This review is from the April, 1999, issue of the Military Rifle Journal.

Published by North Cape Publications, Reviewed by Fred Masterton

I picked up The Mosin-Nagant Rifle by Terence Lapin at a recent gun show. I have another book from North Cape about the M- 1 Carbine, and was delighted to find this one. It is the first book I have seen dedicated solely to the Mosin-Nagant. All the previous information I had gathered was from miscellaneous magazine articles and web sites (there are several dedicated to the M-N). This rifle was produced or reworked in about a dozen countries, and there are many sub-varieties. Lapin has categorized them all in varying degrees of detail.

The book is organized very similarly to the M-1 Carbine book, with a chapter for each part. For each part of the rifle (e.g. stock, trigger guard, barrel, receiver, etc.), the variations are described. This makes it quite simple to pin down what model you have, since each part on the rifle has its own description, as opposed to a general blurb on each rifle variant and how it differs from others. In addition, Lapin devotes chapters to the development of the Mosin-Nagant, foreign variations, sniper rifles, accessories, and ammunition. He provides information on production figures, serial numbers, and markings. All the information the author was able to collect is presented in an organized, easily-searchable format.

In short, I was very much impressed with the book. It contains a lot of information that I had not seen before in a concise, readable form. The only criticism I have to offer is that the book seems to give short shrift to the Chinese produced models (I assume their production ran into the millions). I would guess this was because he was unable to find much information on these rifles.

I will leave it to others to discover the inaccuracies in Lapin's book; I simply don't have the background or information to be able to recognize them. The author has apparently conducted a lot of research on the subject, and it makes the book well worth the relatively modest purchase prices (about $15).