Which gave the Mosin three-line model its name. Mosin rifle cartridge: caliber, effective firing range

Mosin rifles were in service with the armies of Russia and the USSR for more than seventy years. Outside the Soviet Union, these weapons were used even longer. Mosin rifles are considered one of the most successful designs in the world. This assessment 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 a repeating rifle of the Mosin system of the 1891 model. The creator of the rifle was a Russian captain and later colonel Sergei Ivanovich Mosin. Belgian gunsmiths Emil and Leon Nagan, shortly before the start of mass production, helped him design the store. Czechoslovakian engineer Karel Krnka subsequently equipped the bolt with a guide bar, equipped the magazine with a clip and, in this regard, slightly changed the shape of the sleeve.
The long infantry rifle, which, in accordance with the length measurement adopted in Russia, was called “three-line” (1 Russian line = 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 produced en masse in the arms centers of Russia - Tula, Sestroretsk and Izhevsk.
Shortly before the First World War, the tsarist army, in addition to other types of rifles, had 4,171,743 Mosin rifles. However, domestic production could not satisfy all the needs either in the pre-war years, or, especially, during the First World War, when Russian factories produced no more than a third of the needs for weapons. Rifles were purchased in large quantities from abroad, including from Belgium and France, as well as from Switzerland and the USA.

Cartridges for the three-ruler - an early version with a blunt-pointed bullet and with a light pointed bullet of the 1908 model.

The shortage of weapons of all types subsequently became even greater. Reserves, according to Soviet sources, were small, and the production of new weapons lagged behind needs. From June to December 1918, it was possible to assemble 926,975 rifles and carbines for the needs of the army. A significant part of them were new rifles produced in the current year - 380329. Due to such volumes of supplies to the army, the reserves were almost exhausted.
As a result of the First World War, which lasted four years, and three years of foreign intervention against Soviet power, which also established itself during a bloody civil war, the country inherited a difficult 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 enemy attacks.

In these difficult conditions, it was necessary to maintain the supply of the armed forces. An extremely critical situation arose in April 1919, when enemy troops captured an arms factory in Izhevsk. Almost 215 thousand rifles and carbines were manufactured there in 1918. After the liberation of the city by the Red Army, production resumed: approximately 12,500 rifles were produced in July 1919, and by the end of the year the monthly production was 20 thousand weapons. The annual production volume of this enterprise reached a total of 171,075 Mosin rifles that year.
The Tula Arms Plant had much better results. In addition to 79,060 Nagan 1895 revolvers and 6,270 heavy machine guns of the Maxim PM 1910 system, 290,979 rifles and carbines of the Mosin system were produced there in 1919. The following year, production increased 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 thousand 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 was issued on October 3, 1922, recognizing the dragoon rifle with a bayonet as a standard weapon.
At the beginning of 1924, a group of experts was tasked with modernizing small arms. It included representatives of the committee for arming the army with small arms and artillery weapons, the inspection of infantry troops, the “Shot” officer courses and other military departments. Specialists from arms factories also received the right to vote.
Due to military necessity and due to the economic situation in the country, a plan for a phased solution to the problem was developed. First of all, it was necessary to modernize well-proven weapon models and organize their mass production, and at the same time prepare for the development of new generations of weapons.

Varieties of Mosin rifles. Early models have a faceted receiver, while later Soviet models, starting with model 1891/30, have a round receiver..

The design bureau of automatic small arms, organized in 1921 at the Kovrov arms factory under the leadership of the internationally recognized specialist Vladimir Grigorievich Fedorov, was tasked with creating all the necessary conditions for the development of new weapon systems. However, their mass production could begin only if the military situation allowed, and subject to economic stabilization in the country. As a first-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 and its modifications, especially 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 production developments that were significantly superior to the Mosin rifle. This also applied to the German Mauser 98 rifle. Thus, there was no reason to abandon a well-proven weapon in favor of any new products.
The industry was tasked with modernizing existing weapons. Experienced designers converted the dragoon rifle from 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 in a shorter time. It was also important that the production technology was perfect, since large-scale production of weapons was planned. More than six million rifles were manufactured between 1930 and 1940.

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 modernized 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 a Mosin rifle - sniper version

The bolt of a three-line rifle with a straight bolt handle

Both of these models were created on the basis of the Dragoon rifle of the 1891 model.
It remains unclear whether the model, based on the shortened Cossack carbine of the 1910 model, was adopted for service, but there is information 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).
The Model 1891/30 repeating rifle is equipped with a cylindrical rotating bolt with two lugs and a removable head. The cartridges are fed from the built-in magazine. The practical rate of fire is about 10 rounds/min. The rifle's ammunition capacity is 4+1 rounds. 4 cartridges are loaded into the magazine in a clip, and one is inserted into the chamber. We are talking about cartridges from 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 the light bullet, a heavy one appeared.

Light Bullet Ammo Options L arr. 1908 various years
release. From left to right:
1. Cartridge with bullet mod. 1891, 1905 release.2,3. Cartridges with light bullet L arr. 1908 with a bullet seated on three lines, manufactured in 1909. 4. Cartridge with bullet L produced
Tula Cartridge Plant, 1913. 5. Cartridge with L bullet produced by the St. Petersburg Cartridge Plant, 1915. 6. Cartridge with L bullet produced by the Tula Cartridge Plant, 1917. 7.Cartridge with L bullet 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 has been pushed into the chamber by the bolt.
The bottom of the magazine folds forward, after which the magazine can be easily unloaded from below. Setting the safety is as follows: the trigger pulled back is turned to the left. Due to this, the striker nut rests against the protrusion and is held by it.
Unlike the Mosin rifle of the 1891 model, the rifle adopted for service in 1930 has a different sight design. The old one has a frame sight. with a notch from 400 to 3200 arshins (1 arshin = 0.7112 m), the new one has a sector sight from 100 to 2000 m. The open beveled front sight is equipped with protection. The length of the sighting line is 622 mm. All other changes, with the exception of the bayonet and belt attachment, relate mainly to size and weight. The rifle became shorter and lighter.
The needle bayonet with four stiffening ribs, 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 blind rings on a spring latch. The bayonet mount was developed by engineer Irizarkh Andreevich Komaritsky, who later designed a disk magazine for the Degtyarev PPD1934/38 submachine gun and, together with Boris Gavrilovich Shpitalny, developed the ShKAS aircraft machine gun. In addition, starting from 1942, the Mosin rifle was also equipped with a blade-type bayonet.

