The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

It pains me to say there hasn't been a Mosin Nagant posted in my area for under $250 in over a month on either of the popular websites for buying, selling and trading firearms (ARMSLIST & backpage). Cabela's, Bass Pro, they all ran out of stock and don't expect anymore. I've never seen one in Dick's, despite hearing others say they have purchased Mosin rifles there. This may sound like old news to some of you. However, having just purchased my first Mosin around 6 weeks ago ('38 Izhevsk), its disheartening to see I may have scored my first and only "relatively-cheap" milsurp rifle, of which I have a lot of interest in Mosin Nagants. I will definitely continue to keep my eye out, but as of now, things don't long so good for me in my attempts to adopt a few more 80 year old beauties.

On the other hand, ammo appears to be cheap and plentiful and having just recieved my 440 round in the mail yesterday, the future still holds bright...

Theres always Gun Broker, hundreds of refurbs on there.

Yep. Go there young man, and stake a claim to one.

There are so many of them they will be around for a while. You may need a C&R ffl03 to help you keep the price down if you want to buy out of State. I look for crates of the 91/30s to pop up from time to time yet. There are still some M44s out there. Still M39s also. I know how you feel though. I have watched the selection dwindling down for a while now. Watch the pawnshops too.

Unfortunately, I'm just 19 and will have to wait about 18 months to even get a C&R, which is relatively expensive. I'll have to rely on my state's relaxed stance on gun control and buy Mosin Nagants privately for some time.

Don't forget to hit the local Pawn Shops also. Here where I'm at in Texas we have a chain type of Pawn shop that has 4 stores in town and it seems that every 4 or 5 months one of them always has a fresh crate of them sitting on the floor for about $150 OTD depending on condition. They even let you rummage the bayonets in the bottom to find a matching one if it's in there. Just an idea on another place to hunt for Mosins. Good luck in your search!

Which chain is that?


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You guys are lucky. I live in the Chicago suburbs and have yet to find a pawn shop that sells guns period.

You lookin for anything in particular????? I have a few under $250

Southern Ohio Guns still has 91/30s in round and hex receivers in stock. Even with your FFL fees and shipping you can stay under $200.00

steelbuttplate wrote:You lookin for anything in particular????? I have a few under $250

Unless you live next door to him the transfer would have to go to his nearest 01FFL, he is 19 and is not yet eligible for a C&R.
Gun show
Find someone, or a local gunshop that will handle transfers for you and you can buy some from the boards advertiser's, Liberty, Axis, Trinity or Cope's have them from time to time. Gunshops charge a fee to handle the transfer that can run $10-$110, it's up to them what they charge.

redeuce wrote:You guys are lucky. I live in the Chicago suburbs and have yet to find a pawn shop that sells guns period.

That's true.
I go to indoor range in Lockport and they usually have two or three of 91/30s on display for around $170. Last time they had two M44s. So they are still out there.

There will be Mosin-Nagant rifles around long after each of us have joined that innumerable caravan, that travels to that mysterious realm, where each shall take his chamber in the silent halls of death', and they will still be being sold at "market value."

FineRedMist wrote:Which chain is that?

Up here the chain store in town is Wild Bill's Pawn. I've seen the same chain in a few towns down around Houston also. Sorry for the late reply.

You are right there really is a shortage! I have only bought 10 in the last 2 months and that is way below my usual average! Where on earth could they be hiding somewhere? I seem to find them when I stop at the bank first and LOOK just about anywhere. Maybe that is why I find them? Sorry I just got all filled up with Negative Vibes that's all! Bill

The shortage is of cheeeeeeeeeeeeeap Mosins Bill, and the Mosins available from the chain stores. They will still be around on GB, and the gun shows for many years to come, but the prices will be higher, and selection lower. No different than back when the distributors ran out of the big hoard of Finn Mosins.

You're right I don't buy cheap shooters online for high prices. I buy collector Mosins for shooting. investment, and fun. I buy from auctions (no not online), gun shows, other collectors, yard sales, regional printed sale papers, flea markets, and any number of other places one would not expect to see one. Mine run pretty high at times like the 1943 dated M44 I got for $225 from a private auction which is all matching and has a counter bore and good honest use on it. Then there is the all matching hand stamped dated 1946? I got for $175 out the door that has the pristine bore. Yeah I paid for the all matching and 02 stamped every where Hungarian which is like brand new that was $300 out the door. These were all auctions that were not on the internet for bidding that had no buyers premiums.

