The Gun Blogs

Just got this via e-mail:

CHANGE TO CARBINE SALES DATES: Inspection & Repair and grading of M1 carbines has progressed faster than expected. CMP will now accept mail orders for Saginaw, Saginaw S'G', and National Postal Meter carbines on 28 April, 2008. Order acceptance date for Standard Products and IBM has now been set as 7 July, 2008. For operational reasons, we have set a limit of one carbine per customer per manufacturer for each of these manufacturers until further notice. A small quantity of these manufacturers will be available at both CMP stores. For additional details, please see http://www.odcmp.com/rifles/carbine.htm

NORTH STORE RENOVATION: The Grand Re-Opening of the CMP North Store is still scheduled for 12 march, 2008.

HRA GARANDS NOW AVAILABLE: CMP is now accepting orders for HRA Service and Field Grade Garands. For additional details, please see http://www.odcmp.com/Services/Rifles/m1garand.htm

PRICE REDUCTION - NATIONAL MATCH M1 GARAND STOCK SET: CMP price for Item #085 has been reduced from $124.95 to $94.95. This stock set is listed under the 'commercial parts' tab on our estore http://estore.odcmp.com/Store/catalog/catalog.aspx

Just got this from CMP:

We have received and verified your recent order. There is nothing that we will be able to tell you about the order until we have input all orders received ahead of yours into the system. Your order will now advance to our sales area and from there to our shipping area. Please note, that unless otherwise listed, our order to ship time is 30 days.

Santa's packin' a Garand this Christmas. Anyone hunting reindeer better prepare for return fire.

Hey guys we have lowered our prices even more so come check us out again.

We now have photos for our products as requested.

Prices dropped anywhere from 10-30% and with our flat rate shipping of $25.00 we are without a doubt the Cheapest place online to purchase your firearms.

www.actionpawn.net

This post is a reprint of one I posted on my own blog a while back, but I've got a bunch of cool new stuff to post pictures of, and I'm testing posting on this blog...

Anastasia is a New England Westinghouse manufactured Mosin Nagant M1891, dated 1915. (Although I've heard that all Westinghouse M1891s are marked 1915, even those made in 1916 or 1917) During World War I, Remington and Westinghouse manufactured the rifles under contract for Czar Nicholas II. Because of the unplesantness going on in Russia toward the end of the war, many of the rifles weren't delivered to Russia, but instead the US Government took possession of a large number of them and rebarreled them to .30-06. Anastasia, however, did make her way to Russia. At some point, the Finns got their hands on her (probably captured during or before the Winter War, at least, that's my guess) and put the tiger-striped stock on her, crossed out the old sight markings measured in arshins, a measure of distance equal to a soldier's stride, and stamped SA (Finnish Army) and a few other proof marks on the receiver. The picture really doesn't do the stock justice, it's in perfect shape, hardly a ding anywhere. The rifle's a few inches longer than the M91/30, and noticeably heavier. Shooting this rifle has less felt recoil than shooting any of my other Mosins, including the one with a slip on recoil pad. Oh, and I bought the rifle for $150 from an otherwise overpriced store. They usually sold ordinary mosins for at least that much.

I finally got my first C&R purchase.

I bought a Mosin-Nagant M44 carbine from J&G sales. They had them on sale right after Christmas for $60 (normally $80).

It wasn't cosmolined up too badly (at least I could get the bolt open). I cleaned her up this evening and took her for her first outing to the range. I think I'm going to call her Marina. That name evokes visions of Russian sturdiness but with just a hint of elegance. I think it fits.

Anyway A couple of things stood out right away. First, the trigger pull is EXTREMELY light for a military weapon. Anyone out there know if this is normal for Mosins? I checked out the bolt stop, trigger and cocking piece, nothing seems overly worn. It just seems that the bolt stop and cocking piece barely make contact so that just a hint of pressure on the trigger makes her go bang. Before going to the range, I cocked her a couple of times and tapped the butt on the ground, I could get the cocking piece to release and dry fire just by tapping firmly on the ground. That can't be right. Do I need to replace the cocking piece or bolt stop? Any thoughts?

I decided that it was safe to fire, even with the light trigger, as long as I was careful.

I took her to the 25 yard indoor range just to get the sights on paper and test her out. The light trigger does make for a nice feel, but I still think it's a bit too light. She almost goes off just from me thinking about pulling the trigger.

The second thing that stood out upon the first shot: she kicks like a mule! My shoulder is sore after 20 rounds.

I'm definitely going to have to get a recoil pad for her.

Anyway, I had heard that stock Mosin sights tend to shoot way high so I was pleasantly surprised when she printed right on in elevation and about 3 inches left. A couple of taps to the front sight and she was right on the money at 25 yards. With no rest, just resting my elbow on the tray at the range, I painted about a 2" group. Not great but I think I was flinching a little bit. Did I mention that the recoil is...um...stout?

I actually like the straight bolt handle because I'm left handed. With the straight handle, I could reach across the top of the rifle and work the bolt with my left hand with no problem. When I tried to use my right hand, I had to bring her down from my shoulder which made it awkward.

Anyway, I'm very happy with my purchase, she is clean and seems to shoot well at least at short range. I'm going to plan a range trip to Creeds this weekend so I can test her out more thoroughly and zero the new scope on the SKS to 200 yards.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Cross posted on Captain of a Crew of One

Okay, so I finally got my C&R license last month (soup-to-nuts, it took less than four weeks from the time I sent in the application to the time I received the license. I was unaware the .gov could move that quickly...)

