Mosin rifle year of manufacture. Why is the Mosin rifle called "Three-ruler": detailed information

People who are interested in military culture or weapons are probably aware of the existence of such a rifle as a three-ruler. However, if in the case of the Kalashnikov assault rifle, everyone has long known why and in honor of whom the truly classic and legendary weapon, then why the three-line is so called, not everyone knows. But today we will look into this issue.

The original name and development history of the "Mosin Rifles"

It is important to understand that the name "Three-ruler" is common, and this rifle has an original, official name. It sounds like "Mosin Rifle".

This weapon was developed over 100 years ago, and the beginning of its production dates back to 1892. Despite the belonging of this weapon to the Russian side, factories in France were also engaged in the production of rifles, since the lack of production capacity of domestic factories affected the impossibility of fulfilling the minimum order.

After their creation, rifles were quickly adopted by the Russian army, and were widely used for more than half a century, starting in 1881 and ending in the late 1950s.

On the question of why the Mosin rifle is called a three-ruler, we will understand a little lower, but now it is necessary to pay attention to the origin of the original name.

The fact is that Mosin S.I. was a designer and organizer of the production of weapons, in addition, he also bore the rank of major general of the Russian army. During his life, Mosin was engaged in the development of magazine rifles, the improvement of other weapons used by the Russian army. It was such merits that led to the fact that as a result the rifle was named after him.

Why is the rifle called "Three-ruler"

As for the common name, which was very quickly assigned to the Mosin rifle, it sounds like "Three-ruler". And this name has a completely rational explanation, because it comes directly from the caliber that was assigned to the Mosin rifle. During the years of use of this weapon, the weapon caliber was measured by an outdated measure of length, using the "Lines". Then the lines were equal to 2.54 mm. (1/10 inch).

Based on the information above, it is easy to draw a parallel, and understand that the caliber of the Mosin rifle had three lines, that is, 3/10 inch or 7.62 mm. That is why the Mosin rifle is called the "Three-ruler" to this day, and its second name has become almost more popular than the original, received in honor of Mosin himself.

Three-line rifle model 1891 in the "infantry rifle" version, the rifle in the photo was made in 1892

Three-line rifle of the 1891 model in the "infantry rifle" version of the 1910 modification with an aiming bar designed by V.P. Konovalov, the introduction of which was necessary due to the transition in 1908 to pointed bullets, which differ from the old blunt-pointed ones in their flight path.

Three-line rifle of the 1891 model in the "Dragoon rifle" and "Cossack rifle" version of the 1908 issue. The Cossack rifle differs from the dragoon rifle in the absence of a bayonet.

Three-line rifle of the 1891 model in the version of the "dragoon rifle" and the "Cossack rifle" of the 1910 modification, with V.P. Konovalova

7.62-mm (3-line) rifle of the 1891 model (Mosin rifle, three-line) is a repeating rifle adopted by the Russian Imperial Army in 1891. It was actively used from 1891 until the end of the Second World War, during this period it was repeatedly modernized. The name of the three-ruler comes from the caliber of the rifle barrel, which is equal to three Russian lines (an old measure of length equal to one tenth of an inch, or 2.54 mm - respectively, three lines are equal to 7.62 mm). In the west, it is known almost exclusively as the Mosin-Nagant rifle. Based on the rifle mod. 1891 and its modifications, a number of samples of sports and hunting weapons both rifled and smoothbore.

In 1889, Sergei Ivanovich Mosin offered a three-line (7.62 mm) rifle to the competition, developed on the basis of his earlier single-shot rifle, from which the bolt group and receiver were borrowed with virtually no changes; At the same time, some ideas regarding the design of the store were borrowed from the latest Austro-Hungarian rifle of the Mannlicher system tested in the same year with batch loading of an in-line middle store, which was found to be fully compliant with all the requirements.

Later, at the very end of the same year, the Belgian Leon Nagant also offered his system for the competition (in the same 1889, he had already lost the Mauser rifle in the competition for arming the Belgian army). There were three Nagan rifles, all store-bought, with a caliber of about 8 mm, although Nagan undertook to make a rifle with a caliber of 7.62 mm. The Nagant system was generally recognized as benign, but in need of improvement. Of particular interest to the Commission was a well-designed clip-loading magazine, reminiscent of the magazine of the newly adopted Mauser rifle in Belgium.

As a result of their testing, as well as comparative tests with the Austrian Mannlicher rifle, it became possible to finally determine the requirements for a new rifle, in modern terms - to draw up a technical task for it. It was decided to adopt a caliber of 7.62 mm (three Russian lines), a Lebel-style barrel and sight (but with a change in the direction of the rifling from the left to the right adopted in France), a longitudinally sliding rotary bolt, lockable with a separate combat mask (since replacement larvae in the event of a breakdown is cheaper than replacing the entire shutter), the store is middle, permanent, with loading from a frame holder with five rounds. The commission was consequently renamed in 1889 into the Commission for the development of a sample of a small-caliber gun.

Since neither the Mosin rifle nor the Nagant rifle fully met these requirements, the designers were asked to develop new systems based on them, which, therefore, were initially doomed to be largely structurally similar, being created on the basis of the same developed by the Commission of the barrel and cartridge, which in a complex determine all the ballistic properties of the weapon, and due to the requirements set by it, using the same type of shutter and magazine, and having differences only in the specific design of these elements. In fact, Mosin and Nagant were given the task of creating their own options for bolt groups and magazines for the existing barrel.

At the same time, in 1890, 23 more systems were considered, which, however, did not show any advantages over those already selected for further comparison of Nagant and Mosin.

After the delivery of an experimental batch of modified 3-line Nagant rifles from Belgium in the fall of 1890, large-scale comparative tests of both systems began.

According to the results of the initial tests, the Nagant rifle showed some advantage, and at the first stage of the competition, the Commission voted for it with 14 votes against 10. However, this vote was not decisive, since the first stage of the competition was essentially an exploratory character. In addition, many members of the commission considered that the tests showed the equivalence of the samples presented - this Mosin design, a preliminary assessment, in their opinion, was mainly due to the lower quality of the finish compared to the Nagant demonstration samples, while the Mosin rifle as a whole was simpler and more structurally more reliable. The difference in the quality of the finish was quite natural, given the fact that the Mosin rifles at that time were ordinary prototypes of weapons made in semi-handicraft conditions, which were at the very early stage of fine-tuning - while the Nagant rifles presented for comparison with them, executed "with amazing precision" and very well finished, they were a further development of a design that had already been submitted to a competition in Belgium and ready for mass production as early as 1889.

Moreover, it was written that: “Taking into account ... that the guns and clips presented by Captain Mosin for experiments were made under extremely unfavorable conditions and, as a result, very inaccurate, the guns and Nagant clips, on the contrary, turned out to be made amazingly accurately, General Lieutenant Chebyshev did not find it possible to agree with the conclusion that both tested systems are equally good. In his opinion, in view of the circumstances outlined, Captain Mosin's system had a huge advantage. "

Having become more familiar with both systems and the results of military tests (300 Mosin rifles and 300 Nagant rifles were tested), the members of the Commission revised their opinion. On test firing, the Mosin rifles gave 217 delays when feeding cartridges from the magazine, and the Nagant - 557, almost three times more. Considering the fact that the competition essentially came down to finding the optimal design of the store, this alone spoke quite clearly about the advantage of the Mosin system in terms of reliability, despite any "unfavorable conditions". In addition, the Commission concluded that: "... the pack guns of the foreigner Nagant, compared with the same cap. Mosin, are a mechanism more difficult to manufacture ... and the cost of each copy of the gun will undoubtedly increase."

Moreover, it was about more than significant costs: even according to the most conservative estimates, the production of the Nagant system would give additional costs in the amount of 2 to 4 million gold rubles for the first million issued rifles, that is, 2-4 rubles for each, moreover, that the total amount required for the rearmament of one Russian soldier averaged about 12 rubles. In addition, it took an additional 3-4 months to master the design by industry, in the face of Russia's already emerging lag behind developed European countries in re-equipping with new small arms, despite the fact that the Mosin rifle was already being prepared for production and was specially designed for a high degree of technological continuity with the already produced Berdan rifle.

So in 1891, upon completion of military trials, the Commission worked out a compromise solution: a rifle was adopted, developed on the basis of the Mosin design, but with significant changes and additions, both borrowed from the Nagan design, and made taking into account the proposals of the Commission members themselves.

From the experimental Mosin rifle, a locking mechanism bar, a safety cocking device, a bolt, a cut-off reflector, a magazine cover latch, a method for connecting the feeder to the cover, making it possible to detach the cover from the feeder from the magazine, a swivel swivel; from the Nagant system - the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bplacing a feeder on the magazine door and opening it down, a way to fill the magazine by lowering cartridges from the clip with a finger - therefore, the grooves for the clip in the receiver and, in fact, the cartridge clip itself. The remaining parts were worked out by members of the Commission, with the participation of Mosin.

The changes borrowed from the Nagant rifle (the shape of the clip for loading, the attachment of the feed spring to the magazine cover, the shape of the cut-off reflector) somewhat increased the convenience of handling the rifle, but even if they were removed, they did not deprive it of its functionality. For example, if you completely abandon clip-on loading, the magazine can be equipped with one cartridge at a time. If the feed spring is removed from the magazine cover, cartridges will still be fed, although there is an increased risk of losing the spring when cleaning.

Probably the most fully reflecting the authorship of the design of this rifle would be the name "Commission rifle of the 1891 model of the year", by analogy with the German "Commission rifle" (Kommissionsgewehr) of the 1888 model of the year, also developed at the time by the commission based on the Mannlicher and Mauser systems.

