellent, some not so much.

These rifles all have good appearance, good fit, good workmanship, etc.

The Nagant was a cheap, easily mass produced rifle that was reliable. Now if you want to call that good quality, that's your call. I don't. In comparison to those listed above, they are junk. I would consider them better in quality than the Ariska and the Carcano's however as those two have a history of extremely poor workmanship and have the odd warning about firing. I've never seen or heard any warning about firing a Nagant or them being in any way dangerous. So if you want a rifle to physically throw into the back seat, pick up at the range and blow watermellons apart, a Nagant for the money is going to be hard to beat. You want something to show off to your grandkids or help fund a retirement off of, it isn't. It will never have the value of a Carcano or Ariska simply because of the numbers produced and surviving to the present day. There are no hidden hoards of either of these likely to suddenly start showing up at dealers like the Nagants are. When it comes to weapons, it's not likely the Soviets/Russians ever got rid of anything. They need cash now, so these old things are showing up all over the place. Supply and demand shows that when there are thousands of something vs hundreds of something else, the less common similar item is the more valuable.

So unless you have in your hands a mint example of an early production run, they aren't very collectible and in all likelyhood, never will be. These will be showing up for years as further stocks are found and released for sale. Not a good investment.
 
Good call.

BTW, the $80 91/30 (1925 Tula) that I was shooting today is easily the best foreign milsurp B/A that I've picked up. Well, the K31 might give it a run for it's money, but I was nailing those clays.
 
shoote8.jpg


M1891 Mosin-Nagant Bannerman conversion, Manufactured by New England Westinghouse and is U.S. Property marked. The Bannerman conversions in 30.06 should always be ruled as unsafe to fire.​

For the civilian market, it was soon discovered that the 7.62x54R cartridge was available but in limited quantities to the general public, so some of these were then converted over to a more easily accessible and economical cartridge. The Bannerman conversions are in 30.06 calibers and I would imagine that some injuries have resulted from this conversion. Occasionally I have seen these come up for sale and they usually are not all that expensive running in the $250 to $450 dollar range, depending on markings, proofs, years of manufacture, and condition.

http://www.russian-mosin-nagant.com/shooterslook.htm
 

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