Posted on 03/31/2014 4:39:17 PM PDT by dynachrome
I may owe an apology to travel-trailer survivalists and ‘survival on a budget’ advocates across the interwebs.
Why?
I actually saw someone use a Mosin-Nagant (an M44, actually) on ‘The Walking Dead’. True, they didn’t actually shoot it…but they calmly unfolded the bayonet and speared a zombie head like it was a cocktail olive. I guess when the end of the world breaks out and when everyone is totin’ a high-capicty, semi-auto boomstick there will still be a place for the man with a five-shot Soviet fencepost.
To be fair, though….we saw tons of AR’s, AKs, and even M1 carbines, AUGs, and HK’s before the first $150 M-N ever showed up on the screen.
Trivia: what is the oldest service cartridge still in use today? The 7.62x54R…still used in Russian GPMG’s and some sniper guns. Over 100 years of service, beating out everything else.
(Excerpt) Read more at commanderzero.com ...
M44 ping.
#9: Mosin-Nagant M44
Speaking of guns without safeties, here’s the Mosin-Nagant M44 Carbine from Russia. The Mosin was used by the Russians against the Finns, the Finns against the Russians, the Estonians against the Russians, the Russians against the Russians, and the Russians against the Germans. It does, in fact, have a safety, but it’s quite hard to engage. But this is not a complaint one would ever voice in the Red Army. Your officer would reply, “Safety? Safety? Is gun! Meant to kill! No warrior should know he has safety on gun, because he should be killing enemies of homeland! Safety make loud click to aid enemy in locating warriors! No safety!” while pounding his fist on the table.
And the Mosin can kill enemies of homeland. The muzzle blast will vaporize green growth within a few feet of the muzzle, and even if you miss, the enemy will be reduced to shouting “WHAT?” to communicate. You’ll need a recoil pad or shooting jacket. Ordinarily, this might be considered unmanly, but this rifle has a short stock for using while wearing several layers of wool for a Russian winter. It is acceptable to wear padding to fire a Mosin.
Of course, there are also M38, 91/30 and other variations of Mosin-Nagant and all are cool. All, also (except the M38), come with a bayonet. Russian doctrine held that the bayonet was mounted except while traveling in a vehicle, because the Russians understood that an empty rifle could still be a pointy stick—a Viking spear. The Russians loved to spear Turks. So, coincidentally, did the Vikings. This rifle sounds better all the time, doesn’t it? The Finns used the Mosin as a sniper rifle during the Winter War, and their greatest Sniper was Simo Häyhä, who had 500 confirmed kills in 100 days. This is a man the Finns describe as “modest” and “self-effacing.” It’s a good thing the Russians didn’t run into a Finn who was proud and arrogant. They’d have been wiped out.
It fires a 7.62X54R (for “Rimmed”) cartridge, about as powerful as .30-06, and holds the distinction of being in service from 1891 to the present, longer than any other military cartridge. It is still used in Dragunovs, PKMs and other Russian weapons. It’s cheap in quantity. So are the rifles, because they were built for (all variations) over 70 years, by Russia, Finland, Poland, Romania, even the US. As I write this, arsenal-new M44s are $55 to $200. At that price, you should have several, so any guests you have during the Collapse can be outfitted as they receive Enlightenment. Then they can rape, kill, sack and loot with the rest of the men who secure a new Dark Ages to hasten the new renaissance. It will be a manly duty.
ps. Full article, just didn’t include the comments
Anyone want to sell me a Pre-War Russian short barrel, or Finnish Mosin in EX-to VG condition?
Shoot, I’m waiting to see if my offer on 1941 VKT will be accepted.
My Moisin story goes back to 1972. My younger brother brought one home from Vietnam and gave it to me. The Marine Corps didn’t see fit to let me bring anything home from Vietnam (other that metal fragments and malaria) but my brother was in the army and they had a bit more latitude.
I was a little skeptical of the thing, since it was really rusty and pitted but it had that formidable pig-sticker bayonet, so I hung it on my wall.
Some months later, I heard a noise in my back yard late at night and it clearly came from somebody who wasn’t supposed to be there. The only weapon I had during those lean years was that Moisin M44 and no ammo but I figured that I’d bluff whoever it was with it. I turned on my backyard lights and there was guy standing there in the center of my yard. He had to have climbed my 8 foot fence to get where he was, so it wasn’t a question of somebody just wandering in. I stayed in the shadow of my door and ran the bolt on the Moisin very noisily and told him to hold his arms straight out from his body, then told him to kneel. I approached him and extended that bayonet - then with the bayonet against the back of his neck, asked him what he was doing there. He wouldn’t answer, so I had him stand and walk to the house and I had him dial the police while I kept the bayonet in his ear.
The police came and took him off my hands and it wasn’t until hours later that the police discovered the body of a little girl in the brush about a block from my back yard.
Yikes. Clean the m44 up and shoot it if you still have her.
If you ever watch the 8 hour Russian version of WAR AND PEACE, look closely at the battle of Bordino. You will see soldiers in the background using M-N rifles. Must not have been enough flintlocks to go around.
Wonder if the Russians will ever sell some of those Winchester 1895 rifles in 7.62x54R.
I asked that very question at a cabela’s store. The gun guy said he saw one come thru about 10 years ago.
Approx. 300,000 were made according to:
“Allied Rifle Contracts in America”
Pricey, but many excellent photographs and info.
For the money - nothing beats a Mosin.
Did a lot of shooting last weekend and a dude there had a Russian and a Chinese model M-N. Loud as hell. It’s like a cannon with a bayonet.
My take on that same scene was that my Russian SKS with it’s attached bayonet, will be great for killing zombies.
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