The authorship of the new rifle was absolutely clearly formulated by the then Minister of War P.S. Vannovsky in his resolution on the adoption of the model for service: "The new model being manufactured contains parts proposed by Colonel Rogovtsev, the commission of Lieutenant General Chagin, Captain Mosin and the gunsmith Nagan, so it is advisable to give the developed model a name: Russian 3-line. Rifle sample 1891".

On April 16, 1891, Emperor Alexander III approved the sample, deleting the word "Russian", so the rifle was adopted under the name "three-line rifle of the 1891 model".

Mosin left the rights to the individual parts of the rifle developed by him and awarded him the Big Mikhailovsky Prize (for outstanding developments in the artillery and infantry unit).

This was not the first time that a model based on a certain system with extensive additions was adopted by the Russian army under an impersonal index, without mentioning the name of the author of the original system; for example, a rifle developed on the basis of the Carle system (in the original Russian documentation - Carl) was adopted in 1867 as a "rapid-firing needle rifle of the 1867 model."

Subsequently, however, voices began to be heard that such a name violated the established tradition of naming samples of small arms of the Russian army, since the name of the designer was deleted from the name of the adopted sample. As a result, in 1924, the surname Mosin appeared in the name of the rifle.

At the same time, both in the Manual of 1938 and its reprint of 1941, in the brochure for the OSOAVIAKhIM of 1941 “The Rifle and Its Use”, and in the Manual of 1954, the rifle (in the version after the modernization of 1930) is simply called - “arr. 1891/30, without mentioning any names, despite the fact that the designations of other samples (self-loading rifle and carbine by F.V. Tokarev, submachine guns by G.S. Shpagin and A.I. Sudayev, etc. ) in similar literature were almost always supplied with notes of the form “constructions of such and such” or “systems of such and such”. Thus, it is likely that during this period, officially, in relation to the rifle, they continued to use the “impersonal” name according to the years of its adoption into service. In the instruction from 1938, the authorship of the rifle is also directly indicated: "The 7.62-mm rifle model 1891, adopted by the Russian army in 1891, was designed by Captain Mosin together with other members of the commission formed for this."

That is, it also indicates the “commission” origin of the rifle design, although without directly mentioning individual borrowings from the Nagant system. Abroad, next to the name of Mosin, the name of Nagant is often put, as well as in the names of the Tokarev-Colt and Makarov-Walter pistols.

Production and operation of the three-ruler

The production of the rifle began in 1892 at the Tula, Izhevsk and Sestroretsk arms factories. Due to the limited production capacity of these factories, an order for 500 thousand rifles was placed at the French arms factory in the city of Châtelleraut (Manufacture Nationale d "Armes de Châtelleraut).

The first combat test of the Mosin rifle took place in 1893 in a clash between the Russian detachment in the Pamirs and the Afghans, according to other information, during the suppression of the uprising of the Yihetuan (“boxers”) in China in 1900-1901.

Already in the first years after the adoption of the rifle into service, during the production and operation of the weapon, changes began to be made to the original design. So, in 1893, a wooden handguard was introduced to protect the shooter's hands from burns, in 1896 - a new ramrod, longer and with a larger diameter head that did not pass through the barrel, which simplified cleaning of the weapon. Eliminated the notch on the sides of the lid of the magazine box, which, when carrying weapons, wiped uniforms. These improvements were also made to the design of previously released rifles.

On March 21, 1897, the 500,000th rifle was produced. At the end of 1897, the first stage of rearmament of the Russian army with a rifle mod. 1891 was completed and in 1898 the second stage of rearmament began.

By the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, approximately 3,800,000 rifles had been supplied to the army.

After the adoption in 1908 of a cartridge with a pointed ("offensive") bullet in 1910, a new version of the rifle was adopted with a sight of the Konovalov system, corresponding to the ballistics of the new cartridge.

By the time Russia entered the First World War, the Russian army had 4,519,700 rifles in service, four versions of the rifle were in production - dragoon, infantry, Cossack and carbine. During the war, the Russian military industry produced 3,286,232 three-line rifles, repaired and fixed 289,431.

Due to the catastrophic lack of weapons and the problems of the domestic industry, the Russian government began to purchase rifles from several foreign systems abroad, and also ordered 1.5 million rifles mod. 1891/10 Some of them were never delivered to Russia - after the Revolution they were confiscated by the US government. Today, American-made Mosin rifles are among the rarest and most collectible, along with rifles made in France in the city of Châtellerault. Due to the same shortage of weapons, it was even necessary to equip shooters with imported weapons chambered for a non-standard cartridge - so, according to the memoirs of the gunsmith Fedorov, the entire Russian Northern Front since 1916 was armed with 6.5-mm Arisak rifles, supplemented by a small number using the same cartridge "automatic rifles" (automatic rifles) of the system of Fedorov himself, which were available to selected shooters in the company.

A large number of rifles were captured by German and Austro-Hungarian troops.

During the hostilities, significant shortcomings of the rifle in its then form were identified, primarily related to the unsuccessful design of the clip, which reduced the rate of fire in combat conditions, and the design of individual elements of the fittings, such as attaching a bayonet with a collar, a ramrod stop device or the design of stock rings, which in direct comparison with German and Austrian models, they left a very unfavorable impression.

Most of the problems, however, were caused by the backwardness of the domestic industry and the extreme rush to manufacture rifles in the pre-war period, due to which each of them required careful fitting of parts and debugging to ensure reliable operation, which was exacerbated by the recent transition to pointed cartridges, more demanding to work with. feed mechanism, as well as the inevitable heavy contamination of both rifles and cartridges in trench warfare.

Rifles taken from the reserve and transferred to the front without modification gave many delays in reloading, some of them could not shoot even one full magazine without breaking the feed. Numerous organizational shortcomings were also revealed, first of all, the disgusting training of ordinary shooters and poor supply, in particular, the lack of high-quality packaging of cartridges sent to the front.

During the Civil War, two types of rifles were produced in Russia - dragoon and, in much smaller quantities, infantry. After the end of the war, since 1922, only the dragoon rifle and carbine mod. 1907.

In the early years of Soviet power, a wide discussion unfolded about the advisability of upgrading or replacing an existing rifle with a more advanced one. In its course, it was concluded that the rifle mod. 1891, although inferior to new foreign counterparts, subject to a number of improvements, it still fully satisfies the existing requirements for this species weapons. It was also noted that the introduction of a new type of magazine rifle would be essentially meaningless, since the magazine rifle itself is a rapidly obsolete type of weapon, and the cost of developing its fundamentally new model would be a waste of money.

In addition, it was noted that a change in a rifle sample must be accompanied by a change in a regular rifle cartridge to a new one, devoid of the shortcomings of the existing three-line cartridge, in particular, having a smaller caliber with a higher lateral load of the bullet and a sleeve without a rim - the development of a completely new model of a rifle for an outdated cartridge also regarded as meaningless. At the same time, the state of the economy, which was still emerging from the post-revolutionary devastation, by no means gave reason for optimism regarding the possibility of such a large-scale rearmament - as well as the complete rearmament of the Red Army proposed by Fedorov with an automatic (self-loading) rifle.

Fedorov himself considered the introduction of a self-loading rifle in addition to the existing magazine rifle to be useless, since the resulting gain in the firepower of the infantry squad was negligible - instead, he recommended that, while maintaining the magazine rifle of the current model, supplement it big amount light hand (in his terminology - "maneuverable") machine guns of a newly developed successful model.

As a result of the discussion in 1924, a committee was formed to modernize the rifle mod. 1891.

As a result of the modification of the dragoon version of the rifle, as shorter and more convenient, a single model appeared - the rifle of the 1891/1930 model. (Index GAU - 56-B-222). Although it contained a number of improvements relative to the original model, in comparison with the analogues that were in service with the armies of the states-probable enemies of the USSR, it still did not look the best. However, the magazine rifle by that time was no longer the only type of infantry small arms, therefore, in those years, the emphasis was placed primarily on the creation of more modern and advanced types of it - submachine guns, machine guns, self-loading and automatic rifles.

In the 1920s - 1930s in the USSR, Mosin rifles were used in the system of universal training and OSOAVIAKHIM for training in shooting, the movement of "Voroshilov shooters" became widespread.

In 1928, the USSR began serial production of the first samples of optical sights, specially designed for installation on a rifle mod. 1891.

In 1932, mass production of the sniper rifle mod. 1891/30 (Index GAU - 56-B-222A), which was distinguished by improved quality of bore processing, the presence of a PE, PB or (subsequently) PU optical sight and a bolt handle bent down. A total of 108,345 units were produced. sniper rifles. Currently, Mosin sniper rifles are of collectible value (especially the "nominal" rifles that were awarded to the best Soviet snipers).

In 1938, a modernized similar to the main model carbine mod. 1938, which was a modification of the 1907 model carbine. It became longer than its predecessor by 5 mm and was designed for aimed fire at a distance of up to 1000 m. The carbine was intended for various branches of the armed forces, in particular artillery, sapper troops, cavalry, communications units and logistics personnel, such as transport drivers, who needed a light and easy-to-handle weapon, mostly for self-defense.

The latest version of the rifle was the carbine arr. 1944, distinguished by the presence of a non-removable needle bayonet and simplified manufacturing technology. Simultaneously with its introduction, the 1891/1930 model rifle itself. has been taken out of production. The shortening of infantry weapons was an urgent requirement put forward by the experience of the Great Patriotic War. The carbine made it possible to increase the maneuverability of the infantry and other branches of the armed forces, since it became more convenient to fight with it in various earthen fortifications, buildings, dense thickets, etc., and its fighting qualities both in fire and in bayonet combat compared to a rifle practically did not decrease.

