Mosin Nagant Rifle: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:54, 10 March 2009

Full-length, Mosin Nagant M91/30 - 7.62x54R

Mosin Nagant M38 Carbine, chambered in 7.62x54R. This is the version issued during most of World War 2, the M44 would not be fielded until the last six months of the war. Note slightly shorter barrel, lack of brass reinforcements in the Sling holes and lack of bayonet notch in the stock.

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Mosin Nagant M44 Carbine, chambered in 7.62x54R, with attached side-folding bayonet. Note, slightly longer barrel ahead of the front sight to accomodate locking in the bayonet, brass reinforcements around the sling holes and an integral bayonet attached to the barrel.

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Mosin Nagant 91/30 Sniper Variant with Russian PU Sniper Scope and down-turned bolt handle.

The Moisin Nagant rifle was first issued in 1891 for the Imperial Russian Army. It is one of the longest serving bolt action rifles in history, being issued until the 1940s (and up to the 1960s in third world client nations of the USSR). The original M1891 rifle was updated in 1930, thus a new model was designated the M91/30, which was the most widely distributed bolt action rifle of the Red Army. There was a carbine version known as the M38 issued during World War 2, but these were more rare than the full length rifle. The M44 carbine was issued too late to see action in World War 2, except in the very last few months of the war and only saw battle in the hands of North Korean Soldiers in 1950-53 and in the hands of the Viet Cong and PAVN during the 1960s. The Mosin-Nagant series of rifles and carbines are still encountered in the hands of enemy combatants in the present day with many combatants using Mosin-Nagants in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, and numerous other conflicts in nations that received Soviet, Warsaw Pact, and Chinese Communist military aid during the Cold War era.

Note: It was also the first firearm to chamber the supreme champion of longest serving firearm calibers in history, the venerable 7.62x54R cartridge, which is still issued and used in armies to this day.

The Mosin Nagant is used by the following actors in the following movies and television shows:

Movies

Used In Defiance

Jude Law as Vassily Zaitsev, and many others, in Enemy at the Gates (both the infantry and sniper versions of the M91/30 rifle)

Tom Berenger as Master Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Beckett in Sniper 2 (though misidentified by Beckett as a 1898 Mauser)

Serbian Sniper in Behind Enemy Lines (M91/30 Sniper version)

The NVA have Mosin Nagants in a few scenes in We Were Soldiers. (M44 carbines)

Communist Chinese Soldiers in the Bridges at Toko-Ri

Vietnamese Villager at the beginning of the movie and NVA sniper at the end of the movie in Flight of the Intruder

Bolshevik and Menshevik troops in Doctor Zhivago

NVA snipers in BAT-21

Gobi Desert nomads in Flight of the Phoenix

Shiite refugees in Three Kings

The Good, the Bad, the Weird

The Hunters (1958) (M91/30 rifles)

Jet Pilot (1957) (M91/30 rifles)

Television

Various North Korean and Chinese soldiers in M*A*S*H* (Both M91/30s and M44 Carbines)

Mikhail, AKA "Patchy" in Lost shoots Sayid Jarrah in the shoulder with one. Sayid later commandeers the rifle for himself and is seen wielding it several times.