Mosin M44 accuracy issues.

[was_peacemaker]

Went shooting today and was having issues with my M44 Mosin. I was shooting a bench and was having a hard time getting it to print on paper at 25-50 meters. Seems it was hitting about 5-8 inches low.

I made sure I was firing with the bayonet out...as I hear that they were sighted in this way.

Anyway I was shooting 180 gr. yellow tip Hungarian ammo. Stuff was fairly nasty to clean up to be honest. I went through 27 patches trying to get the barrel clean and that was only after firing 15 rounds!

I have also heard the some of the site posts on these Mosin M44's are a bit to high. Any truth to that? I think next week I am going to get some new prosuction Wolf or Tula to see if that makes a difference.

[panzerman]

Did you try at another distance? Seems mine shot low as well at 50m but was in the ball park at 100m and I was able to ding man size steel targets at 400 meters from a bench rest 4 out of 5 times with my M44. I did not extend the bayonet to shoot but was able to drift the front sight a bit to accommodate the tendency to shoot left. I am shooting 147 grain Russian surplus stuff.

[deth502]

wasnt the heavier 180gn stuff meant to be machine gun ammo?

as was stated, id make sure the sight ladder was set at 100, and try it at 100 before you went any further.

the good thing about your problem, is that if you do have to correct your sights, its easy enough to file small amounts at a time off of the front until your in. had you been shooting high, its much harder to add on to the front post.

[Longview]

Hi gang,
I shoot in LA County and the range I go to does not allow magnetic-core ammo - much if not most Surplus ammo has a length of thick steel wire dropped into the jacket before filling the rest with lead. The steel core was to reduce weight, if it happened that the steel core had some extra penetration it was not a consideration at the time. Lightening the bullet was the idea.
The range is worried that a ricochet will send the red hot piece of steel off into the brush and start a fire. E

Yes, there is lead-core (non-magnetic) ammo for machine guns that a Mosin-Nagant rifle or carbine can use safely: Yugoslav MJ-30 at 183gr is the one you'll prolly find. Considered 'Heavy Ball" it works safely in these rifles & carbines but is now very hard to find.The original spec bullet is 147gr by comparison, so the recoil is a bit more... stout (actionj/reaction and all that)

And Yes again, there IS lead filled ammo out there somewhere that was made specifically for aircraft machine guns. THAT ammo has a much higher powder load and is unsafe in a rifle or carbine. I imagine the machine guns have a heftier receiver/barrel. I think 7.62x54r.net has the data/Identification marks for these.

TTFN

PS: Let us know if you find a source of MJ-30 !