After the fairly successful Tokarev self-loading rifle (SVT) was adopted in 1938, it was assumed that in the early 1940s it would almost completely replace the Mosin rifle in the Red Army and become the main weapon of the Soviet infantry, following the US Army, which adopted in 1936 on armament self-loading rifle Garanda. According to pre-war plans, in 1941 it was supposed to produce 1.8 million SVT, in 1942 - 2 million. In fact, by the beginning of the war, more than 1 million SVT were manufactured, and many units and formations of the first line, mainly in the western military districts, received full-time quantity self-loading rifles.

However, the plans for the complete re-equipment of the Red Army with automatic weapons were not fulfilled due to the start of the Soviet-German war - since 1941, the production of SVT, as more complex in comparison with a magazine rifle and a submachine gun, was reduced significantly, and one of the main types of weapons of the Soviet army remained a modernized rifle arr. 1891 of the year, although supplemented by very significant quantities (more than half of the total number of small arms at the end of the war) of self-loading rifles and submachine guns.

In 1931, 154,000 were produced, in 1938 - 1,124,664, in 1940 - 1,375,822.

In 1943, in the occupied territory of Belarus, railway engineer T.E. Shavgulidze developed the design of a 45-mm rifle grenade launcher, in total, in 1943-1944, in the workshops of the Minsk partisan unit, Soviet partisans manufactured 120 rifle grenade launchers of the Shavgulidze system, which were mounted on Mosin rifles.

Production of the main rifle mod. 1891/30 was terminated at the beginning of 1945. Carbine arr. 1944 was produced until the start of production of the Kalashnikov assault rifle. Rifles and carbines were gradually removed from the armament of the army, replacing the SKS carbine and the Kalashnikov assault rifle (although a certain number of carbines of the 1944 model continued to be used in the paramilitary security system).

In 1959, the Izhevsk plant shortened the barrels and stocks of the surviving rifles mod. 1891/30 up to the size of a carbine arr. 1938. "New" carbines were released in in large numbers and entered service with private security and other civilian organizations. In the West, they received the designation 1891/59.

Mosin rifles and carbines continued to be used in the armies of Eastern Europe and around the world for several more decades. As a weapon of infantry and fighters of irregular armed groups, Mosin rifles were used in many wars - from Korea and Vietnam to Afghanistan and conflicts in the post-Soviet space.

Design

Barrel and receiver

Rifle barrel - rifled (4 grooves, winding from left to top to right). In early samples, the shape of the rifling is trapezoidal. Later, when they made sure that the metal of the bullet did not wrap around the barrel, it was the simplest rectangular one. The caliber of the barrel, measured as the distance between opposite fields of rifling, is nominally 7.62 mm, or 3 Russian lines (actually, as measurements taken on a large number of rifles of various years of manufacture and various degrees of preservation show, - 7.62 ... 7.66 mm). The grooved caliber is 7.94 ... 7.96 mm.

At the rear of the barrel is a smooth-walled chamber designed to accommodate the cartridge when fired. It is connected to the rifled part of the barrel by means of a bullet entry. Above the chamber there is a factory stamp that allows you to identify the manufacturer and year of manufacture of the rifle.

Behind the stump of the barrel, which has a thread, the receiver is tightly screwed, which serves to accommodate the shutter. Attached to it, in turn, is a magazine box with a feed mechanism, a cut-off reflector and a trigger mechanism.

Magazine box and cut-off reflector

The magazine box (magazine) is used to place 4 cartridges and a feeder. It has cheeks, a square, a trigger guard and a cover on which the feed mechanism is mounted.

The cartridges in the store are arranged in one row, in such a position that their rims do not interfere with the feed, which is the reason for the unusual shape of the store by modern standards.

The cut-off reflector is controlled by the movement of the bolt and serves to separate the cartridges fed from the magazine box to the receiver, preventing possible delays in feeding caused by the engagement of the edges of the cartridges with each other, and also plays the role of a reflector of spent cartridges. Before the modernization of 1930, it was a single piece, after that it consisted of a blade with a reflective protrusion and a spring part.

The cut-off reflector is considered one of the key design details of the rifle introduced by Mosin, which ensures the reliability and non-failure operation of the weapon in any conditions. At the same time, its very presence was caused by the use of obsolete cartridges with a rim, which are not very convenient for feeding from a magazine.

However, even the magazines of the Lee system, adopted for the English Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield rifles, which also used a rimmed cartridge, did not have a reflector cut-off, instead of which the magazine had spring jaws on top and a diamond-shaped profile, thanks to which the cartridges were located in it so that the rim of the upper cartridge stood in front of the rim of the one following it, and their engagement was excluded (herringbone). It was this scheme that later became generally accepted for stores for welted (having a rim) cartridges.

Trigger mechanism

Trigger mechanism consists of a trigger, a trigger spring, which also serves as a sear, a screw and a pin. The trigger of the rifle is long, rather tight and without "warning" - that is, the trigger stroke is not divided into two stages with different effort.

Gate

The bolt of a rifle serves to send a cartridge into the chamber, lock the bore at the moment of firing, fire a shot, remove a spent cartridge case or misfire cartridge from the chamber.

It consists of a stem with a comb and a handle, a combat larva, an ejector, a trigger, a drummer, a mainspring and a connecting bar. On a sniper rifle, the bolt handle is elongated and bent down to increase the convenience of reloading weapons and the possibility of installing an optical sight.

The bolt contains a drummer and a twisted cylindrical mainspring. Compression of the mainspring occurs when the bolt is unlocked by turning the handle; when locking - the combat platoon of the firing pin rests on the sear. It is possible to cock the drummer manually with the shutter closed, for this it is necessary to pull the trigger back (in this case, the trigger is the tip screwed onto the drummer shank). To engage the safety, the trigger must be pulled back to failure and turned counterclockwise.

Stock and handguard

The stock connects the parts of the weapon, it consists of the forearm, neck and butt. The stock of the Mosin rifle is one-piece, made of birch or walnut wood. The neck of the stock is straight, more durable and suitable for bayonet fighting, although less convenient for shooting than the semi-pistol necks of the stocks of many later models. Since 1894, a separate detail has been introduced - a handguard that covers the barrel from above, protecting it from damage, and the shooter's hands from being burned. The butt of the dragoon modification is somewhat narrower, and the forearm is thinner than the infantry. The stock and handguard are attached to the mechanisms of the weapon with two screws and two stock rings with ring springs. The stock rings are split on the bulk of the rifles and deaf on the Dragoon mod. 1891.

Sights

Sight - stepped on a rifle arr. 1891, sector on a rifle mod. 1891/30. It consists of an aiming bar with a clamp, an aiming block and a spring.

On a rifle mod. 1891 sight was graduated in hundreds of steps. There were two rear sights on the aiming bar: one was used when shooting at 400, 600, 800, 1,000 and 1,200 steps, and the second, for which it was necessary to raise the aiming bar to a vertical position, at a distance from 1,300 to 3,200 steps . There were also two versions of the frame sight: the original version, used until 1910 and designed for a heavy bullet, and modernized, with a bar of the Konovalov system, designed for a light pointed "offensive" bullet of the cartridge mod. 1908. On a rifle mod. 1891/30, the sight is marked up to a distance of 2,000 meters; a single rear sight can be set to any position from 50 to 2,000 m in 50 m increments.

The front sight is located on the trunk near the muzzle. At arr. 1891/30 received a ring namushnik.

In 1932, mass production of a sniper rifle mod. 1891/31 (GAU index - 56-B-222A), which was distinguished by improved quality of bore processing, the presence of a PE, PB or PU optical sight and a bolt handle bent down.

Bayonet

Serves to defeat the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. It has a four-sided blade with fullers, a tube with a stepped slot and a spring latch that secures the bayonet to the barrel, and a neck connecting them.

The rifle was brought to a normal battle with a bayonet, that is, when firing, it had to be attached, otherwise the point of impact would shift significantly and it would become almost impossible to hit something from a weapon at a relatively long distance without a new reduction to normal combat. When firing with a bayonet at a distance of 100 m, the average point of impact (STP) deviates on a rifle brought to normal combat without it to the left by 6-8 cm and down by 8-10 cm, which is compensated by a new reduction to normal combat.

In general, the bayonet had to be on the rifle essentially constantly, including during storage and on the march, with the exception of movement by rail or road, in the light of which it was very practical that its edges were not sharply honed, like those of knife-shaped bayonets, since, with the established method of wearing, this could create significant inconvenience when using weapons and cause injuries when handling them.

The instruction ordered to remove the bayonet, in addition to the cases noted above, only when disassembling the rifle for cleaning, and it was assumed that it could be difficult to remove from being constantly on the weapon.

The sharpened tip of the bayonet was used as a screwdriver during complete disassembly.

Until 1930, there was no spring latch, instead, the bayonet was attached to the barrel with a bayonet collar, the shape of the blade was also somewhat different. Practice has shown that over time, such a connection is prone to loosening. In 1930, the mounting method was changed, but rifles were still shot with bayonets. Some of the upgraded rifles also had a bayonet with a gunner (an early version), later the gunner was made on the rifle itself.

Carbine arr. 1944 had an integral flip bayonet of Semin's own design. The shooting of carbines is carried out with a bayonet in a combat position.

An interesting fact is that the sniper version of the Mosin rifle also had a bayonet, and it was planted exceptionally tight. In this case, it served as a muzzle weighting agent, which significantly reduced the vibration of the barrel when fired, which had a positive effect on the accuracy of the battle. The slightest loosening of the mount, which was not uncommon on ordinary rifles in the infantry, on the contrary, had a negative effect on the rifle's combat.

Rifle affiliation

Each rifle relied on an accessory consisting of a wipe, a screwdriver, a muzzle pad for cleaning the barrel, a ramrod clutch, a hairpin, a bristle brush, an oiler with two compartments - for cleaning the barrels and oil, as well as a gun belt.

The accuracy of the battle and the effectiveness of fire

Rifles arr. 1891 and 1891/30 were high-precision weapons, allowing you to confidently hit a single target at a distance of up to 400 m, a sniper using optics - up to 800 m; group - at a distance of up to 800 m.