The weapon is disassembled for cleaning as follows: the bolt handle is installed in a vertical position, when the trigger is pressed, the bolt is pulled back and removed. The firing pin then hits something and the bolt handle is forced downwards. In this way, the striker nut is unscrewed, after which it can be removed with the spring.
The muffler weighing 0.5 kg and length 235 mm, supplied as additional equipment, is worthy of interest. During the Second World War, rifles equipped in this way were used by special forces 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 muffler 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.
By mounting the rifle on a bipod and using a special grenade launcher barrel, it was possible to fire explosive and fragmentation grenades from it. True, the shooter 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 cartridge and an additional sighting device, it was possible to fire armor-piercing grenades weighing about 680 g from the rifle. At a distance of 60 m, when hit at an angle of 60°, they pierced armor 30 mm thick.
The best quality rifles were selected for conversion into sniper rifles. 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 underwent an extensive training program, which included intensive marksmanship training. Often, the involvement of such specialists in operations had a decisive impact on the outcome of the battle. Foreign researchers, while 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 magnification, a length of 169 mm and was designed for a firing range of up to 1300 m. From the mid-thirties, they began to use a PE sight with a four-fold magnification, which had a length of 274 mm and was designed for a firing range of up to 1400 m. It had stepless focusing. Optical sights were attached to the body in different ways, since it was originally 6-sided in shape, and then became cylindrical.
Soviet snipers were equipped with such rifles for two decades after the end of the war. Attempts to equip the rifles of the ABC 1936 Simonov system and SVT1940 Tokarev system models, adopted in 1936 and 1940, with optical sights, 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, model 1891, were produced until 1930, and model 1891/30 until 1944. Indicative in this regard are the figures indicating the volume of production. As already mentioned, by the end of 1940 the industry had significantly crossed the 6 millionth mark. If in 1930 only 102 thousand were produced, and in 1931 154 thousand rifles, then in 1932 there were already 283,451 of them. In 1933, this figure was 239,290, a year later - 300,590, and a year later - 136,959. According No data available for 1936. In 1937, production reached 560,545 units, and in 1938 for the first time exceeded a million, amounting to 1,124,664 rifles. In 1939, 1,396,667 rifles were produced, and in 1940, 1,375,822.
The figures given do not take into account sniper rifles. In 1933, the 1000 unit mark was surpassed for the first time, and the next year 6 times more sniper rifles were produced - 6637 units. This figure doubled in 1935 - 12,752. Two years later, the armed forces received 13,130, and in 1938, 19,545 sniper rifles. The total number of rifles produced since 1932 is unknown, since data for 1936 and 1939 is missing. If these years are not taken into account, the army received a total of 54,160 sniper weapons.

Mosin carbine modification 1944:

Despite the impressive numbers, the infantry units experienced a shortage of not only automatic weapons, but also rifles. On the Western Front alone in September 1941, as is clear from the commander’s report, there were a shortage of 113 thousand rifles. On other fronts, a similar situation was observed not only with regard to rifles, but also with other types of small arms.
This situation required an immediate and dramatic increase in the productivity of all enterprises in the difficult conditions of retreat on all fronts. The extent to which this was successful is evidenced by the fact that the Soviet defense industry from 1941 to 1945 produced approximately 6.4 times more rifles than Tsarist Russia produced during the First World War.
The exact total volume of production of repeating rifles and carbines of the Mosin system until their production ceased is unknown, however, in Soviet literature there is data on their production during the war. True, these figures also 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 - 3,714,191, and from 1943 until the end of the war, it annually produced more than 3.4 million units of this type of weapon. Of these, carbines accounted for 419,084 in 1941, and 687,426 in 1942. Soviet authors explain the decline in production rates since 1943 by the fact that the needs of the active army for rifles were satisfied, and in addition, entire formations were re-equipped with submachine guns. Also of interest are the production figures for sniper rifles, the production of which was temporarily suspended in 1940. In 1942, after its resumption, the production volume amounted to 53,195 pieces, i.e. approximately the same as for the period from 1931 to 1938.

Mosin carbine arr. 1938 produced in 1944:

The latest modifications of the Mosin system repeating rifles were carbines of the 1938 and 1944 models. The first version was adopted on February 26, 1939, and the second on January 17, 1944. Carbines differ from rifles in their smaller size, weight and effective firing range. The main difference between both versions of carbines is the bayonet design. The 1938 carbine was supplied without a bayonet, and 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 firing position it is held by a ring with a spring latch. Shooting is possible only if the bayonet is in the firing position.
Having identical design and functional principles to the rifle, both versions of the carbines are almost identical to each other, except for the bayonet. The carbine barrels are shorter than those of the rifle, the sector sight is adjustable from 100 to 1000 m, the length of the sight line is 416 mm. The ammunition capacity, like that of a repeating rifle, is 4-g1 cartridge.
The effective firing 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. The sight of sniper rifles was installed, as a rule, at a distance of up to 800 m and only in very rare cases at a greater distance, although the properties of the optics, in principle, allowed 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 this time, such as self-loading and automatic rifles. At that time, machine guns had not yet become widespread and existed only as prototypes, but after the Second World War, all small arms operated on the automatic principle.
Carbines were primarily equipped with cavalry, artillery units and special units. Carbines of the 1938 model were probably produced until 1943-1944, and the 1944 model 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 credible sources that report the production of these carbines up to 1948.
This may well be true, since this type of weapon was used by the armies of socialist states, and later, for quite a long time, by various formations in third world countries.
Soldiers of Tsarist Russia fought with rifles and carbines of the Mosin system during the First World War and even before it. Red Army soldiers were armed with Mosin rifles during the Civil War. The Soviet infantry defended the Motherland with modernized weapons of this type during the Second World War, and they were used for many years after its end.
Experts all over the world are unanimous in the opinion that the Mosin system repeating rifle is one of the most remarkable designs. Its reliability and reliability under any climatic conditions are highly appreciated.

Characteristics: Mosin system rifle 1891/30

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

for 4-1-1 cartridge
Unloaded weight with bayonet, kg......4.50
Bayonet weight, kg................................................... ................................0.50
Weight of the PU optical sight, kg...............................................0 .27
Weight of the PE optical sight, kg...............................................0, 60
Muffler weight, kg................................................... ........................0.50
Weight of full clip, kg...................................0.12-0 ,13
Cartridge................................................. ...................................7.62x54 R
Barrel length, mm................................................... .......................730***

Sighting firing range, m....................................2000
Effective firing range, m...................600****
* Cartridge with a light bullet.
** With a fixed bayonet -1660 mm.
*** Free part - 657 mm.
**** In sniper version with optical sight - 600 m.
Specifications: Model 1938 repeater carbine
Caliber, mm........................................................ .....................................7.62

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

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

Barrel length, mm................................................... ...........................512**
Rifling/direction................................................... .....................4/p


* Cartridge with a light bullet.
** Free part - 439 mm.
Characteristics: 1944 model repeating carbine
Caliber, mm........................................................ .....................................7.62
Initial bullet speed (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 uncharged state, kg....................................3.90
Bayonet weight, kg................................................... ...............................0.40
Cartridge................................................. ...................................7.62x54 R
Barrel length, mm................................................... ................517***
Rifling/direction................................................... .....................4/p
Sighting firing range, m....................................1000
Effective firing range, m...................................400
* Cartridge with a light bullet.
** With bayonet in firing position - 1330 mm.
*** Free part - 444 mm.