If you want cheap and go to cheap online places you get what you pay for and sometimes pay much more than if you got off your butt and out from behind this computer once in awhile and went places to kind of see what is out there! You can spend $300 a lot of different ways, you can buy 3 cheap rifles and put bundles into them after you buy them trying to make them right or you can buy one decent good shooting collector rifle and have something into the future to shoot and enjoy for many years. Many places do not charge buyers premiums, excessive and repetitive NICS checks, Taxes, and will sell a long gun to you without having to ship it to a dealer and paying them too. You make out a 4473 they call it in you throw it in a gun sleeve and go home, how simple do you want it? If you have a C&R and they will except it which isn't guaranteed it can be even easier. I always recommend if you intend to use a C&R to buy a gun anywhere check first and see if they will allow you to do that, much as people say they have to the actual choice on that is theirs and you can complain to the BATF long and loud to no avail. Been there and done that and seen that many times! Bill

Thank you all for your feedback on my thread. I will definitely be stopping by my local pawn shops in search of the odd Mosin. In response to zeebill; I have been doing A LOT of getting my butt out from behind this computer and going places to find the right deals on Mosins. I didn't make this topic simply on a whim. My 6 weeks of thorough searching have thus far been futile and I thought I would share this with the Mosin Nagant community. I hope this didn't strike anyone as just me complaining because I haven't been searching hard enough. After work and school, any time I can dedicate to finding new rifles is quite hard to come by. Again, thank you all for your feedback. Gun shows and pawn shops appear to be my best bet; one of which I hadn't put much consideration into before looking into this (pawn shops). I will share any finds I make here to ensure I find at least a half decent deal. THANK YOU for checking out my thread.

John I didn't mean to make that personal to you but just general to most everyone not finding anything. I go for month's at times not finding anything and then bang I find a dozen in a week or something. Try those local sale papers, we have one here called the Prospector and it has some good stuff in it. Find out what date and where the first place to sell them is and you get a head start on the others out there. Being retired gives me a great step ahead of many others because not having a very busy life like many of you do I set my priorities the way I want them not the way life dictates to many of you. Being self employed also gives you plenty of time too. You can always tell when those people are frozen in the shop and have nothing to do, they post a lot on those days! Oh well I stirred up enough for awhile now lets see what happens! Bill

Some of us work 10 or more hours a day often seven days a week Bill, I for one have zero time for running off to gun shows that are all a good distance away. In the old days I sneaked away on a Sunday morning to the flea markets but now days they have no guns anymore. Were it not for the internet auction sights like Gunbroker.com I suspect many of us would have much smaller collections. You and I have been down this road before gun shows vs online buying. I am well over 100+ online purchases by now, I may be nearing 200, lost count, not one time was there a problem except Classic that time with the packing. I paid less than similar items available at shows, had enormous selection provided by being able to shop the entire country, and I was able to keep working so I could pay for it all. In decades of trolling shows in the old days I never came across a Snider as nice as the one I got off GB, never found a GEW98 as nice as the one I found on the old board, and never found the selection, or low price as with all the Finn Mosins I bought from various online and board sources. I found things online that I never dreamed of finding, including two 1943 M44 carbines, one issued, one refurb, both with nice bores and no counterbores. One bought right off this board. Back in the 70's 80's and 90's I did the gun show thing, countless shows, all of them together didn't show me the selection I find on gunbroker any given day. I have found the online sellers I had dealings with to be honest, easy to get along with, willing to answer questions, and except for that one issue with Classic the shipping was no problem, items arrived undamaged and well packed for less money. Times were easier 30 years back, there was more money and time, and no option other than to spend countless hours running from one show to another, flea markets tag sales, junk shops, gun shops. Today we have the internet, the best tool that has ever existed in the history of collecting, any sort of collecting. It wouldn't matter if I did have time for shows, I would still be using gunbroker, armslist, and the other auction sites. Do I even need to mention how much money selling on eBay has generated for me to then flip on gunbroker for guns? The bulk of my Finn Mosin collection, all my Turk Mauser's, the majority of the refurb Mosins, and that Snider all paid for by online sales. 91/59's, Argentine Mauser's, Remington rolling blocks, K98k's, No1 MKIII Enfields, Vetterlis, all bought right here from this very computer terminal I am using right now. I am also a collector of antique phonographs, first ten years of flea market trolling produced one VV-50 portable Victrola, the other nine in my collection were all eBay finds. The internet, the best tool ever invented for finding what you want, and the prices on all of it were lower, even far lower than I ever would have paid had I found the stuff in person locally. Best of all I can keep on doing all the things I must do every day to make my living, and my free time is spent on the range with friends, or visiting friends, not running around all over the place trying to fill up a collection.