In 1946, senior sergeant Nemtsev developed a method rapid fire from a rifle. At the training ground of the Ryazan Infantry School, he managed to fire 53 aimed shots per minute from a rifle from a distance of 100 meters at a chest target, hitting it with 52 bullets. Later, Nemtsev's method of high-speed shooting became widespread among the troops.

Mosin sniper rifles of pre-war production were distinguished by their amazing, by the standards of their time, quality of combat, largely due to the barrel with a choke (narrowing of the channel from the treasury to the muzzle), with a difference in diameters at the breech and muzzle of 2-3%. When fired from such a barrel, the bullet is additionally compressed, which does not allow it to "walk" along the bore.

Advantages of the three-ruler

• Good ballistics and high cartridge power (at the level of .30-06), despite the fact that many analogues at that time still used black powder;
• Great survivability of the barrel and bolt;
• Undemanding to manufacturing technology and large tolerances;
• Reliability, non-failure operation of the rifle mechanisms in any conditions;
• Simple and reliable design of the shutter, consisting of only 7 parts; it disassembles and assembles quickly and without any tools;
• Cheap frame clip;
• Easy-to-remove shutter for cleaning;
• A separate combat larva of the shutter, the replacement of which in the event of a breakdown is much cheaper than replacing the entire shutter;
• Cheap replacement of wooden parts.

Flaws

• An obsolete cartridge with a rim that makes it difficult to feed from the magazine and required the introduction of an otherwise superfluous, otherwise quite difficult to manufacture and vulnerable to damage part - a cut-off reflector (later, during the modernization, it was replaced by two parts that were easier to manufacture; nevertheless, the most advanced magazine systems ensured reliable supply of cartridges with a rim and without cut-off as a separate part, for example, the Lee system magazine for Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield rifles with a two-row arrangement of cartridges, which made it possible to increase the capacity of the rifle magazine from 5 to 8-10 rounds);
• The horizontal arrangement of the lugs of the larvae of the shutter when locking, increasing dispersion; rifles with the best fight already at that time had a vertical arrangement of lugs with a locked bolt;
• Long and heavy descent without "warning", interfering with marksmanship;
• Frame non-spring clip, making it difficult to load; the spring plate clips that already existed at that time, including the Mosin clip, were more perfect, although more expensive than the accepted Nagant clip;
• A long and extremely obsolete needle bayonet with a crank neck, mounted on the barrel, and not on the stock;
• Infantry and dragoon rifles were shot with a bayonet, that is, when firing, it had to be on the rifle, otherwise the point of impact would shift significantly, which made the weapon ready for battle cumbersome; the bayonet loosened over time, as a result of which the accuracy of shooting from a rifle fell; the Cossack rifle was shot without a bayonet, but it was still unnecessarily heavy and generally inconvenient for firing from a horse and carrying by a horseman; bayonet loosening has been eliminated on arr. 1891/30, but the bayonet still had to be on the weapon when firing; this problem was completely solved only on the carbine arr. 1944 with the introduction of an integral flip bayonet, which also remained on the weapon during firing, but could be folded, increasing the ease of handling it;
• A short bolt handle not bent to the bottom, which makes it difficult to open it, especially when the cartridge case is tightly “settled” in the chamber; strong extension of the handle forward due to the design of the bolt and its horizontal location without bending down, which forced the shooter to take the butt away from the shoulder when reloading, thereby reducing the rate of fire; (with the exception of sniper modifications that had a longer handle bent down); the advanced models of those years already had a handle that was strongly extended back, bent down, which made it possible to reload the weapon without taking the butt off the shoulder, thereby increasing the rate of fire - the Lee-Metford rifle handle can be considered a reference in this regard;
• It is worth noting that both the experimental Mosin rifle of 1885 and the Nagant rifle had a bolt handle moved back, located in a special cutout separated from the window for ejection of spent cartridges by a jumper, which also strengthened the receiver; however, when testing the 1885 rifle of the year, it turned out that with this arrangement of the handle, delays often occur when reloading, caused by the fact that the long sleeves of a soldier's overcoat fell between the bolt stem and the receiver, and it was considered necessary to abandon a separate cutout for the handle, returning to the same configuration receiver, as on a Berdan rifle;
• A straight butt neck, less comfortable when shooting than a semi-pistol neck on the latest rifles at that time, although more durable and comfortable in a bayonet fight;
• The Mosin fuse is very simple, but inconvenient to use and short-lived due to the brightening of the safety protrusion with frequent use (how much a fuse is needed on a magazine rifle at all is a moot point);
• Some lag behind the advanced foreign analogues in the design of small parts and accessories, for example, outdated and quickly loosened stock rings, a sight vulnerable to impacts, less comfortable than the side, lower "infantry" swivels (since 1910, replaced by also not the most convenient slots for belt passage, originally available on a dragoon rifle), uncomfortable ramrod stop, etc .;
• Low quality wooden parts due to the use of cheap wood, especially on later releases.

Technical characteristics of the Mosin 1891 trilinear (infantry rifle)

• Caliber: 7.62×54R
• Weapon length: 1306 mm
• Barrel length: 800 mm
• Weight without cartridges: 4 kg.
• Magazine capacity: 5 rounds

TTX rifle Mosin 1891 (Dragoon and Cossack rifles)

• Caliber: 7.62×54R
• Weapon length: 1238 mm
• Barrel length: 731 mm
• Weight without cartridges: 4 kg.
• Magazine capacity: 5 rounds

It just so happened historically, but in the post-Soviet space, many people still think that the three-line rifle and the Mosin rifle are two completely different types of weapons. It's a shame that this delusion has continued to be passed down from father to son for generations. It's time to stop and learn history. For which you are not ashamed. One to be proud of. Which needs to be talked about. After all, whoever does not know his past is not worthy of his future. Yes and for general development it will be quite interesting to know what kind of Mosin rifle it is, why the “three-ruler” and how it happened that it became the most massive weapon produced in the first half of the twentieth century.

Background of the legendary weapon

By the end of the 19th century, the Russian army was technically poorly equipped, significantly inferior to the enemy. Constant external challenges required new types of weapons for the tsarist army. The use of single-shot American production did not promise victories for the Russian army. A repeating weapon with a reliable mechanism was required.

The grandiose tender announced by the Russian tsar is described in many historical documents and had no equal at that time. Not every state offered gold for the development and delivery of a multi-shot rifle to the conveyor. The prototypes presented to the commission had many shortcomings. The phrase “to cross the best samples, which is worth its price”, dropped by chance by one of the members of the commission, ended the competition for the choice of weapons. It was decided to install a five-shot magazine with a cartridge feed mechanism, developed by the Nagan brothers, in the domestic three-line Mosin rifle. Looking at the photo, many are wondering: "Why is the rifle called the" three-ruler "?"

Three lines?

The name of the rifle was given by ordinary soldiers, who found it difficult to pronounce the full name of the weapon: "three-line rifle of the 1891 model." How many complexities, this certainly needs to be sorted out.

1. According to an agreement between the Nagant brothers and Tsarist Russia, it is forbidden to indicate the name of only one creator in the name of a rifle, that is, “Mosin rifle” is not allowed, but “Mosin-Nagant rifle” is possible. It is not known which general came up with a patriotic idea, but until the middle of the twentieth century, the weapon bore the proud name of the “trilinear rifle”. Why such a name? It's all about the caliber of the bullet.
2. The Russian measure of length "line" was 2.54 mm and was used when separating grains of wheat for sowing. The width of a good wheat grain is one line. The caliber of the Berdan rifle was 4 lines - 10.16 mm. To improve the performance characteristics of the rifle, it was decided to reduce the caliber. There were no centimeters, no millimeters, what to reduce? On one line! As a result, the caliber of the rifle became 7.62 mm, and the full decoding is present in the name of the weapon.

Device and specifications

There is one feature, because of which the “three-ruler” was adopted by the tsarist army. The technical characteristics of the rifle are almost the same as those of many competitors, as evidenced by photos taken by reporters from around the world. However, this is the only weapon in the world that can be quickly dismantled and reassembled on the battlefield. All thanks to the simplicity of the design - it does not have complex mechanisms. The mainspring together with the drummer is placed in the gate. Its compression occurs at the moment of unlocking the shutter. At the moment of its locking, a drummer platoon occurs. To put the rifle on the safety, you need to pull the trigger, located on the rear edge of the bolt, to the full back and turn counterclockwise. With the same trigger, the “three-ruler” can be transferred to a combat position by pulling it to failure.

It is noteworthy that the “three-ruler” rifle demonstrates the characteristics of decent shooting only with an attached bayonet. The thing is that a heavy, forty-centimeter bayonet is a counterweight when firing, preventing the barrel from throwing up during a shot - this problem was eliminated only in 1938 by Russian gunsmiths.

Modifications in the design of the bullet

The cartridge for the "three-ruler" was developed by the Russian designer Vetlishchev, taking the Lebel sleeve as a basis. A bottle shape with a protruding rim cost Russia much less than sleeves with an annular groove, which are subject to higher requirements during processing. With a blunt bullet, borrowed, as it turned out when analyzing the photo, the French also had certain problems. First of all, when fired, she quickly lost speed and was ineffective at long distances. In 1908, the decision was made to use a pointed shape. Thanks to this change, the three-ruler rifle received a bullet flight range of about two kilometers. Later, under the pointed bullet, which became operational, other types of small arms were developed - the Maxim machine gun, SVD, SVT-40.