Drummers

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

Model 1891 7.62 mm (3-line) rifle (Mosin rifle, three-ruler listen)) - a repeating rifle adopted by the Russian Imperial Army in 1891.

Name three-ruler comes from the caliber of the rifle barrel, which is three Russian lines(old measure of length equal to one tenth of an inch, or 2.54 mm - respectively, three lines equal 7.62 mm).

History of creation and production

In 1882, the Main Artillery Directorate of the Russian Empire set the task of developing a multi-shot, “repeat” rifle. In 1883, the “Commission for Testing Magazine Guns” was formed (guns were then the name for any hand-held long-barreled weapon, and the word “rifle” meant a type of gun) chaired by Major General N. I. Chagina.

As a result of long-term work in this area, the Russian army in 1889 was presented with a choice of two systems of repeating rifles - domestic, developed by Captain S.I. Mosin, and Belgian, developed by Leon Nagan. Tests revealed some superiority of the Belgian rifle over the Russian; in any case, the officers and soldiers who took part in the shooting tests of weapons unanimously spoke out in favor of Nagant rifle. However, senior management took into account that, for all its excellent qualities, the Belgian rifle misfired twice as much as the Mosin rifle, and also that the Russian rifle was simpler and cheaper to produce. Ultimately, the commission members compromised: in 1891, the Mosin rifle was adopted by the Russian army, on which a 5-round magazine of the Nagant design was installed.

The new model being produced contains parts proposed by Colonel Rogovtsev, the commission of Lieutenant General Chagin, Captain Mosin and gunsmith Nagan, so it is advisable to give the developed model a name: Russian 3-lin. rifle model 1891.

On April 16, 1891, Emperor Alexander III approved the model, crossing out the word “Russian”, so the rifle was adopted for service under the name “ three-line rifle model 1891».

Mosin retained the rights to the individual parts of the rifle he developed and awarded him the Grand Mikhailov Prize (for outstanding developments in artillery and rifle units).

However, the rifle did not remain without a personal name for long - very quickly the soldiers gave it the nickname “three-line”, under which it went down in history. The Mosin name was returned to the weapon only in Soviet times, during its modernization in 1930. Abroad, the Russian rifle has always been called "Mosin-Nagant".

Production of the rifle began in 1892 at 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 Chatellerault (French). Manufacture Nationale d'Armes de Châtelleraut).

Already in the first years after the rifle was put into service, changes began to be made to the original design during the production and operation of the weapon. Thus, in 1893, a wooden barrel guard was introduced to protect the shooter’s hands from burns, and in 1896, a new cleaning rod was introduced, longer and with a head of increased diameter that did not extend into the barrel, which simplified cleaning the weapon. The notch on the sides of the magazine box lid, which would wipe the uniform when carrying a weapon, was eliminated. These improvements were also made to the design of previously released rifles.

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

After the adoption of a cartridge with a pointed (“offensive”) bullet into service in 1908, in 1910 a new version of the rifle was adopted for service 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; three variants of the rifle were in production - dragoon, infantry and Cossack. During the war, the Russian military industry manufactured 3,286,232 three-line rifles, repaired and repaired 289,431.

Due to a catastrophic shortage of weapons and problems of domestic industry, the Russian government began to purchase rifles of several foreign systems abroad, and also ordered rifles from companies in the United States Remington And Westinghouse 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.

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

In the first years of Soviet power, there was a wide discussion about the advisability of modernizing or replacing the existing model of the rifle with a more advanced one. As a result of the discussion, a committee was formed in 1924 to modernize the rifle mod. 1891.

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

Mass production also began in 1932 sniper rifle mod. 1891/30(GAU index - 56-V-222A), distinguished by improved quality of processing of the barrel bore, the presence of an optical sight PE, PB or (later) PU and the shutter handle bent down. A total of 108,345 units were produced. sniper rifles, they were intensively used during the Soviet-Finnish and Great Patriotic War and proved to be a reliable and effective weapon. Currently, Mosin sniper rifles are of collector's value (especially the “registered” rifles that were awarded to the best Soviet snipers).

In 1938, a modernized one similar to the main model was also adopted carbine arr. 1938, which was a modification of the 1907 model carbine. It became 5 mm longer than its predecessor and was designed for targeted shooting at a range of up to 1,000 m. The carbine was intended for various branches of the military, in particular artillery, engineer troops, cavalry, communications units and logistics employees, such as transport drivers , who needed a light and easy-to-handle weapon, mostly for self-defense.

The latest rifle options were carbine arr. 1944, distinguished by the presence of a permanent needle bayonet and simplified manufacturing technology. Simultaneously with its introduction, the rifle itself, model 1891/1930. was discontinued from 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 infantry and other types of troops, since it became more convenient to fight with it in various earthen fortifications, buildings, dense thickets, etc., and its combat qualities were 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 into service in 1938, it was assumed that in the early 1940s it would almost completely displace the Mosin rifle in the Red Army and become the main weapon of the Soviet infantry, following the US Army, which adopted in 1936 armament self-loading Garand rifle. According to pre-war plans, it was planned to produce 1.8 million in 1941. SVT, in 1942 - 2 million. In fact, by the beginning of the war, over 1 million SVTs had been manufactured, and many first-line units and formations, mainly in the western military districts, received a standard number of self-loading rifles.

However, plans for the complete rearmament of the Red Army with automatic weapons were not carried out due to the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War - since 1941, the production of the SVT, which was more complex in comparison with the repeating rifle and submachine gun, was reduced significantly, and one of the main types of weapons of the Soviet army remained modernized rifle mod. 1891, 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, on the occupied territory of Belarus, a railway engineer T. E. Shavgulidze developed the design 45 mm rifle grenade launcher In total, in 1943-1944, in the workshops of the Minsk partisan formation, Soviet partisans manufactured 120 rifle grenade launchers of the Shavgulidze system, which were installed on rifles of the Mosin system.

