Hey guys! Does anyone know or have experience with re-chambering a mosin? I've been doing some browsing across the internet and it seems like not too many people undergo the task due to the process involved and simply because 91/30s are so cheap its almost pointless. IMO it would be nice to have one chambered in a more common caliber, because its darn near impossible to find bullets to reload, and that surplus ammo is gonna dry up at some point (can hardly find it in my local stores anymore!). It'd also be nice to have a really accurate 91/30. Just a thought, any input is welcome! Thanks again guys!
Possible to rechamber a Mosin?
twoneactual
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talking about the pigs ear how about reworking the rims of of the 33 win. [same as the 45-70 rim] to the same size as the m-n so it will fit the m-n bolt and use 338 bullets and the reworked 33 win round will fit and feed from the m-n mag. just like a charm the only thing is by the time you rebarrel and rework the ammo unless your sleepless and have the funds be it time , money or the resorse to do it why not just go buy a savage 110 and be so far ahead of the game
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Works for me.
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be that as it may be ! you can take all your old turds and polish tham as brite as you like and they will always be turds ! as far as gun snobs go they start off with something thats real not some war time tool marked gun that by the time you get all the tool marks buffed out the fit is gone !now as far as the savage goes its not my cup of tea but its doing one hell of a job knocking remingtons 700 off the hill! so lets get real here some of us do this for the fun of it and some do it to try to save money and still have a hand to play in the gun game ! a lot of the guns i have are ones that i have put together from parts ! and when i put a sks barrel in a cut up old carcano i don't lie or try to kid myself thats its someting cool ! its just one more turd out there in the gun world! and if you don't like that you know were you can put it!
Personally, I think the chambering you have is one of the best. That said, have you considered that unless you want a single shot rifle, you may end up putting a lot more work into reliable magazine feed, and even possibly correcting feed problems. Someone mentioned Savage; only rifle to win in international competition in "off the shelf" condition without spending $6,000(?) to get it ready for competition. I have one in 30-06 and one in 7mmMag and their accuracy, smoothness, and reliability amaze me. 7.62x54 may well outlive you and me. There's a lot of history brought to mind when handling, discussing, or shooting mil-surps and I would not part with mine. And, I do like to keep them "as issued".
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In theory you can use the MN barrel for any cartridge of about the same bullet diameter, the 7.62x39, 7.65s, 7.7, .303 Brit, and rethread and rechamber as needed, plus possible bolt head and extractor mods. For anything bigger diameter it could be rebored, anything smaller, relined. But the magazine might actually be trickier as its designed to be very reliable only with the rimmed 7.62x54R cartridge, and the rimless rounds generally use a much simpler box magazine. It'll handle the 7.62x54R based rounds of any bullet diameter with no problem and I've heard of .45-70 conversions, but it may require a lot of fiddling. However I haven't seen any discussions of feed problems on the Bannerman .30-06 conversions, maybe because owners are reluctant to shoot them.
The above may be the reason for a lot of Finn and Russian 7.62x54R based wildcats, and few MN conversions to other cartridges.
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I own Mosins converted to 8x57, .30-06 and .30-40 Krag.
I've also seen Mosins converted to .45-70 single shot rifles.
I own a rifle in the MN biathlon caliber 6.5x54r.
The 8mm is the Polish Wz.91/98/25, the .30-06 is a Bannerman converted "carbine", and the Krag is, I think, a one-off conversion. All have had chambers recut in shortened knoxforms that were reshouldered and rethreaded before rechambering, so the cases are properly supported.
I've frequently fired both the 91/98/25 and the Bannerman, albeit with cast lead bullets due to bore variations. Both function flawlessly, feeding effortlessly, with perfect extraction and ejection. The Polish rifle loads with Mauser stripper clips as easily as any Mauser.
All of these rifles have had extensive redesign and gunsmithing by their makers to get them to function properly.
Never have seen any proof of a Bannerman having problems, everything bad about them seems to be from gun writers but not gun users.
I've just received the Krag conversion so have not fired it yet.