Mosin infantry rifle

The three-ruler rifle, created for the infantry, had a long barrel equal to 800 mm. Taking into account the bayonet and butt, the total length was 1738 mm. Given the weight of the rifle (4.5 kg), it can be noted that the weapon was quite bulky. Since shooting from a Mosin rifle without a bayonet was ineffective, the weapon had to be used at short distances. During the Russo-Japanese War, along with high lethal force"three-ruler" was found a number of shortcomings. First of all, it turned out that with frequent shooting, the barrel gets very hot, burning the arrow of the hand. The second significant drawback was the unreliable fastening of the bayonet, which broke apart from frequent blows. At the end of the war, it was decided to stop the production of infantry rifles.

"Three-line" dragoon and Cossack sample

Along with rifles for infantry, three-ruler rifles were produced for cavalry and Cossacks with a barrel shortened by 70 mm. Slightly losing in the initial speed of the bullet, the weapon showed good results firing both with and without a bayonet. The three-ruler dragoon rifle was still equipped with a bayonet, but the Cossack cavalry clearly did not need it. Having a half-kilogram difference in weight and a length shorter than the infantry half a meter - it was a completely different "three-ruler". Light, compact and lethal weapons immediately became popular among the soldiers, as evidenced by multiple photos of that time. Although there were minor flaws in the form of a strange placement of the ramrod and the inconvenience of wearing only on the left shoulder, they were overlapped by the tactical and technical characteristics of the weapon. Positive feedback from soldiers using shortened rifles forced gunsmiths to reconsider their designs and make changes to the design. And so a single Mosin rifle appeared - the “three-ruler” of the 1930 model.

Mosin rifle in the service of sailors and the police

It is noteworthy that the tsarist army took care of arming the soldiers serving in the navy and police. Along with the revolvers "Nagant", the sailors and law enforcement officers were supplied with a "three-ruler". The rifle was delivered without a bayonet and was significantly shortened. The weapon bore the proud name "Mosin carbine". With a barrel of 510 mm, the total length of the rifle was about one meter. The weight of the weapon with full ammunition did not exceed four kilograms. And even though the initial was lower than that of long-barreled rifles, the carbine still showed good shooting performance both at short and long distances. Flaws were also found in the weapon - a very short bolt handle in the closed position was pulled to the side, creating inconvenience when transferring the carbine and during shooting.

Several upgrades of the "three-ruler"

Taking into account the feedback from the soldiers on the merits and demerits of all types of weapons, the three-ruler rifle was finalized. At first, in 1923, it was decided to leave the dragoon rifle as a base. In 1930, the whole aiming system changed. The aiming bar began to be graduated in meters, and the front sight received an annular fuse. Length wooden frame was increased almost the entire length of the barrel. This innovation protected the soldiers' hands from accidental burns. The modified weapon began to be rightfully called the Mosin rifle. In 1944, the fastenings of the ramrod and bayonet changed, with which the “three-ruler” had constant problems. The bayonet rifle received a folding sideways, as on German weapons of that time.

Modifications of "three-rulers" for special forces

The Mosin rifle (“three-ruler”) during the Great Patriotic War was popular among snipers: just look at the photos of famous war heroes. The performance characteristics of the weapon made it possible to fight from a distance of about two kilometers. Good firing range and high lethal force have become fundamental criteria when choosing weapons for snipers. At first, the developers of the rifle used a four-fold PE copied from the Germans. However, the high cost and complexity of its manufacture led to the fact that in 1942 a 3.5-fold PU sight was put into service, which showed itself in battles with better side. The scouts also liked the "three-ruler". The rifle for this was equipped with a special silencer, which was developed by the Russian brothers Mitin (device "Bramit"). Also, weapons with a silencer and optics were used by sabotage units of the Soviet army.

Why they call it a "three-ruler", we figured it out. It remains to understand what kind of myths are still being passed from mouth to mouth for almost a century, not only that Russians ride bears, but also about pasta and cigarettes of 7.62 mm caliber. They say that in the event of a war, production can instantly be converted to the production of cartridges for the Mosin “three-ruler” rifle. Is that really true?

The Russian measure was also actively used after the fall of the tsarist regime, at the beginning of the twentieth century. The country was built and raised to its feet all kinds of industry. It came to the production of food and cigarettes. The technologists were mostly adults who were not particularly willing to switch to a new measure of length, so they used the same lines in production. It is enough to imagine pasta and cigarettes in 4 or 2 lines, and everything will fall into place. Taking into account that in many areas of industry, technology has not changed since the construction of factories, you can draw your own conclusions about the myths.

"Long-lived trunks" (long-livers of small arms)

Three-line rifle Mosin - 120 years of use

1. Creation

This rifle was developed in the conditions of a sharp rise in science and technology, when the advent of smokeless powders ensured the transition to smaller calibers, and, in combination with the development of weapons technology, also the creation of magazine-fed systems to replace single-shot systems. Naturally, Russia did not remain aloof from the arms development process. As a result of long-term work in this area, the Russian army was presented with a choice of two systems of magazine rifles - domestic, developed by Captain S.I. Mosin, and Belgian, developed by Leon Nagant. The tests revealed some superiority of the Belgian rifle over the Russian one; in any case, the officers and soldiers who took part in the small arms tests of weapons unanimously spoke in favor of the Nagant rifle. However, the top management took into account that for all its excellent qualities, the Belgian rifle misfired twice as much as the Mosin rifle, as well as the fact that the Russian rifle was simpler and cheaper to manufacture. In the end, the generals compromised: in 1891, the Mosin rifle was adopted by the Russian army, on which a 5-round Nagant design magazine was installed. At the same time, in order not to cause squabbles between the designers, the rule was violated to name the weapon after its creator: the rifle was adopted under the designation "3-line rifle of the 1891 model of the year" (3 lines in the old Russian system of measures are 0.3 inches, or 7, 62 mm). However, the rifle did not remain without a personal name for long - very quickly the soldiers gave her the nickname "three-ruler", under which she went down in history. The name Mosin was returned to the weapon only in Soviet times, when it was modernized in 1930. Abroad, the Russian rifle has always been called "Mosin-Nagan".

Cartridges 7.62x54 mm R for a three-line rifle. On the right - cartridges in a lamellar clip,
on the left - cartridge 1891 with a blunt bullet and cartridges 1908 with a pointed bullet in steel and brass cases

Together with the rifle, a new three-line (7.62 mm) cartridge was also adopted, now known as 7.62x54 mm R. The cartridge was developed by the Russian designer Veltischev based on the French 8x56 mm R cartridge from the Lebel rifle and had a bottle-shaped sleeve with a protruding rim, a charge of smokeless powder and a blunt shell bullet. The design of the sleeve with a rim, which had already begun to become obsolete, was adopted due to the low level of development of the Russian arms industry - the manufacture of chambers for such a sleeve, and the sleeves themselves, can be made to less stringent tolerances than are required when using sleeves without a protruding rim. This decision, at that time, had a certain economic and military base under it - the creation and implementation of a cartridge without a rim, similar to the German cartridge mod. 1888 would have been more expensive and would have taken longer.

Initially rifle mod. 1891 was put into service in three basic versions, which almost did not differ from each other (in fact, only the long barrel). The infantry rifle had the longest barrel and bayonet. The dragoon (cavalry) rifle had a slightly shorter barrel and was also equipped with a bayonet, in addition, the way the gun belt was attached to the dragoon rifle was changed (instead of sling swivels - through holes in the stock). The Cossack rifle differed from the dragoon rifle in an even shorter barrel and the absence of a bayonet. The bayonet for the rifle model 1891 was also adopted a somewhat outdated model - a four-sided needle, fastened with a tubular coupling worn on the barrel. The bayonet had a square section with small valleys on the sides, the tip was sharpened to a plane, and could be used as a screwdriver when disassembling weapons. The main drawback of the system, corrected only in 1938, was that the bayonet always had to be worn attached to the rifle, in the firing position. The fact is that all the "three-rulers" (except for the Cossack) were shot with an attached bayonet. If the bayonet was removed, the balance of the weapon was disturbed, and the rifle began to “smear”. The need to constantly keep the bayonet on the barrel made the already rather long rifle even more inconvenient to carry and maneuver, especially in cramped circumstances (in trenches, in dense forest, etc.). In addition, the bayonet mounts tended to loosen over time, worsening the accuracy of shooting (the disadvantage was eliminated only in the 1930 modification).

Needle square bayonet and view of a rifle with a fixed bayonet

Early examples of rifles were distinguished by the absence handguards and had an open top along the entire length of the trunk. Since 1894, wooden top plates were introduced to protect the shooter's hands from burns on the hot barrel. Since at the time of adoption, domestic enterprises were not yet ready to start producing new rifles, the initial order was placed in France, at an arsenal in the city of Chatellerault. Serial production of rifles at the Sestroretsk Arms Plant near St. Petersburg under the leadership of Mosin himself began in 1893-94, in Tula and Izhevsk a little later. During the First World War, due to the inability of Russian industry to make up for losses at the front, rifles had to be ordered from the United States. Orders were placed in 1916 at Remington and Westinghouse factories. After the October Revolution of 1917, a significant number of these rifles remained in the United States and were sold on the civilian arms market or used for the initial training of soldiers in the army. Outwardly, the rifles of the American order, in addition to the markings, differed from the domestic ones in the stock material - they had walnut stocks instead of birch ones.

