Other than my Finn M39, I’ve never been a fan of the Mosin rifles. Thought they were excessively long and ungainly. I came across a Izhevsk Mosin M38 carbine and decided to give it a try as the price was right. Don’t plan on sporterizing it. It’s a piece of history and deserves to be enjoyed.

Right, but this is from a sporting rifle point of view. Consider the design from the use for which the 91 and 91-30 were tactically intended; in the 19th century the infantry rifle, combined with an 18 inch spike bayonet, was to be used as a pike in massed troop formations. No matter that that tactical doctrine was long obsolete; those were the design parameters.
And they kept making them that way until 1945 and used them for decades after that.

My intentions with this rifle is to shoot cast bullets. Probably with my 314299 mould.This version,as far as I know, did not come with bayonet lugs.

The 91 and 91-30 use a socket spike bayonet that goes around the barrel and the front sight base locks it into place. It does make a long weapon of 5 feet 6 inches long. Since no bayonet scabbards were issued, soldiers often kept their bayonets fixed. .
The bayonet lug is the front sight base.
The M38 carbine did not use a bayonet, a mistake corrected in the M44.

Mike, I found recoil in the Model 38 about as lively as it comes in the entire Mosin line, but for obvious reasons: the light weight and short barrel. It is a handy feeling carbine, though. Looks like you have a nice example. Hope you enjoy it.

Bill, I appreciate the feedback. I’ll probably shoot mild cast bullet loads in it as I do most of my milsurps, M1 Garand is an exception. The Lyman 314299 has done a credible job in my 7.65 Argentine and my M39 Finn along with my No4 Savage Enfield.

I have bought and sold several 91/30’s over the years and never took a liking to them. The M38 has a different feel to it.

Mike, I have had the M38, the M44 with folding bayonet and the somewhat mysterious M9. All the carbines really barked with some of the heavy surplus ammo. My memory falters here, but it seems there was some heavy Bulgarian stuff around that would have made quite a night shoot item owing to the tremendous muzzle flash. Milder shooting was the East German ammo in the light gray steel cases -- nice and clean as Combloc surplus went back in the golden era.

Because that East German ammo is training ammo with 125 grain AK bullets; not combat ammo. It does basically not recoil in a Mosin sniper. I have a case of two of it.

Tom, that would explain it. It was very nice stuff to shoot.

A 12yoa boy I knew used one to kill a very big white buck.

First day of season, first season he hunted, first buck he saw with one shot.

I love stories like that PD. He gets to go to school and say, "yeah, this hunting is easy"!

Oh yeah, this hunting stuff is easy!
I remember my uncle telling how he got out of his truck after arriving at his hunting club and lit up a cigarette. After a few puffs, a large 10 pointer walked out and let my uncle shoot it. He said that’s the quickest and easiest hunt for his biggest deer ever.

They are fun little carbines to shoot.

When my daughters were younger they used to like to watch me shoot it just before dark.

"That was cool do it again!"

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
I love stories like that PD. He gets to go to school and say, "yeah, this hunting is easy"!

At the time I had a group of teenage hunters with me. Their fathers did not hunt.

We were doing drives, of course they all wanted to stand.

Several deer had been chased passed the youngsters and none were killed.

None wanted to believe me that a driver can kill deer too.

So I decided we would have a shooting contest to see who would stand and who would drive.

I set up a piece of card board 50 yards about 18x18 inches drew a 2 in dot in the middle.

The drill was off hand.

Drivers and standers picked by who hit closest to the dot. The young lad with the Mosin M38 stepped up and drove his bullet through the center of the dot.

I am still hunting with a couple of them and their children. 40 plus years of hunting tradition being passed along. I am hunting grandfather to their children.

And of course the youngsters complain about driving and not standing. Deer are still seen and missed.

I just might have to have another shooting contest.

Of all the hunting I have done, for me, nothing beats taking a young kid out for their first deer hunt.
A 9 yr old boy, on his birthday no less, made a good shot on a spikehorn whitetail. He had put in a good bit of time with me in the woods, and trigger time, but had never hunted.
The deer dropped within sight of us. Walking up through the maples, he jumps in the air and pumps his fist and say's " best hunt ever"!