Production of the main rifle mod. 1891/30 was discontinued early 1945 Carbine arr. 1944 was produced until the start of production of the Kalashnikov assault rifle. Rifles and carbines were gradually removed from the army's arsenal, replaced by the SKS carbine and Kalashnikov assault rifle(although a number of model 1944 carbines continued to be used in the paramilitary security system).

Design and principle of operation

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

The reflector cut-off is considered one of the key parts of the rifle design introduced by Mosin, ensuring the reliability and trouble-free operation of the weapon in any conditions. At the same time, its very presence was caused by the use of outdated cartridges with a rim, which were not very convenient for feeding from a magazine.

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

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages

• Good ballistics and high power of the cartridge (at the level of .30-06), despite the fact that many analogues at that time still used black powder;
• Greater survivability of the barrel and bolt;
• Undemanding manufacturing technology and large tolerances;
• Reliability, trouble-free operation of 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;
• The magazine box is well closed at the bottom;
• Durable stock and butt;
• Cheap frame clip;
• Easily removable shutter for cleaning;
• Sufficient rate of fire of the rifle;
• A separate combat bolt cylinder, replacing which if broken is much cheaper than replacing the entire bolt;
• Cheap replacement of wooden parts.

Flaws

• Straight neck of the butt, less convenient when shooting than the semi-pistol version on the latest models of rifles at that time, although more durable and convenient in bayonet combat;
• The Mosin safety is very simple, but inconvenient to use and short-lived due to the coloring of the safety protrusion with frequent use (how much a safety is needed on a repeating rifle is a moot point);
• Some lag behind advanced foreign analogues in the design of small parts and accessories, for example - outdated and quickly loosening stock rings, a sight vulnerable to impacts, less convenient than the side, lower “infantry” swivels (since 1910, replaced by also not the most convenient slots for belt passages, originally available on the dragoon rifle), inconvenient ramrod stop, etc.;
• Low quality of wooden parts due to the use of cheap wood, especially on later releases

Usage

The rifle was actively used from 1891 until the end of World War II.

Video

Rifle shooting, weapon handling, etc.:

The Mosin rifle, also called simply “Mosinka” or three-ruler, is the most famous rifle in the post-Soviet space. Adopted back in 1891, it continued to be widely used until the end of the 50s of the 20th century. For more than half a century, the Mosin rifle faithfully served first the Russian and then the Soviet soldier.

The caliber of the Mosin rifle is 7.62 mm. The name three-line comes from the rifle's caliber, which is three lines, an ancient measure of length equal to one-tenth of an inch or 2.54 mm.

Based on the Mosin rifle, a whole range of hunting and sporting weapons, both rifled and smooth-bore, were created. Let's find out more about this legendary rifle.

History of the Mosin rifle

By 1889, the Russian army was in dire need of a new rifle, a special commission was created and development work began. The commission examined 25 variants of rifles of various modifications and systems, but only two rifles attracted the close attention of the commission members: the Mosin rifle and the Nogan rifle.

The Mosin rifle was developed on the basis of his earlier single-shot rifle, from which the receiver and bolt group were borrowed, the idea of ​​​​designing an in-line middle magazine with burst loading was borrowed by Mosin from the Mannlicher rifle.

The Nagant rifle was presented in a caliber of about 8 mm, but Nagant committed to making a rifle in a caliber of 7.62 mm. The Nagant rifle had a magazine of extremely successful design with loading from clips.

Both rifles were sent to the troops for testing, as a result of which the Mosin rifle was considered more successful, as it had fewer delays when feeding a cartridge from the magazine.

The commission worked out a compromise solution: the Mosin rifle was adopted with improvements taken from the Nagan rifle and modifications based on the proposals of the commission members.

In 1892, production of the Mosin rifle began at three Russian arms factories: Izhevsk, Tula and Sestroretsk. The production capacity of these factories was not enough, so an order for the production of 500 thousand rifles was placed at the French arms factory in the city of Chatellerault.

Different sources indicate differently the year of the first use of the Mosin rifle in combat conditions: either in 1893 during a military clash between a Russian detachment and Afghans in the Pamirs, or in 1900-1901 during the suppression of the Yihetuan uprising in China.

The first stage of arming the Russian army with the Mosin rifle was completed in 1897; by the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, about 3,800,000 rifles had been supplied to the army. During the war with Japan of 1904-1905, significant shortcomings of the rifle were revealed.

In 1910, the Mosin rifle underwent significant modernization for a new “offensive” cartridge with a pointed bullet.

By the time Russia entered World War I in 1914, the Russian army was armed with more than 4.5 million Mosin rifles, which were produced in four variants: dragoon, infantry, Cossack and carbine. During the First World War, the Russian Mosin rifle was inferior in its survivability, rate of fire and combat accuracy to the rifles of Russia's opponents (Austria, Germany, Turkey).

The main disadvantages of the Mosin rifle identified during the First World War: poor design of the clip, which reduces the rate of fire during battle, unsuccessful fastening of the bayonet with a clamp, poor design of the stock rings.

But an even bigger problem was the lag of the domestic industry, the rush in the manufacture of rifles, which resulted in the extremely low quality of rifles supplied to the troops.

During the Civil War, two modifications of the Mosin rifle were produced: dragoon and infantry. After the end of the Civil War, since 1922, only the Dragoon rifle and carbine of the 1907 model were produced.

In the first years of Soviet power, the question arose about modernizing the Mosin rifle. As a result of the modernization of the dragoon rifle carried out in 1924, the Mosin rifle of the 1891/1930 model appeared. It is the Mosin rifle of the 1891/1930 model. used in the 20-30s for training shooting of the “Voroshilov shooters”.

In 1932, based on the Mosin rifle, mass production of a sniper rifle of the 1891/1930 model began; the rifle had an improved bore quality, it was equipped with an optical sight PE, PB, PU. In total, more than 100 thousand of these rifles were produced; they were actively used during the Soviet-Finnish and Great Patriotic Wars.

In 1938, a new self-loading rifle, the SVT, was put into service, which was supposed to completely replace the Mosin rifle in the army and become the main weapon of the Soviet infantry. But these plans were not destined to come true; in connection with the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War in 1941, the production of the SVT rifle was reduced significantly and the Mosin rifle of the 1891/1930 model remained the main weapon of the Soviet army. Production of the Mosin rifle model 1891/1930. was discontinued in 1945. The Mosin rifle was gradually removed from the army's arsenal, being replaced by a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

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

Carbines based on the Mosin rifle

The first version of the carbine based on the Mosin rifle was created in 1907. The Mosin carbine of the 1907 model had a shorter barrel and a shorter firing range, 1000 meters, compared to 2000 meters for the Mosin rifle.

