[Ancesthntr]

“Mosins are NOT sniper rifles. 7.62x54R cartridges are generally surplus and not very accurate.”

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Your average, very well-used (which is to say, “abused”), Mosin is not a great sniper rifle - there you are correct. However, the 7.62x54R cartridge is inherently quite accurate, and you can get high-quality rounds if you look around. Better would be to roll your own, simply by getting good or great brass and then using a good powder, match primers and a match bullet (and you have to be careful in most cases to use a .310 bullet, not a .311 bullet and MOST DEFINITELY not a .308 bullet. Anyone who looks online for reloading information on this round can find a wealth of information.

As to the rifles themselves, the Finn M39 was the last in a roughly 20-year long line of improvements that Finland made to the huge number of Mosin Nagants that they captured during their war for independence from Russian/the USSR in the immediate aftermath of WW1. The Finns are, like the Swiss, a nation of shooters, and they decided that since they didn’t have the industrial base or money to make their own rifles from scratch, that they’d modify what they had captured to be much more accurate. They took the basic MN receiver, which is pretty rock solid and (for the era) high quality, added their own barrels, triggers, sights and stocks - and came up with a series of very accurate rifles that are prized as collectors items today. Here are some articles for you on the subject:

https://www.guns.com/news/review/the-most-deadly-mosin-in-the-world-the-m39

http://www.mosinnagant.net/finland/finnish_mosin_nagantm39.asp

Also, as proof that the MN can be used as a sniper rifle, consider the case of one Finnish soldier of some renown, Simo Hayha: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4 He used a modified MN, the M28/30, to kill about 500 Russians (505 is the number cited most often) in less than 100 days in the Winter War in 1939 and 1940 (fought when there were very few daylight hours, which only makes his feat more legendary). No sniper before or since has matched that total, let alone in such a short period of time - and this was done without a scope, just iron sights. https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/the-5-most-legendary-snipers-of-all-time

So please don’t say that the MN cannot be used as a sniper rifle - it most definitely can, and has been.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I qualified my statement below that post. I realize that Mosins CAN be made to be accurate, but the vast majority of them (and he mentioned the $100 range) will barely hold a 6 MOA at 100 yards.