How to use a barrel sleeve on a Mosin-Nagant for a tactical rifle build.

by Robert Coles

More years ago than I care to remember I had worked on a rifle for my Uncle Gale. He took me on my first Canada fishing trip and first northern Quebec Caribou hunt. Great memories, and awesome northern lights, too. That rifle was a Mosin-Nagant and I sporterized it for him. Nagants are not the sleekest looking rifles and their 7.62x54R chambering wasn’t popular or common in the United States back then. However, Uncle Gabe said he wanted something unique, so I did the work he requested and delivered that rifle to him.

Since then I have kept an eye on those particular rifles, watching prices go up and down along with surplus availability. Recently, I thought that it would also be unique to build a tactical Mosin-Nagant. In doing research for the project I found that the Southern California Mosin Owners (SoCaMo.com) running their own streaming television channel available via Roku Streaming TV Player (roku.com) and at YouTube.com/MosinNagantChannel. Seeing the different gunsmithing project featured and the accuracy potential that could be had, I sought out to build my own based on a Mosin-Nagant 91/30 chambered in 7.62x54R.

I picked up a Century Arms International Russian 91/30 rebuild with a 28” barrel and a very nice looking bore. Most available 7.62x54R ammo will have bullets measuring .311 caliber, however, this barrel slugged at 0.312” so reloads looked to be in order. Inspecting the rifle parts revealed components to be in excellent shape. I started preparing for the build.

Read more in the April 2017 issue.

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