The second version of the carbine based on the Mosin rifle was created in 1938; this carbine was a modification of the 1907 model carbine. It was 5 mm longer than the 1907 carbine, but also had a firing range of 1000 meters. The Mosin carbine of the 1938 model was intended to arm various branches of the military: artillery, sapper units, cavalry, communications units, and transport drivers.

The latest version of the carbine was the Mosin carbine of the 1944 model. This carbine featured simplified manufacturing technology and a fixed bayonet. Simultaneously with the adoption of the Mosin carbine of the 1944 model, the release of the Mosin rifle of the 1891/1930 model. was discontinued. It was the Mosin carbine of the 1944 model that became the prototype of the hunting versions of the Mosin rifle.

Design and principle of operation

Trunk

The barrel of the Mosin rifle is rifled, has 4 grooves, in early models of the rifle it is trapezoidal, in later models it is rectangular. The caliber of the barrel along the fields is 7.62 mm, or 3 Russian lines, hence the name of the rifle three-line. Rifling caliber 7.94-7.96 mm.

At the rear of the barrel there is a chamber and a threaded stump with which the receiver is attached. Above the chamber there is a factory mark, by which you can determine the manufacturer of the rifle and the year of its production.

Magazine box and reflector cut-off

The Mosin rifle magazine holds 4 rounds arranged in one row. The cartridges are located in the magazine in such a way that their edges do not interfere with the supply of cartridges; according to modern standards, the magazine has an unusual shape.

A special feature of the Mosin rifle magazine is the presence of a special cut-off reflector, which separates the cartridges in the magazine from the cartridge in the barrel. Thanks to the cut-off reflector, there are no delays when feeding cartridges, the cartridges do not catch on the edges of each other, and it also serves as a reflector for spent cartridges.

The reflector cut-off is a key part of the rifle; it was introduced into its design by Mosin himself, and the rifle owes its reliability to it. Although the cut-off reflector was introduced into the design of the rifle due to the use of outdated cartridges with a rim (welt).

Trigger

The trigger mechanism of the Mosin rifle consists of the following parts:

• Trigger
• Trigger spring acting as a sear
• Hairpin

The rifle's trigger is long, tight, without the so-called warning, that is, the trigger stroke is not divided into two parts, with different trigger forces.

Gate

The Mosin rifle bolt consists of the following parts:

• Bolt stem with comb and handle
• Combat larva
• Ejector
• Trigger
• Drummer
• Mainspring (twisted, cylindrical)
• Connecting strip

The mainspring is compressed when the bolt is unlocked by turning the handle. When the bolt is locked, the firing pin rests against the sear. The firing pin of a Mosin rifle can be cocked with the bolt closed; to do this, you need to pull back the trigger (the tip screwed onto the shank of the firing pin). In order to put the rifle on safety, you need to pull the trigger back all the way and turn it counterclockwise.

Stock, receiver

The Mosin rifle stock was solid, made of birch or walnut. The neck of the stock is straight; this form of stock is more convenient for bayonet fighting, but less convenient for shooting than a semi-pistol.

Most Mosin rifles have a wooden barrel covering the top of the barrel, which protects the barrel from damage and the shooter’s hand from burns.
The stock and receiver are attached to the rifle using two screws and two stock rings.

Sights

Initially, the Mosin rifle was equipped with open sights consisting of a front sight and rear sight.

The sight of the Mosin rifle of the 1891 model is stepped, on the rifle of the 1891/30 model it is sectorial. The stepped sight consists of two rear sights: the first is used when shooting at distances of 400, 600, 800, 1,000 and 1,200 steps; to use the second, you need to raise the aiming bar to a vertical position; it allows you to fire at distances from 1,300 to 3,200 steps.

The sector sight has only one rear sight, which can be installed in any position from 50 to 2000 meters in increments of 50 meters.

The front sight is located at the muzzle of the barrel; the Mosin rifle of the 1891/30 model received a ring front sight.

Since 1932, the production of Mosin rifles in the sniper version began; PE, PB, and PU were installed on them. They provided a 3.5x magnification and had acceptable accuracy and accuracy. PE, PB, and PU were installed not only on Mosin sniper rifles, but also on regular ones.

Nowadays, “frolovkas” are practically not used in hunting; some of them may be of purely collector’s interest.

Carbine KO-91/30

The KO-91/30 carbine is a civilian (hunting) version of the carbine created on the basis of the Mosin carbine of the 1944 model. Designed for hunting large and medium game. There is a fuse. The KO-91/30 carbine can be used both with a conventional sight and with, and the installed one does not interfere with the use of a conventional one.

Technical characteristics of the carbine KO-91/30:

• Carbine length: 1232 mm
• Barrel length: 745 mm
• Carabiner weight: 4.0 kg
• Caliber: 7.62 mm
• Cartridge: 7.62x54R
• Initial bullet speed: 800 m/s
• Sighting range (with open sight): up to 300 meters
• Magazine capacity: 5 rounds

Carbine KO-38

The KO-38 carbine is essentially a 1938 model Mosin army carbine, adapted for use for hunting purposes. It was supplied to hunting farms after it was removed from service.

Technical characteristics of the KO-38 carbine:

• Carbine length: 1020 mm
• Barrel length: 512 mm
• Carabiner weight: 3.5 kg
• Caliber: 7.62 mm
• Cartridge: 7.62x54R
• Magazine capacity: 5 rounds

Carbine KO-44

The KO-44 carbine is a 1944 model Mosin army carbine used for hunting purposes.

Technical characteristics of the KO-44 carbine:

• Carbine length: 1020 mm
• Barrel length: 517 mm
• Carbine weight: 3.9 kg
• Caliber: 7.62 mm
• Cartridge: 7.62x54R
• Initial bullet speed: 820 m/s
• Sighting range (with open sight): up to 1000 meters
• Magazine capacity: 5 rounds

Carbine KO-8.2

The KO-8.2 carbine is essentially a Mosin rifle, with an 8.2 mm barrel. Designed for hunting medium and large animals. It has a fairly high muzzle velocity and a fairly low weight.

Technical characteristics of the carbine KO-8.2:

• Carbine length: 1010 mm
• Barrel length: 520 mm
• Carabiner weight: 3.0-3.6 kg
• Caliber: 7.62 mm
• Cartridge: 7.62x54R
• Initial bullet speed: 440 m/s
• Magazine capacity: 5 rounds

Carbine OTs-48

The OTs-48 carbine is a hunting carbine based on the Mosin rifle, intended for hunting large animals. Uses 7.62x54R cartridges. The barrel and bolt are from a Mosin rifle, the stock has been replaced with more modern ones. Produced in very small quantities, most often on special orders.