2. Device and technical characteristics

From a technical point of view, the Mosin rifle is a magazine weapon with manual reloading. The barrel is locked by a sliding rotary bolt on two lugs behind the receiver. The lugs are located in front of the bolt and in the locked state are located in a horizontal plane. The cocking of the drummer and setting it on a combat platoon are carried out when the shutter is opened. The shutter is simple in design, the direct reloading handle is located in the middle of the shutter. There is no fuse as a separate part; instead, the head of the trigger (drummer) located openly behind the bolt is used to set the fuse. The shutter can be easily removed from the receiver without the help of a tool (it is enough to take the shutter all the way back, and then, by pressing the trigger, remove it). Shop box-shaped, integral, with a single-row arrangement of cartridges. The bottom cover of the store is hinged down and forward for quick unloading and cleaning of the store. Store equipment - from lamellar clips for 5 rounds or one round, through the upper window of the receiver with the shutter open. Due to the design features of the store (single-row arrangement of cartridges when loading from above), a special part had to be introduced into the design - a cut-off that blocked the second and lower cartridges in the store when the upper cartridge was fed into the barrel. When the bolt is fully closed, the cut-off is turned off, allowing the next cartridge to rise to the feed line into the barrel. On early samples, the cutoff also served as a reflector for a spent cartridge case, later (since 1930) a separate reflector was introduced. The stock of the rifle is wooden, usually made of birch, with a straight neck and a steel nape of the butt. The weight and length of the weapon depended on the version: the "infantry" rifle weighed 4.5 kg and had a length of 1 m 30 cm; "Dragoon" rifle - weighed 4.18 kg and was 1 m 23 cm long; Mosin carbine - 3.45 kg and 1 m 2 cm.

3. Application and upgrades

Mosin's "three-ruler" was baptized in 1900 during the suppression of the so-called "Boxer uprising" in China by Russian troops. Then she proved herself excellently during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. The first modernization of the rifle of the 1891 model was postponed in 1908-1910, when, in connection with the adoption of a new version of the cartridge with a pointed bullet and improved ballistics, the rifles received new sights. In addition, other minor changes were made, such as the new design of the stock rings. The new rifles received the designation sample 1891/10 of the year and served in all three versions until 1923, when the command of the Red Army, for the purpose of unification, decided to leave only the dragoon rifle in service, which remained the main individual weapon of the infantry until 1930. In 1930, another modernization was undertaken, and again - only partial. At the same time, the method of attaching the ramrod and the bayonet changed, but the latter still had to constantly be attached to the rifle. The rifle (by this time already officially known not as a nameless “sample”, but as a Mosin rifle) received new sights, graduated in meters, and not outdated arshins; in addition, an annular front sight guard was introduced on rifles. Under the designation "Mosin rifle arr. 1891/30 of the year "this weapon became the main one for the Red Army for the pre-war period and most of the Great Patriotic War. In addition to the rifle mod. 1891/30 in 1938, a shortened carbine of the 1938 model was adopted, which differed (except for the shorter length of the stock and barrel) by the absence of a bayonet. In 1944, the last modernization of an already fairly outdated system was carried out - a carbine mod. 1944, which differed from the 1938 carbine only by the presence of a side-folding integral bayonet, which was still progress compared to previous versions. The carbine of 1944 replaced the rifle mod. 1891/30, and carbine mod. 1938, as a weapon more suitable for modern mobile warfare.

Sniper rifle versions mod. 1891/30 g with optical sights PE (1931-1942) and PU (since 1942)

In addition to the already described versions of the "three-line" there were two more, less common. The first is a sniper rifle of the 1891/30 model. The rifle outwardly differed from the basic design with a bolt handle bent down and mounts for a PE or PU optical sight mounted on the left side of the receiver. Rifles for modernization into a sniper version were selected at factories from serial ones that showed the best combat accuracy. At first, they were equipped with the 4-fold PE sight created in 1931, which was a modification of the German optical sight. However, the high cost and complexity of the design of this sight, which limited its mass production and use, forced during the war to switch to the 3.5-fold PU sight created in 1942, which turned out to be more compact, light and reliable than its predecessor.
Another interesting modification is a rifle with a silencer of the Mitin brothers system (“BRAMIT device”), which was used by intelligence units during the Great Patriotic War.

Rifle arr. 1891/30 g with a PU optical sight and a silencer for silent shooting "BRAMIT", intended for reconnaissance and sabotage units

At the end of the 2nd World War, the production of Mosin rifles in the USSR continued until the end of the 1940s, after which part of the machine park and equipment were transferred to Poland (where the “three-ruler” was produced until 1965). In addition to Russia / the USSR, the Mosin rifle was in service in a number of countries: in Poland, Yugoslavia, Hungary, China, North Korea and Finland. Moreover, Finland not only received a certain stock of rifles of the 1891-10 model during the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, but also captured a fairly large number of rifles mod. 1891-30 during the "Northern" war between the USSR and Finland in 1940. In addition, Finland itself produced Mosin rifles. In just 70 years of production, more than 9.3 million "three-rulers" were produced.

5. Advantages and disadvantages

For decades, the Mosin rifle was praised by Soviet propaganda as the most magnificent weapon, surpassing all other examples of this class produced in other countries. However, a sober look, a comparison of the characteristics of a Russian rifle with similar foreign-made rifles, and the opportunity that has now appeared to “feel” competitors “live” give us a slightly different picture. Indeed, the "three-ruler" was a very good weapon; however, it must be admitted that she was never an ideal model either. The rifle undoubtedly met the requirements of the early 20th century - it was simple, cheap to manufacture and maintain, accessible even to illiterate, poorly trained soldiers. In general, the "three-ruler" is durable and reliable, had good ballistic qualities for its time. On the other hand, the requirements themselves were largely based on already outdated ideas about tactics and the role of small arms. Because of this, as well as a number of other reasons, the Mosin rifle had a number of significant drawbacks. The main ones were: a bayonet of an outdated design, constantly worn attached to the rifle, which made it less maneuverable and heavier than the rifles of other camps; horizontal bolt handle, less convenient when carrying weapons and reloading than bent down. In addition, the bolt handle was located too far ahead of the butt neck - this slowed down reloading and contributed to knocking down the sight when firing, since the shooter constantly had to tear the rifle from his shoulder to jerk the bolt. In addition, the horizontal handle had a short length, which required considerable effort to remove the cartridges stuck in the chamber (a common thing in trench life). The fuse also required the removal of the rifle from the shoulder to turn it on and off (whereas on foreign models - Mauser, Lee Enfield, Springfield M1903, it could be controlled with the thumb of the right hand without changing the grip and position of the weapon). In general, the Mosin rifle was a fairly typical example of Russian and Soviet weapons ideas, when ease of handling weapons and ergonomics were sacrificed for reliability, ease of production and development, as well as (most importantly) - cheapness.

The main opponents on the battlefield in two world wars: Russian and German carbines
the difference is visible to the naked eye

The author of this post had to hold in his hands and compare the two main opponents in the wars of the 20th century: our three-line Mosin carbine mod. 1938 and the German carbine Mauser 98k. Moreover, both samples were, as they say, "out of the box" - well lubricated and in excellent condition. And to be honest, this comparison was not in favor of domestic weapons. Figuratively speaking, I had the same sensations as if I sat in turn in a German Mercedes and a Russian Moskvich. No, in general, the legendary “three-ruler” aroused sacred awe and respect in my heart. But when I picked up the 98k, I realized that the numerous statements in our literature that the "three-ruler" was superior to the German Mauser were nothing more than groundless chatter. I'm not talking about the fact that in terms of ballistic qualities, the "mosinka" is no better than the German. It is also noticeably heavier, it lies worse in the hands, and when I took up the bolts and began to distort them, my respect for the domestic carbine began to quickly melt away. The shutter of the “three-ruler” goes tight, in order to open it, you have to turn the shutter handle with great effort, or even knock on it with your palm. At the same time, the carbine has to be torn off each time from the shoulder, and after reloading, reattached to the shoulder and re-search for the target - all this takes time ... The Mauser fits tightly in the hands, the target immediately appears on the front sight and no longer leaves it. It is convenient to hold and point the German carbine, this is largely facilitated by the semi-pistol grip of the neck of the butt, which the “three-ruler” never had. The 98k shutter moves softly, easily, twitches without taking it off the shoulder, the target at this time continues to sit on the front sight. The safety flag is easily and quickly thrown into the combat position with one movement of the finger. And the close location of the bent bolt handle almost at the very neck of the butt allows you to reload the weapon very quickly. Because of this, the combat rate of fire of the German carbine significantly - almost twice - exceeds the rate of fire of the "three-ruler". But, it would seem, carbines of the same class and almost the same age (98k was created only 7 years later). I had to see the German newsreel, which shows the actions of the infantry squad in the field exercises. When the soldiers opened fire on the targets, their shooting turned out to be so frequent that it resembled a long machine-gun burst - I have never seen anything like this in the domestic newsreel about the “three-line” ...

6. Conclusion


From century to century: "three-ruler" in the hands of soldiers of the early 20th and early 21st centuries!