I recently made my first C&R-qualified purchase (a Turkish Mauser that was so cheap I couldn't pass it up) - will post pics once I have a chance to clean her up a bit.

And now I have my first honest-to-goodness C&R order placed - a CZ-52 7.62X25mm handgun (living in the Volksrepublik of MA, I swore that the first gun ordered by mail would be a handgun just because...) :)

Needless to say, I am going to have to put an axe through my computer, because if I stay online any longer I am gonna buy myself into the poorhouse...

'Cuz, those Sistemas are looking pretty tempting. And who can resist a Nagant revolver for under $100? I've got to get a Mosin Nagant M44 carbine to go along with the 91/30, right?

Oh yeah. I'm in trouble...

My birthday always falls on the week after Dad's Day. This can be a Good Thing, as I can get my present early. Case in point:

My first MilSurp - The Mosin Nagant 1891/30. Tula Arsenal mark fairly visible. Bolt, buttplate and receiver numbers match, but the one on the magazine floor plate doesn't.

It's getting a good disassembly and cleaning this week, with maybe some shooting Saturday. If not this, then next weekend, as I'll be out where the country folk live. With lots of ammo.

UPDATE: Hey, I forgot to post up a couple questions. First, what exactly is that little round canister to the left of the gun used for? It came in the goodie bag, along with the ammo pouches, sling and tools.

Second, what's a good way to get some more of the cosmoline off the stock? It's a little too long to put in the oven.

Well, I finally took the next step in the transmogrification of my Yugo SKS. I purchased the Tech-Sight TS200.

Installation was a breeze. The only difficult part was removing the takedown latch from the rear of the receiver. It has a retaining pin that is pressed into the shaft. I couldn't get it out so I used my dremel tool to grind it off. I still have the latch and could probably drill out the old pin and press in a replacement if I ever decide to go back to the original configuration.

The other alternative if the latch turns out not to be re-usable is just to use a small bolt and nut versus a latch. After trying it out this afternoon though, I doubt that I'll be wanting to take the Tech Sight off any time soon.

I also had to relieve a little wood from the port side. At the very top of the stock where the receiver extends out, the angle of the wood was different between the left and right sides. The right side was a little lower to allow for the takedown lever. I simply filed the left side down to match the right and the Tech-Sight fit perfectly.

It looks a little odd but not horribly so. I think that, after I get done applying all the mods that I have in mind the unusual rear sight will be one of the less glaringly incorrect features.

I left the Williams Firesight front sight on to see if it would work with the Tech Sight. The firesight still seems to be a bit too tall but it seems more borderline with the Tech Sight than with the Williams Rear peep site.

I think it will work but I won't really find out until I get her to an actual rifle range. The Atlantic Fleet Rifle and Pistol Match is coming up next week so I'll be pretty busy. I doubt that I'll get to Pungo for at least two weeks.

Anyway, I took it to the 25 yard indoor range at Camp Allen Marine Corps Base nearby. The sight installed per the instructions, I bottomed out the range adjustment and centered the windage according to my calibrated eyeball.

Here is a picture of the first four shots.

Note the nice clean target with no pasties on it.

I've really got to patent this calibrated eyeball thing...who needs a boresight laser?

Seriously though. Any bets on whether I'll ever be able to do that again in my LIFE?

I started out with the Tech Sight bottomed all the way out and the point of impact at 25 yards was still about two inches above point of aim.

If my guesstimates are correct, that should put me about 4 inches high at 100 yards and 1 inch high at 200. That's workable for a battle zero but I'll have to actually shoot it at those ranges to see if I'm anywhere near correct. If it doesn't work out, I can always put the original front sight back on. I REALLY like the firesight front though. I hope I can make it work.

This is an overall shot of the lane. As you can see, I really don't have a good bench rest here. The backstop can handle rifles here (up to and including .50 BMG) but the lanes are obviously designed for handguns.

I included this just to make a point: the groups were pretty tight considering. I have no doubt I can keep them within 1 to 2 MOA from a bench rest at 100 yards considering how I did with this sight setup overall.

This is my last four shots. I called the flier. It wasn't really a flinch so much as a simple wobble. As soon as it went BANG! I knew the shot was off. I know, I know...a miss isn't any less of a miss because you called it...I was just trying to make the point that the flier wasn't the fault of the rifle, it was strictly operator error.

Assuming that performance at 100 and 200 yards doesn't bring any surprises, I'd say I'm pretty darned happy with the iron sights in this configuration.

The only thing I didn't think to try was take the sight off (required for stripping and cleaning) and put it back on to make sure the zero stays true. I'll try that at the rifle range as well.

The only real complaint I have is that, with the limited eye relief due to the sight being on the rear of the receiver, the aperture could stand to be a little smaller. I obviously didn't have any real problem with it and perhaps I'll just get used to it, but it seems that the aperture is a bit too big for true accuracy (of course, the SKS is not designed for accuracy anyway so this may be a stupid gripe...it was just something that I noticed).

In any case, I'd say that the Tech Sights rear sight, whether paired with the Williams firesight front or the stock front post sight, is well worth the $60 investment at this point. I'll be able to make a more firm recommendation in a couple of weeks when I get a chance to try it out at longer ranges.

Related Posts:

SKS resources
Williams Firesight: Range Report
Williams Firesight: Installation
Troubleshooting and Repairs
First Range Report
The Purchase

Cross Posted on Captain of a Crew of One