Model 1891 three-line rifle 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 rib designed by V.P. Konovalov, the introduction of which was necessary due to the transition in 1908 to pointed bullets, which differed 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 release. The Cossack rifle differs from the dragoon rifle in the absence of a bayonet.

Three-line rifle of the 1891 model in the “dragoon rifle” and “Cossack rifle” variants of the 1910 modification, with a V.P. rail. Konovalova

7.62 mm (3-line) rifle model 1891 (Mosin rifle, three-line) - a repeating rifle adopted by the Russian Imperial Army in 1891. It was actively used from 1891 to the end of the Second World War, and was modernized many times during this period. The name three-ruler comes from the caliber of the rifle barrel, which is equal to three Russian lines (the old measure of length was 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 models of sporting and hunting weapons, both rifled and smooth-bore, were created.

In 1889, Sergei Ivanovich Mosin proposed a three-line (7.62 mm) rifle for the competition, developed on the basis of his earlier single-shot rifle, from which the bolt group and receiver were borrowed almost unchanged; Some ideas regarding the design of the store were borrowed from the newest 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 fully comply with all the requirements.

Later, at the very end of the same year, the Belgian Leon Nagant also proposed his system for the competition (in the same 1889, it had already lost in the competition to arm the Belgian army with the Mauser rifle). There were three copies of Nagan rifles, all magazine-operated, 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 considered generally benign, but required improvement. Of particular interest to the Commission was a well-designed magazine loaded from clips, reminiscent of the magazine of the Mauser system rifle that had just been adopted 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 the new rifle, in modern language - to draw up technical specifications for it. It was decided to adopt a 7.62 mm caliber (three Russian lines), a barrel and a sight based on the Lebel model (but with a change in the direction of the rifling stroke from the left to the right adopted in France), a longitudinally sliding rotary bolt, locked with a separate combat mask (since the replacement cylinders in the event of a breakdown are cheaper than replacing the entire bolt), the magazine is in the middle, permanent, loaded from a frame clip with five cartridges. As a result, in 1889 the commission was renamed the Commission to develop a model of a small-caliber gun.

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

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

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

Based on the results of initial tests, the Nagant rifle showed some advantage, and at the first stage of the competition the Commission voted for it by 14 votes to 10. However, this vote was not decisive, since the first stage of the competition was essentially of an introductory nature. In addition, many members of the commission considered that the tests showed the equivalence of the presented samples - this preliminary assessment of the Mosin design, in their opinion, was associated mainly with the lower quality of finish compared to the Nagan demonstration samples, while the Mosin rifle as a whole was simpler and structurally more reliable. The difference in the quality of finishing was quite natural, taking into account the fact that the Mosin rifles at that time were ordinary prototype weapons manufactured in semi-handicraft conditions, which were at the very early stage of development - while the Nagant rifles presented for comparison with them, executed “with amazing precision” and very well finished, they represented a further development of a design that had already been submitted to a competition in Belgium and was ready for mass production back in 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 inaccurately, the guns and clips of Nagant, 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 were equally good. In his opinion, in view of the stated circumstances, 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 reconsidered their opinion. During test firing, the Mosin rifles had 217 delays when feeding cartridges from the magazine, and the Nagan - 557, almost three times more. Considering the fact that the competition essentially boiled down to finding the optimal store design, this alone clearly spoke of the advantage of the Mosin system in terms of reliability, despite any “adverse conditions.” In addition, the Commission came to the conclusion that: “... the foreign Nagan’s pack guns, compared with the same caps. Mosin, are a more complex mechanism to manufacture... and the cost of each gun will undoubtedly increase.”

Moreover, we were talking about more than significant costs: even according to the most conservative estimates, the production of the Nagant system would have resulted in additional costs in the amount of 2 to 4 million gold rubles for the first million rifles produced, that is, 2-4 rubles for each, moreover, that the total amount required to rearm one Russian soldier averaged about 12 rubles. In addition, an additional 3-4 months were required for the development of the design by industry, in the conditions of Russia's already emerging lag behind developed European countries in rearmament 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 already produced Berdan rifle.

So in 1891, upon completion of military tests, the Commission developed 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, it directly used a locking mechanism bar, a safety cocking device, a bolt, a cut-off reflector, a magazine cover latch, a method of connecting the feeder to the cover, making it possible to disconnect the cover with the feeder from the magazine, a hinged swivel; from the Nagant system - the idea of ​​​​placing a feed mechanism on the magazine door and opening it down, a method of filling 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 developed by members of the Commission, with the participation of Mosin.

Changes borrowed from the Nagant rifle (the shape of the loading clip, fastening the feed spring to the magazine cover, the shape of the cut-off reflector) somewhat increased the ease 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 loading, the magazine can be loaded with one cartridge at a time. If you disconnect the feed spring from the magazine cap, cartridges will still feed, although there is a greater risk of losing the spring during cleaning.

Probably, the name “Commission Rifle Model 1891” would most fully reflect the authorship of the design of this rifle, by analogy with the German “Commission Rifle” (Kommissionsgewehr) Model 1888, also developed at one time by a 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 regarding 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 gunsmith Nagan, so it is advisable to give the developed model a name: Russian 3-line rifle of the model 1891".

On April 16, 1891, Emperor Alexander III approved the model, crossing out the word “Russian”, so the rifle was adopted for service under the name “three-line rifle of the 1891 model.”

Mosin retained the rights to the individual parts of the rifle he developed and awarded him the Grand Mikhailov Prize (for outstanding developments in artillery and rifle units).

This was not the first time that a model created on the basis of a specific 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 Karle system (in the original Russian documentation - Karlya) was adopted in 1867 as a “quick-firing needle rifle of the 1867 model.”

Subsequently, however, voices began to be heard that such a name violated the established tradition of naming small arms models of the Russian army, since the name of the designer was crossed out from the name of the model adopted for service. As a result, in 1924, Mosin’s surname 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 OSOAVIAKHIM in 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 “mod. 1891/30”, without mentioning any names, despite the fact that the designations of other models (self-loading rifle and carbine by F.V. Tokarev, submachine guns by G.S. Shpagin and A.I. Sudaev, etc. ) in similar literature were almost always provided with notes like “designs of such and such” or “systems of such and such.” Thus, it is likely that during this period they continued to officially use the “impersonal” name in relation to the rifle based on the years of its adoption. In the manual 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 purpose.”

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

Production and operation of the three-line

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 a Russian detachment in the Pamirs and Afghans; according to other information, during the suppression of the Yihetuan (“Boxer”) uprising in China in 1900-1901.