All of these rifles were converted for various reasons many many years ago; the Poles, to standardise calibers in their fledging army before enough Mausers were available, the Bannerman's, well, just for profit, and who knows why someone would convert a MN to .30-40, perhaps to save money 50 years ago when Krag ammo was considerably more available than 7.62x54r.(?)
That being said, I've owned plenty of (standard caliber) MN rifles since the 1980s and have never ever had any problems finding 7.62x54r ammo to shoot in them, or cases and bullets for reloading, ever. I just cannot see why anyone these days would want to go to the trouble and expense of rebarreling or rechambering a Mosin to another caliber.
I own a few Mosin sporters in 7.62x54r and cannot imagine why any other caliber would be needed in a MN for deer, elk, feral hogs, black bear, etc., in North America.
I'd be leary of a conversion to a high pressure cartridge, such as 7.62 Nato, or any kind of "improved" MN round, as the rifle was not really designed for much higher pressures, and besides, most of the rifles around are very old.
If you want to shoot an "improved" MN caliber, I think you should acquire a Siamese Mauser action, which was built around a rimmed smokeless 8 mm cartridge, and rebarrel it to whatever Mosin variation you desire. The action is probably much stronger and safer,and the bolt is already set up for a round with almost the same rim diameter as a 7.62x54r. The magazine should also feed without problems, even a .45-70 round. Plus, most gunsmiths are comfortable rebarrelling Mausers.
If you want to shoot some other rimless caliber, well, you should consider rebarreling a P17 or a 1903 action, both of which can be had as butchered sporters in almost any gun or pawn shop in the country--no need to wreck a military as-issued rifle. Or just buy a new rifle in the caliber you want.
I've also seen Mosins converted to .45-70 single shot rifles.
I own a rifle in the MN biathlon caliber 6.5x54r.
The 8mm is the Polish Wz.91/98/25, the .30-06 is a Bannerman converted "carbine", and the Krag is, I think, a one-off conversion. All have had chambers recut in shortened knoxforms that were reshouldered and rethreaded before rechambering, so the cases are properly supported.
I've frequently fired both the 91/98/25 and the Bannerman, albeit with cast lead bullets due to bore variations. Both function flawlessly, feeding effortlessly, with perfect extraction and ejection. The Polish rifle loads with Mauser stripper clips as easily as any Mauser.
All of these rifles have had extensive redesign and gunsmithing by their makers to get them to function properly.
Never have seen any proof of a Bannerman having problems, everything bad about them seems to be from gun writers but not gun users.
I've just received the Krag conversion so have not fired it yet.
All of these rifles were converted for various reasons many many years ago; the Poles, to standardise calibers in their fledging army before enough Mausers were available, the Bannerman's, well, just for profit, and who knows why someone would convert a MN to .30-40, perhaps to save money 50 years ago when Krag ammo was considerably more available than 7.62x54r.(?)
That being said, I've owned plenty of (standard caliber) MN rifles since the 1980s and have never ever had any problems finding 7.62x54r ammo to shoot in them, or cases and bullets for reloading, ever. I just cannot see why anyone these days would want to go to the trouble and expense of rebarreling or rechambering a Mosin to another caliber.
I own a few Mosin sporters in 7.62x54r and cannot imagine why any other caliber would be needed in a MN for deer, elk, feral hogs, black bear, etc., in North America.
I'd be leary of a conversion to a high pressure cartridge, such as 7.62 Nato, or any kind of "improved" MN round, as the rifle was not really designed for much higher pressures, and besides, most of the rifles around are very old.
If you want to shoot an "improved" MN caliber, I think you should acquire a Siamese Mauser action, which was built around a rimmed smokeless 8 mm cartridge, and rebarrel it to whatever Mosin variation you desire. The action is probably much stronger and safer,and the bolt is already set up for a round with almost the same rim diameter as a 7.62x54r. The magazine should also feed without problems, even a .45-70 round. Plus, most gunsmiths are comfortable rebarrelling Mausers.
If you want to shoot some other rimless caliber, well, you should consider rebarreling a P17 or a 1903 action, both of which can be had as butchered sporters in almost any gun or pawn shop in the country--no need to wreck a military as-issued rifle. Or just buy a new rifle in the caliber you want.