And yet, despite a number of shortcomings (compared to foreign models of "bolt" rifles), a simple and cheap "three-ruler" with honor and dignity has passed its long combat path. Being in service with the Russian and then the Soviet armies for more than 60 years, the Mosin rifle participated in a huge number of wars and battles. For the first time "speaking" in 1900 in China, the "three-ruler" proved to be excellent in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905, in the 1st World War and the Civil War. Already with Soviet stamps, the "mosinka" fought in the conflict on the CER, on Khasan and Khalkhin Gol, in the civil war in Spain, in the Soviet-Finnish "Winter" war of 1939-40; it remained the main type of Soviet small arms in the Great Patriotic War, despite the rapid development in these years of automatic systems. And in the post-war period, the “three-ruler” had a chance to take part in battles more than once: this rifle was widely used in the conflict between the North and South Korea in 1950-1953, in the Vietnam War in the 60-70s, in numerous wars on the African continent in the same years. And after the removal of the "mosinka" from service Soviet army it has found a new use for itself in our country: for more than 50 years, the “three-ruler” has been used by hunters as a hunting rifle for hunting large animals. Until now, Mosin rifles are popular among hunters in Russia and other countries due to their low cost, good ballistic data and the availability of cheap and widespread cartridges.

hunting carbine KO-44, which in reality is Mosin's "three-ruler" left without a bayonet,
helps to get the largest and most dangerous beast

And today the old "three-ruler" does not leave the stage. Moreover, not only here, but also abroad. Accordingly, the modernization of the Mosin rifle continues to this day. So, in the 90s, the Finns introduced a new version of the Mosin rifle - the SSG-96 sniper rifle. Today this rifle is considered the best in the West. A magazine-type weapon with manual reloading, has a device for adjusting the force on the trigger. The stock is made of reinforced plastic, the barrel is cold forged. Optical sight 6 - fold increase; a night sight can be installed. Shooting at a distance of 300 m gives a dispersion radius of 80 mm, at 600 m - 200 mm. And in 2000, the Russian followers of Mosin seriously modified the rifle according to the newfangled bullpup system, after which it was given the name OTs-48K. OTs-48K rifles are produced by order of law enforcement agencies by reworking sniper variants of the Mosin rifle extracted from warehouses. The trigger mechanism OTs-48K for high-precision shooting is softer and more comfortable than the prototype. The one-piece wooden stock has a buttstock with adjustable nape and “cheek”, and a mount for an articulated bipod is provided at the front end of the forearm. The permanent magazine is completely integrated into the butt behind the pistol grip, which is integral with the stock. The shutter is controlled through a special rod connected to it by a pair of articulated levers. This layout scheme made it possible to lay a sniper rifle with a relatively long barrel in a relatively small size of 1000x250x70 mm. It is possible to install 4x and 7x sights on the weapon, as well as night sights. Instead of a flame arrester, a silencer can be attached to the barrel for silent shooting. This model is still used in modern sniper units of the Russian army.

Video:

Story trilinear rifle Mosin

Shooting from the "three-ruler" and the resulting problems

Rifles of the Mosin system for more than seventy years were in service with the armies of Russia and the USSR. Soviet Union this weapon was used even longer. Mosin rifles are considered one of the most successful designs in the world. This rating is based not so much on the duration of use of the weapon, but on its quality.
On April 16, 1891, a commission appointed by the Minister of War of Tsarist Russia decided to adopt the 1891 Mosin repeating rifle. The creator of the rifle was a Russian captain, and later Colonel Sergei Ivanovich Mosin. Belgian gunsmiths Emil and Leon Nagant helped him design the store shortly before the start of mass production. The Czechoslovakian engineer Karel Krnka subsequently supplied the shutter with a guide bar, equipped the magazine with a clip and somewhat changed the shape of the sleeve in this regard.
The long infantry rifle, which, in accordance with the measure of length adopted in Russia, was called "three-linear" (1 Russian line \u003d 2.54 mm), began to be modernized soon after the start of production. Its modifications included a shortened dragoon rifle of the 1891 model, a carbine of the 1907 model, and the so-called Cossack carbine of the 1910 model. These weapons were mass-produced in the arms centers of Russia - Tula, Sestroretsk and Izhevsk.
Shortly before the First World War, in addition to rifles of other types, there were 4,171,743 Mosin rifles in the tsarist army. However, domestic production could not meet all the needs either in the pre-war years, or, even more so, during the First World War, when Russian factories produced no more than a third of the needs for weapons. Rifles were purchased in large numbers from abroad, including from Belgium and France, as well as from Switzerland and the United States.

Three-ruler cartridges - an early version with a blunt-pointed bullet and with a light pointed bullet of the 1908 model.

The shortage of weapons of all kinds subsequently became even greater. The reserves, according to Soviet sources, were small, and the production of new weapons lagged behind the needs. From June to December 1918, 926975 rifles and carbines were collected for the needs of the army. A significant part of them were new rifles produced this year - 380329. Due to such volumes of supplies to the army, the stocks were almost exhausted.
As a result of the First World War, which lasted four years, and three years of foreign intervention against the Soviet regime, which was also established during a bloody civil war, the country inherited a heavy legacy. The level of production in devastated Russia in 1920 was only 13.8% compared to 1913. Created in 1918, the Red Army, police and other armed formations were subjected to massive attacks by the enemy.

In these difficult conditions, it was necessary to maintain the supply of the armed forces. An extremely critical situation developed in April 1919, when enemy troops captured an arms factory in Izhevsk. Almost 215,000 rifles and carbines were manufactured there in 1918. After the liberation of the city by the Red Army, production resumed: in July 1919, approximately 12,500 rifles were produced, and by the end of the year, the monthly output was 20,000 weapons. The annual output of this enterprise in that year reached a total of 171,075 Mosin rifles.
The Tula Arms Plant had much better performance. In addition to 79060 Nagant 1895 revolvers and 6270 machine guns of the Maxim PM 1910 system, 290979 rifles and carbines of the Mosin system were produced there in 1919. The following year, production rose to 429,898 rifles and 4,467 machine guns. According to Soviet sources, from 1918 to 1920, 1,298,173 Mosin rifles were manufactured in the Soviet Union and another 900,000 were repaired.

There was nothing to think about new models of small arms at that time. Before dealing with this problem, it was necessary to create elementary prerequisites. As a first measure, a decree of October 3, 1922, on the recognition of a dragoon rifle with a bayonet as a standard weapon, followed.
At the beginning of 1924, a group of experts was assigned to modernize small arms. It included representatives of the Committee for Arming the Army with Small Arms and Artillery Weapons, the Inspectorate of the Infantry Troops, the Shot officer courses, and other military departments. Specialists of arms factories also received the right to vote.
Due to military necessity and in connection with the economic situation in the country, a plan was developed for a phased solution to the problem. First of all, it was necessary to modernize the well-established models of weapons and organize their mass production, while at the same time preparing for the development of new generations of weapons.

Varieties of the Mosin rifle. The early samples have a faceted receiver, the later Soviet ones, starting from sample 1891/30, have a round one..

The design bureau of automatic small arms, organized in 1921 at the Kovrov Arms Plant under the leadership of the world-renowned specialist Vladimir Grigorievich Fedorov, was tasked with creating all the necessary conditions for the development of new weapon systems. However, their mass production could only begin if the military situation allows, and subject to economic stabilization in the country. As a priority measure, it was planned to concentrate all forces on the main weapon of the Soviet infantry - the Mosin repeating rifle of the 1891 model of the year and its modifications, especially on the dragoon rifle.
This decision was made taking into account the quality of rifles in other countries. Nowhere after the First World War were there new serial developments that would be significantly superior to the Mosin rifle. This also applied to the German Mauser 98 rifle. Thus, there was no reason to abandon a well-established weapon in favor of any new products.
The industry was tasked with modernizing existing weapons. Experienced designers transferred the dragoon rifle from the traditional Russian to the metric system of measures, equipped it with an appropriate sight, changed some other details, such as the bayonet mount, front sight protection, and simplified the manufacturing technology.
As a result, the Soviet infantry soon had rifles that not only met modern requirements, but were also manufactured at significantly lower costs and for more a short time. It was also important that the production technology was perfect, since large-scale production of weapons was planned. From 1930 to 1940 over six million rifles were made.

Shooting tests began in 1927, and then, after a thorough analysis of the results and elimination of shortcomings, they were repeated the following year. On April 28, 1930, the military command issued an order to adopt the upgraded model 1891/30 rifle. At that time, it already existed in a sniper version with an optical sight and a bolt handle bent down.

Sniper version of the three-line rifle

Curved bolt handle of the Mosin rifle - sniper version

Three-line rifle bolt with a straight bolt handle

Both of these samples were created on the basis of the 1891 model dragoon rifle.
It remains unclear whether the model was adopted, the basis for which was the shortened Cossack carbine of the 1910 model, however, there is evidence that this model, called model 1924/27, had the following data: total length 1015 mm, barrel length 510 mm, weight 3.6 kg, sector sight ranging from 100 to 1000 m. A folding 4-sided bayonet was attached to the barrel (this information was not taken from Soviet sources).
Repeating rifle model 1891/30 is equipped with a cylindrical rotary bolt with two lugs and a removable head. Cartridges are fed from the built-in magazine. The practical rate of fire is about 10 rds / min. The ammunition of the rifle is 4 + 1 cartridge. 4 cartridges are loaded into the magazine in a clip, and one is inserted into the chamber. We are talking about cartridges of the Mosin system of 1891, but with a pointed bullet, which appeared in 1908. In 1930, the power of the cartridge was increased, and they received the name M1908 / 30. Then, in addition to a light bullet, a heavy one appeared.

Light Bullet Cartridge Options L arr. 1908 various years
release. From left to right:
1. Cartridge with a bullet arr. 1891, 1905 issue.2,3. Cartridges with a light bullet L arr. 1908 with bullet landing on three lines, manufactured in 1909. 4. Cartridge with bullet L production
Tula Cartridge Plant, 1913. 5. Cartridge with a bullet L produced by the St. Petersburg Cartridge Plant, 1915. 6. Cartridge with a bullet L produced by the Tula Cartridge Plant, 1917. 7. Cartridge with a bullet L produced by the St. Petersburg Cartridge Plant, 1917.

The magazine feeder is equipped with a special cut-off, which releases the second cartridge only after the first one has been sent to the chamber by the bolt.
The bottom of the magazine leans forward, after which the magazine can be easily discharged from below. Setting the fuse is carried out as follows: the retracted trigger turns to the left. Due to this, the impactor nut rests against the protrusion and is held by it.
Unlike the Mosin rifle of the 1891 model, the rifle put into service in 1930 has a different sight device. In the old one - a frame sight. with a notch from 400 to 3200 arshins (1 arshin \u003d 0.7112 m), in the new one - a sector sight from 100 to 2000 m. The open beveled front sight is equipped with protection. The length of the aiming line is 622 mm. All other changes, with the exception of the fastening of the bayonet and belt, relate mainly to dimensions and weight. The rifle became shorter and lighter.
The needle bayonet with four stiffeners, mounted on the barrel, remained, in principle, unchanged. However, if earlier it was fastened with half rings, which were tightened with screws, then since 1930 with deaf rings on a spring latch. The bayonet mount was developed by engineer Irizarkh Andreyevich Komaritsky, who later designed a disk magazine for the Degtyarev PPD1934 / 38 submachine gun and, together with Boris Gavrilovich Shpitalny, developed the ShKAS aviation machine gun. In addition, starting from 1942, the Mosin rifle was also equipped with a blade-type bayonet.