Already in the first years after the rifle was put into service, changes began to be made to the original design during the production and operation of the weapon. Thus, in 1893, a wooden barrel guard was introduced to protect the shooter’s hands from burns; in 1896, a new cleaning rod was introduced, longer and with a head of increased diameter that did not go through the barrel, which simplified cleaning the weapon. The notch on the sides of the magazine box lid, which would wipe the uniform when carrying a weapon, was eliminated. 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 of a cartridge with a pointed (“offensive”) bullet into service in 1908, in 1910 a new version of the rifle was adopted for service 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, with four variants of the rifle in production - dragoon, infantry, Cossack and carbine. During the war, the Russian military industry manufactured 3,286,232 three-line rifles, repaired and repaired 289,431.

Due to a catastrophic shortage of weapons and problems in the domestic industry, the Russian government began purchasing rifles from several foreign systems abroad, and also ordered 1.5 million model rifles from Remington and Westinghouse in the United States. 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 Chatellerault. Due to the same shortage of weapons, it was even necessary to arm the shooters with imported weapons chambered in 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 Arisaka rifles, supplemented by a small number that used the same cartridge “automatic rifles” (automatic rifles) of Fedorov’s own system, which were available to selected shooters in the company.

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

During the course of hostilities, significant shortcomings of the rifle in its then form were revealed, 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 accessories, such as fastening a bayonet with a collar, a ramrod stop device, or the design of stock rings, which when directly compared with German and Austrian models, they left a very unfavorable impression.

The greatest number of problems, however, were caused by the lag 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, which are more demanding to work with. feed mechanism, as well as the heavy contamination of both rifles and cartridges that is inevitable in trench warfare.

Rifles taken from the reserve and transferred to the front without modification caused many delays when reloading, some of them could not fire even one full magazine without disrupting the feed. Numerous organizational shortcomings were also revealed, primarily the disgusting training of ordinary riflemen and poor supplies, 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, from 1922, only the dragoon rifle and carbine mod. 1907.

In the first years of Soviet power, there was a wide discussion about the advisability of modernizing or replacing the existing model of the rifle with a more advanced one. During its course, it was concluded that the rifle mod. 1891, although inferior to new foreign analogues, subject to a number of improvements, it still fully satisfies the existing requirements for this type of weapon. It was also noted that the introduction of a new type of repeating rifle would be essentially pointless, since the repeating rifle itself is a rapidly becoming obsolete type of weapon, and the cost of developing a fundamentally new type would be a waste of money.

In addition, it was noted that a change in the rifle model must necessarily be accompanied by a change in the standard rifle cartridge to a new one, devoid of the disadvantages of the existing three-line, in particular, having a smaller caliber with a greater lateral load of the bullet and a cartridge case without a rim - the development of a completely new rifle model for an outdated cartridge would also was regarded as meaningless. At the same time, the state of the economy, still emerging from post-revolutionary devastation, did not at all give reason for optimism regarding the possibility of such a large-scale rearmament - as well as the complete rearmament of the Red Army with an automatic (self-loading) rifle proposed by Fedorov.

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, while maintaining the current model magazine rifle, supplementing it with a large number of light hand-held rifles (in his terminology - “ maneuverable”) machine guns of a newly developed successful model.

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

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

In the 1920s - 1930s in the USSR, Mosin rifles were used in the general education system and OSOAVIAKHIM for shooting training, and the “Voroshilov shooters” movement 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 (GAU index - 56-B-222A), distinguished by improved quality of processing of the barrel bore, the presence of an optical sight PE, PB or (later) PU and a bolt handle bent down. A total of 108,345 units were produced. sniper rifles. Currently, Mosin sniper rifles are of collector's value (especially the “registered” rifles that were awarded to the best Soviet snipers).

In 1938, a carbine mod., modernized similarly to the main model, was also adopted. 1938, which was a modification of the 1907 model carbine. It became 5 mm longer than its predecessor and was designed for targeted shooting at a range of up to 1000 m. The carbine was intended for various branches of the military, in particular artillery, engineer troops, cavalry, communications units and logistics employees, such as transport drivers, who needed a light and easy-to-handle weapon, mostly for self-defense.

The latest variant of the rifle was the carbine mod. 1944, distinguished by the presence of a permanent needle bayonet and simplified manufacturing technology. Simultaneously with its introduction, the rifle itself, model 1891/1930. was discontinued from 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 infantry and other types of troops, since it became more convenient to fight with it in various earthen fortifications, buildings, dense thickets, etc., and its combat qualities were 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 into service in 1938, it was assumed that in the early 1940s it would almost completely displace the Mosin rifle in the Red Army and become the main weapon of the Soviet infantry, following the US Army, which adopted in 1936 armament self-loading Garand rifle. According to pre-war plans, in 1941 it was planned to produce 1.8 million SVT, in 1942 - 2 million. In fact, by the beginning of the war, over 1 million SVT had been produced, and many first-line units and formations, mainly in the western military districts, received regular number of self-loading rifles.

However, plans for the complete re-equipment of the Red Army with automatic weapons were not carried out due to the outbreak of the Soviet-German war - since 1941, the production of SVT as more complex in comparison with the repeating rifle and submachine gun was reduced significantly, and one of the main types of weapons of the Soviet army there remained a modernized rifle mod. 1891, 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, on 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 installed on Mosin system rifles.

Production of the main rifle mod. 1891/30 was discontinued in early 1945. Carbine arr. 1944 was produced until the start of production of the Kalashnikov assault rifle. Rifles and carbines were gradually removed from the army's arsenal, replaced by the SKS carbine and the Kalashnikov assault rifle (although a number of model 1944 carbines 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 the carbine arr. 1938. The “new” carbines were produced in large quantities and entered service with private security forces 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 for infantry and irregular armed forces, Mosin rifles were used in many wars - from Korea and Vietnam to Afghanistan and conflicts in the post-Soviet space.

Design

Barrel and receiver

The rifle barrel is rifled (4 rifling, curling from left to top to right). Early samples have a trapezoidal rifling shape. Later, when they were convinced that the metal of the bullet was not enveloping the barrel, the simplest rectangular one was used. The caliber of the barrel, measured as the distance between the opposite fields of the rifling, is nominally equal to 7.62 mm, or 3 Russian lines (in reality, as shown by measurements carried out on a large number of rifles of different years of production and varying degrees of preservation, - 7.62 ... 7.66 mm). The rifling 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 using a bullet entrance. Above the chamber there is a factory mark that allows you to identify the manufacturer and year of manufacture of the rifle.

At the rear, a receiver is tightly screwed onto the threaded stump of the barrel, which serves to house the bolt. A magazine box with a feed mechanism, a cut-off reflector and a trigger mechanism are attached to it, in turn.

