Hello,

It's no secret that a lot of us are frustrated to use stripper clips in the Mosin-Nagant. The causes vary, but can usually be narrowed down to any combination of four items.

1. Improper stripper clip loading. Though in theory the rounds can be thrown into a stripper clip willy-nilly and be expected to work correctly, the reality is that on must stagger the rims in an order that gives omni-directional loading potential as well as ease of loading.

I have seen surplus factory loaded into the stripper clips in this manner, and it works well:

Click to view on YouTube

This method ensures a consistent pressure from case-to-case. The middle case can also be staggered UNDERNEATH the rims instead of on top.

2. The use of cheap stripper clips. The ones from China in this next vid are the most popular, but they're also flimsy due to low carbon content. Hardening them helps a lot.

This is the method I use:

Click to view on YouTube

This helps keep the rounds in place while they move downward. Otherwise, as you can see, they tend to spill out the sides.

3. Poor fitting of parts. The USSR could not always hand-fit parts properly. The Mosin was made during a time when final fitting was done by hand. One cannot really expect these to function well without such fitting any more than one could expect a 1911 to function will by just dropping in random parts from different pistols!

Unfortunately, this next video only shows the results of proper fitting, not the fitting itself. I've not gotten around to doing the picture series on that, yet. Results:

Click to view on YouTube

I hope someone out there finds this writeup useful. Though I've posted these vids one place or another, this is the first time I've brought them together.

The Mosin was designed to work a certain way, and when arming a conscript army en masse, I would expect that it's rather difficult to take the time on each weapon that should be taken.

However, individually-owned weapons can, and should, be made to function as originally intended by the designers. They are much more useful this way and much more of a pleasure to shoot!

Regards,

Josh

Thanks for this, Josh. As you might have read on another thread, I had rimlock problems my first time out with the Mosin-Nagant.

I bought some cork gasket material, as you describe on your excellent website. I'll try shimming the action and barrel just a bit with it, and see if that helps the interruptor work as intended.

Part of the difficulty I've had with stripper clips is that difficulty of practicing loading. As a rule, I don't load live ammo anywhere but at the range. I suppose I could look for 7.62x54r snap caps, but even if they exist, I'm not confident they would load and cycle like the real thing.

You could take the bolt out?

Also, thanks for the post, maybe we could get you to do a series of blog posts on the Mosin?

Inquisitor wrote:You could take the bolt out?

Also, thanks for the post, maybe we could get you to do a series of blog posts on the Mosin?

The rounds aren't live. I handload and those are dummies.

What do folks want to know about the Mosin? I've never done a blog and don't know where I'd begin.

Where's the blog???

Josh

I would probably cut and paste the post you made. That's an excellent blog post.

It would look like this (you may not be able to see this, its a draft and not public):
http://www.theliberalgunclub.com/?p=1324&preview=true

If you gave me permission, I would publish them with a link to your site

On a related note, my stripper clips dont seem to want to keep the rounds locked in a pyramid. Well known issue with cheap pressed metal clips?

I have not case hardened them, meant to last night while grilling.

Good suggestion about practicing loading rounds from a stripper clip with the bolt out. I wouldn't be able to do the final step of making sure the bolt strips and chambers the top round, but it would still be useful practice.

I second the idea of a Mosin blog post from Josh.

Josh, I've looked over your excellent website, and some of your contributions to other sites, and I'd sum up your internet value add as "tools and techniques a casual enthusiast can use to turn a $100 milsurp Mosin-Nagant into a pretty darn good shooter."

In other words, you could like to, but don't need to duplicate, topics that are covered pretty well elsewhere, like history and variants of the M-N, cleaning off cosmoline, etc.

My preference would be to aim for an audience with only rudimentary gunsmithing skills and tools (like me). But there are others on this site who might benefit from more of a a master class at some point.

Guest post up on the main website