The weapon for cleaning is disassembled as follows: the bolt handle is set to a vertical position, with the trigger pressed, the bolt is retracted and removed. Then the striker rests against something, and the bolt handle turns down with force. In this way, the striker nut is unscrewed, after which it can be removed with a spring.
Of interest is the muffler, supplied as an accessory, weighing 0.5 kg and 235 mm long. During the Second World War, rifles equipped in this way were used by special groups and partisan detachments. The muffler consisted of a steel cylinder with two rubber inserts 15 mm thick. The silencer was put on the barrel, like a bayonet, and snapped into place. The numbers stamped on the silencer body helped to correctly set the distance on the sight. When firing with a silencer, special cartridges were used with a powder charge of only 0.5 g and a bullet weighing 9.75 g, the initial speed of which was only 260 m / s.
When installing a rifle on a bipod and using a special grenade launcher, it was possible to shoot explosive and fragmentation grenades from it. True, the shooter at the same time had to rest the butt on the ground due to strong recoil. The grenade was fired using a standard cartridge. When using a special charging cap and an additional sighting device, a rifle could also fire armor-piercing grenades weighing about 680 g. At a distance of 60 m, when they hit at an angle of 60 °, they pierced armor 30 mm thick.
Rifles of the best quality selected for conversion to sniper. They had an optical sight and a bolt handle bent down. During the Second World War, snipers were given great importance in the Soviet
armed forces. They went through an extensive training program that included intense marksmanship training. Often, the involvement of such specialists in operations had a decisive effect on the outcome of the battle. Foreign researchers, paying tribute to Soviet snipers, also note the quality of their weapons.

At first, the selected rifles were equipped with a PU optical sight, which had a 3.5-fold increase, a length of 169 mm and was designed for a firing range of up to 1300 m. 1400 m. He had stepless focusing. Optical sights attached to the body different ways, since it was originally 6-sided, and then became cylindrical.
Soviet snipers were equipped with such rifles for two decades after the end of the war. Attempts to equip with optical sights adopted in 1936 and 1940 rifles of models ABC 1936 of the Simonov system and SVT1940 of the Tokarev system did not bring the desired result. A suitable replacement was found only in 1963, when the SVD self-loading sniper rifle designed by Evgeny Fedorovich Dragunov appeared.
Repeating rifles of the Mosin system of the 1891 model were produced until 1930, and the model 1891/30 until 1944. Indicative in this regard are the figures that testify to the volume of output. As already mentioned, by the end of 1940, the industry had significantly crossed the 6-million mark. If in 1930 only 102 thousand were produced, and in 1931 154 thousand rifles, then in 1932 there were already 283451 of them. In 1933 this figure was 239290, a year later - 300590, and a year later - 136959. 1936 data is not available. In 1937, production reached 560,545 units, and in 1938, for the first time, it exceeded one million, amounting to 1,124,664 rifles. In 1939, 1396667 rifles were produced, and in 1940 - 1375822.
The figures given do not include sniper rifles. In 1933, for the first time, the milestone of 1000 units was overcome, and the next year, 6 times more sniper rifles were made - 6637 units. This figure doubled in 1935 - 12752. After 2 years, the armed forces received 13130, and in 1938 19545 sniper rifles. The total number of rifles produced since 1932 is unknown, since there are no data for 1936 and 1939. Excluding these years, the army received a total of 54,160 sniper weapons.

Mosin carbine modification 1944:

Despite the impressive numbers, in the infantry units there was a shortage of not only automatic weapons, but also rifles. Only on the Western Front in September 1941, as is clear from the report of the commander, there were not enough 113 thousand rifles. On other fronts, a similar situation was observed not only in relation to rifles, but also in other types of small arms.
This situation required an immediate and sharp increase in the productivity of all enterprises in the difficult conditions of retreat on all fronts. How successful this was is evidenced by the fact that the Soviet defense industry from 1941 to 1945 produced about 6.4 times more rifles than Tsarist Russia during the years of the First World War.
The exact total volume of production of repeating rifles and carbines of the Mosin system until the termination of their production is unknown, however, in Soviet literature there are data on their production during the war years. True, these figures include automatic rifles.
According to this information, the Soviet defense industry produced at least 1,292,475 rifles in 1941.
and carbines, the next year - 3714191, and from 1943 until the end of the war, annually produced more than 3.4 million units of this type of weapon. Of these, carbines accounted for 419,084 pieces in 1941, and 687,426 in 1942. Soviet authors explain the slowdown in production since 1943 by the fact that the needs of the army in rifles were satisfied, and in addition, whole formations were re-equipped with submachine guns. Of interest are also the figures for the production of sniper rifles, the production of which was temporarily suspended in 1940. In 1942, after its resumption, the output amounted to 53,195 pieces, i.e., approximately the same as in the period from 1931 to 1938.

Mosin carbine arr. 1938 produced in 1944:

The latest modifications of the repeating rifles of the Mosin system were carbines of the 1938 and 1944 model. The first version was put into service on February 26, 1939, and the second on January 17, 1944. Carbines differ from rifles in their smaller size, weight and effective range. The main difference between both versions of the carbines is the equipment with bayonets. The 1938 carbine was supplied without a bayonet, while the 1944 carbine was equipped with one as standard.
The bayonet is not removable, but can be folded. In the stowed position, it is folded to the right of the barrel: in the combat position it is held by a ring with a spring latch. Shooting is possible only if the bayonet is in combat position.
Having identical design and functional principles with a rifle, both versions of carbines hardly differ from each other, except for the bayonet. The barrels of carbines are shorter than those of a rifle, the sector sight is adjustable from 100 to 1000 m, the length of the sight line is 416 mm. Ammunition, like a repeating rifle, is 4-g1 cartridge.
The effective range of the rifle reached 600 m, and the carbine - 400 m. This applied to single targets. With dense fire, group targets were successfully hit at a distance of 800 m, and air targets at an altitude of up to 500 m. This.
The rifle remained the standard weapon of the Soviet infantry until the end of the Second World War, but increasingly lost its dominant position as it was replaced by carbines and submachine guns. Preference was increasingly given to short-barreled weapons with a high rate of fire. In addition to submachine guns, other automatic weapons appeared at that time, such as self-loading and automatic rifles. Machine guns at that time were not yet widespread and existed only as prototypes, however, after the Second World War, all small arms operated on an automatic principle.
Carbines were equipped primarily with cavalry, artillery units and special units. Model 1938 carbines were probably produced until 1943-1944, and model 1944 was produced after the end of the Second World War. Although most publications indicate 1945 as the date of completion of their production, there are reliable sources that report the production of these carbines until 1948.
This may well be true, since the armies of the socialist states were armed with weapons of this type, and later, for quite a long time, various formations in the countries of the third world.
The soldiers of Tsarist Russia fought with rifles and carbines of the Mosin system during the First World War and even before it. Mosin rifles were armed with soldiers of the Red Army during the civil war. The Soviet infantry defended the Motherland with modernized weapons of this type during the Second World War, and it was used for many years after its end.
Experts around the world are unanimous in their opinion that the Mosin multi-shot rifle is one of the most remarkable designs. Its reliability and non-failure operation under any climatic conditions are highly appreciated.

Characteristics: Mosin 1891/30 rifle

Muzzle velocity (Vq), m/s .............................................. ..865*
Weapon length, mm .............................................. ......................1230**
Rate of fire, rds/min....................................... .................10

for 4-1-1 cartridge
Weight in unloaded state with a bayonet, kg ............... 4.50
Weight of the bayonet, kg ............................................... .................................0.50
Mass of the optical sight PU, kg .............................................0 .27
Mass of the optical sight PE, kg .............................................. 0, 60
Silencer weight, kg .............................................. .........................0.50
Mass of a full clip, kg .............................................. 0.12-0 ,13
Cartridge................................................. ...................................7,62x54 R
Barrel length, mm ............................................... .......................730***

Sighting range, m.......................................2000
Effective firing range, m .............................. 600 ****
* Cartridge with a light bullet.
** With attached bayonet — 1660 mm.
*** Free part - 657 mm.
**** In the sniper version with an optical sight - 600 m.
Characteristics: repeating carbine model 1938
Caliber, mm ............................................... ...............................................7.62

Weapon length, mm .............................................. ......................1020

Ammunition supply ................................. built-in magazine
for 4-1-1 cartridge
Weight in the uncharged state, kg .............................. 3.50

Barrel length, mm ............................................... .........................512**
Grooves/Direction ............................................................... ....................4/n


* Cartridge with a light bullet.
** Free part - 439 mm.
Characteristics: repeating carbine model 1944
Caliber, mm ............................................... ...............................................7.62
Muzzle velocity (Vq), m/s .............................................. .820*
Weapon length, mm .............................................. ..............1020**
Rate of fire, rds/min....................................... ................10
Ammunition supply ................................. built-in magazine
for 4-1-1 cartridge
Weight in the uncharged state, kg .............................. 3.90
Weight of the bayonet, kg ............................................... ...............................0.40
Cartridge................................................. .................................7.62x54 R
Barrel length, mm ............................................... ................517***
Grooves/Direction ............................................................... ....................4/n
Sighting range, m ............................................... 1000
Effective firing range, m .............................................. 400
* Cartridge with a light bullet.
** With a bayonet in combat position - 1330 mm.
*** Free part - 444 mm.

Drummers

Oiler for the Mosin rifle. Divided into two parts, one contains neutral oil and the other alkaline