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there is a gentleman in one of the scandinavian countries..i do not remember which one. he participates in a long range forum i belong to. he once posted a picture of one of his long range rifles...a mn rechambered in 300 WIN MAG!.....CUSTOM STOCK AND A LOT OF WORK.
mike in co
mike in co
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The Bannermans were properly converted, with the barrels set back a couple threads so they could be rechambered to fully support the .30-06 cartridge base. The problem was with the cheaper knock-offs where a gunsmith would do nothing but run a .30-06 reamer into the chamber, leaving the back half of the case unsupported. They quickly became notorious for blown cases and all .30-06 MNs became suspect.
The Mosin Nagant receiver was designed for a pressure of about 10% less than 7.62 NATO, so 7.62x51 loaded to military specs is well within its capabilities. Commercial .308 Winchester is often reloaded to well above that but the MN receiver is unusually safe because it is soft enough that it expands to absorb overloads instead of shattering.
The reasons for MN being unpopular for conversions isn't receiver strength, but that problems with the bolt arrangement and magazine make it clumsy compared to modern bolt action sporters based on the mauser design. As is its a strong and potentially very accurate military rifle, and very collectible, of great historic importance, I'd keep it as original as possible.
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I believed Sako and Tikka rechambered/rebored Mosin Nagants to 9.3x53R for Moose hunters . JES Reboring would do that job for a very modest price. I recently had a Lee Speed witha totally shot out barrel rechambered and bored to 338/303 .It is now a MOA hunting rifle as Jesse did a perfect job rechambering/reboreing. One week turn around;Nuff said
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Well, you SAY that, but in extensive personal research going back thru about 70 years of American Rifleman, there are absolutely NO reports of any blown Mosins, and NO reports of home-chambered .30-06 conversions, and NO advertising for such re-chambering work. The ONLY documented MN conversions to.30-06 are the Bannermans.
Of course, AR is not the only source for such information, so I reviewed other publications, including some epic gunsmithing books published in the 1920s and 30s--no mention of blown up Mosins, converted or not.
I, once again, suggest that while it certainly could've been done, there is no written proof of an improperly chambered .30-06 MN. Much less of one blowing up. The only time it is mentioned it appears to be hearsay and rumor, no doubt mentioned by the same US gunwriters that were also prejudiced in the 1930s and 40s against any firearm other than the 1903 Springfield, Win 54, etc.
Provide some provenance, please.
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The MN PROOF load is only 3600 atmospheres, 52000 PSI; the WORKING load of 7.62 NATO is 50000 PSI, and 62000psi for .308 Win. There is absolutely NO safety margin of any kind to justify any conversion to either of those calibers. The concept of the metal "expanding to absorb overloads" could possibly end with a cocking knob right thru the shooters eye socket and skull. The bored out 8.3 and 9.3 x54r Finn conversions do not exceed MN service cartridge pressures, so good choices.
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not quite so...
the cip std for the 7.62 x65r cartridge is 3900 bar or 56565 psi...
the proof would be plus 30%
the typical russian load is only 2200 bar. one reason the bbl's seem to last so long.
my finn's were marked 3600 on the reciever.....which is where i think the spurious 3600 number comes from.
i have asked several time why..as in why 3600 on the fin guns while the cip std is 3900...no real anwsers........
where didi you find 3600 listed as proof ???
mike in co
the cip std for the 7.62 x65r cartridge is 3900 bar or 56565 psi...
the proof would be plus 30%
the typical russian load is only 2200 bar. one reason the bbl's seem to last so long.
my finn's were marked 3600 on the reciever.....which is where i think the spurious 3600 number comes from.
i have asked several time why..as in why 3600 on the fin guns while the cip std is 3900...no real anwsers........
where didi you find 3600 listed as proof ???
mike in co
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A fella in Finland, Mauri Ihattula, (google him, he was/is? a top notch air rifle, small bore competitor) had/has a Mosin Nagant in, I believe it was 9.3mm. It was custom built/adapted for his "size". He uses it for his "moose gun". I'm going back a lot-a years now, but, I remember him saying it's plenty strong. And a couple of his friends have ones in the same caliber.
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