[Lochness]

You know ever since I started reading about mosin's (that would be about 3 months ago give or take a week) I've wondered something and it was never really explained in anything I've found online. Why is the mosin the only rifle that uses its bolt design?
There are tons of rifles out there that use Mauser and Lee-Enfield actions but none that use the mosin's. Obviously it was a decent action since the Russians and other communist (yes I know the that other countries were using it before communism) powers used it for so long and a lot of hunters still use it today.

 

[Radom]

LOL! Because everyone else had better sense?

 

[Kgordon]

Bolt...

Well, it IS a rotating, head-locking bolt, with two BIG locking lugs, and an integral extractor.

Not so much different from the Mauser action.

The only thing that to my mind makes it somewhat special is that it cocks on the UP-stroke. Many (most?) other military bolt actions **** on the forward-down stroke. Enfield sure does.

 

[rocker98]

It actually has three lugs. Two on the bolt head, and the bolt body is the third, resting against the right upper rear of the receiver when the bolt is closed. Much like one of the Lee Enfield lugs does when it's bolt is closed.

 

[Mosinmeister]

Well, I think the Mosin predates the Mauser having been designed in 1891 and the Mauser 1898? I'm no historian but it's still a rugged reliable design. And, it works in the Russian winter!

 

[ij70]

Anybody want to do a comparison of a bolt from Berdan to bolt from a Mosin?

Also, it was more like 1888-1889, 1891 is when the final product was accepted.

 

[MilSurpFan]

Although I have not handled one, all the pics of Gras rifles show a bolt that looks very similar to the Mosin.

 

[7.62x54r]

It actually has three lugs. Two on the bolt head, and the cocking piece is the third, resting against the right upper rear of the receiver when the bolt is closed. Much like one of the Lee Enfield lugs does when it's bolt is closed.

Not the "cocking piece", but the bolt body.

 

[rocker98]

Not the "cocking piece", but the bolt body.

You are right. I identified the incorrect bolt piece.

 

[rocker98]

Wasn't a patent issued in the U.S. in, or about, 1868 for the first Mauser action design? Single shot 11mm rifle. I think I remember reading that somewhere.

I also seen to remember reading somewhere that the Russians didn't want to have to go through Mauser licensing "fees" (Like the Japanese), and purposely called for a new design.

 

[Leon]

Wasn't a patent issued in the U.S. in, or about, 1868 for the first Mauser action design? Single shot 11mm rifle. I think I remember reading that somewhere.

I also seen to remember reading somewhere that the Russians didn't want to have to go through Mauser licensing "fees" (Like the Japanese), and purposely called for a new design.

Cost was certainly a consideration. (Bruce Menning: Bayonets Before Bullets. Indiana Univ. Press 1992)

After the defeat in the Crimean War, where Russian soldiers armed with percussion smooth bore muskets were bested by English and French rifles, Russia slowly rearmed with the "Berdanka" only to be embarassed again at Plevna, where Turkish soldiers opened fire with their Winchester repeaters as the charging Russian ranks approached their trenches.

The rifle adopted in 1891 was the submission of Captain S. M. Mosin, but using the magazine feed system of the competing Nagant design. The Mosin bolt is a hybrid of the Mannlicher, with its handle at the middle of the bolt in front of the rear receiver ring or bridge, and the
Mauser, with forward locking lugs, but minus the Mauser claw extractor/bolt guide.

Placing the bolt handle forward of the rear receiver ring or bridge results in a clumsy action, but makes sense from Russian manufacturing. A rear mounted bolt handle, such as the Mauser's, needs a fairly tight and precise fitting in the rear receiver ring, which serves as a bearing to keep the bolt from wobbling during locking and unlocking/extraction.

The Mannlicher design reduces the effect of bolt "wobble" and allows looser tolerances, which both Russian manufacturing and tactical usage favored.

 

[Vaarok]

'cept the bolt in "Mannlicher" rifles was actually designed by Louis Schlegelmilch, senior armory tech at Spandau for the Gew88, based at least somewhat on the then-brannew Lebel...