Magazine box and reflector cut-off

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

The cartridges in the magazine are arranged in one row, in such a position that their edges do not interfere with feeding, which is due to the shape of the magazine, which is unusual 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 into the receiver, preventing possible delays in feeding caused by the edges of the cartridges engaging each other, and also plays the role of a reflector of spent cartridges. Before the modernization of 1930, it was a single part, after which it consisted of a blade with a reflective protrusion and a spring part.

The reflector cut-off is considered one of the key parts of the rifle design introduced by Mosin, ensuring the reliability and trouble-free operation of the weapon in any conditions. At the same time, its very presence was caused by the use of outdated cartridges with a rim, which were 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 cartridge with a rim, did not have a cut-off reflector, 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 edge of the upper cartridge stood in front of the edge of the next one, and their engagement was excluded (herringbone). It was this scheme that later became generally accepted for magazines chambered for welted (having a rim) cartridges.

Trigger

The trigger mechanism consists of a trigger, a trigger spring, which also serves as a sear, a screw and a pin. The rifle's trigger is long, quite tight and without “warning” - that is, the trigger stroke is not divided into two stages with different forces.

Gate

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

It consists of a stem with a comb and a handle, a combat cylinder, an ejector, a trigger, a firing pin, a mainspring and a connecting strip. On a sniper rifle, the bolt handle is elongated and bent downwards to improve the convenience of reloading the weapon and the possibility of installing an optical sight.

The bolt houses a firing pin and a coiled cylindrical mainspring. The mainspring is compressed when the bolt is unlocked by turning the handle; when locked, the firing pin cocking rests on the sear. It is possible to cock the firing pin manually with the bolt closed; to do this, you need to pull the trigger back (in this case, the trigger is the tip screwed onto the shank of the firing pin). To engage the safety, the trigger must be pulled back as far as it will go and turned counterclockwise.

Stock and receiver

The stock connects the parts of the weapon; it consists of a forearm, a neck and a butt. The Mosin rifle stock is solid, made of birch or walnut wood. The neck of the stock is straight, more durable and suitable for bayonet fighting, although less comfortable when shooting than the semi-pistol necks of many later models. Since 1894, a separate part was introduced - a barrel guard, which covers the barrel from above, protecting it from damage, and the shooter's hands from burns. The butt of the dragoon modification is somewhat narrower, and the forend is thinner than the infantry modification. The stock and receiver are attached to the weapon mechanisms using two screws and two stock rings with ring springs. The stock rings are split on most rifles and blind on the Dragoon model. 1891.

Sights

The sight is stepped on the rifle mod. 1891, sector on a rifle mod. 1891/30. Consists of an aiming bar with a clamp, an aiming block and a spring.

On a rifle mod. 1891, the sight was graduated in hundreds of steps. There were two rear sights on the sighting bar: one was used when shooting at 400, 600, 800, 1,000 and 1,200 steps, and the second, for the use of 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 the modernized one, with the Konovalov system rail, designed for a light, pointed “offensive” bullet of the 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 barrel near the muzzle. At arr. 1891/30 received a ring ear muff.

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

Bayonet

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

The rifle was brought into normal combat with a bayonet, that is, when firing it had to be fixed, otherwise the point of impact would shift significantly and at a relatively long distance it became almost impossible to hit anything with the weapon without a new reduction to normal combat. When shooting with a bayonet at a distance of 100 m, the average point of impact (MPO) on a rifle reduced to normal combat without it deviates to the left by 6-8 cm and downward by 8-10 cm, which is compensated by the 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 light of which it was very practical that its edges were not sharpened, like knife-shaped bayonets, since, with the established method of carrying, this could create significant inconvenience when using the weapon and cause injuries when handling it.

The manual prescribed that the bayonet should be removed, 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 due to its constant presence 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 using a bayonet clamp; the shape of the blade was also slightly 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 modernized rifles also had a bayonet with a namusnik (an early version); later they began to make a namusnik on the rifle itself.

Carbine arr. 1944 had an integral switch bayonet of Semin’s own design. The carbines are zeroed with the bayonet in the firing position.

An interesting fact is that the sniper version of the Mosin rifle also had a bayonet, and it was set extremely tightly. In this case, it served as a muzzle weight, 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 conventional rifles in the infantry, on the contrary, had a negative effect on the combat of the rifle.

Rifle Accessory

Each rifle was supplied with an accessory consisting of a wiper, a screwdriver, a muzzle pad for cleaning the barrel, a ramrod coupling, a pin, a bristle brush, an oil can with two compartments - for a solution for cleaning barrels and oil, as well as a gun belt.

Combat accuracy and fire efficiency

Rifles mod. 1891 and 1891/30 were high-precision weapons, allowing you to confidently hit a single target at a distance of up to 400 m, with 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 of high-speed shooting 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 the chest target, hitting it with 52 bullets. Subsequently, Nemtsev’s rapid-fire method became widespread among the troops.

Mosin sniper rifles of pre-war production were distinguished by amazing, by the standards of their time, combat quality, largely due to the barrel with a choke (narrowing of the channel from the treasury to the muzzle), with a difference in diameter between the breech and muzzle parts of 2-3%. When fired from such a barrel, the bullet is additionally compressed, which prevents it from “walking” along the barrel bore.

Advantages of the three-line

• Good ballistics and high power of the cartridge (at level .30-06), despite the fact that many analogues at that time still used black powder;
• Greater survivability of the barrel and bolt;
• Undemanding manufacturing technology and large tolerances;
• Reliability, trouble-free operation of 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;
• Easily removable shutter for cleaning;
• A separate combat bolt cylinder, replacing which if broken is much cheaper than replacing the entire bolt;
• Cheap replacement of wooden parts.

Flaws

• An outdated cartridge with a rim that made it difficult to feed from the magazine and required the introduction of an otherwise redundant part, quite complex to manufacture and vulnerable to damage - a cut-off reflector (later, during modernization, replaced by two parts that were easier to manufacture; however, 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 the Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield rifles with a double-row arrangement of cartridges, which made it possible to increase the capacity of the rifle magazine from 5 to 8-10 rounds);
• Horizontal arrangement of the bolt cylinder lugs when locking, increasing dispersion; rifles with the best fighting already at that time had a vertical arrangement of the lugs with the bolt locked;
• A long and difficult descent without “warning”, interfering with accurate shooting;
• Frame non-spring clip, making loading difficult; The spring plate clips that already existed at that time, including the Mosin clip, were more advanced, although more expensive than the accepted Nagan clip;
• A long and extremely obsolete needle bayonet with a cranked neck, mounted on the barrel, and not on the stock;
• Infantry and dragoon rifles were sighted with a bayonet, that is, when shooting, it had to be on the rifle, otherwise the point of impact shifted significantly, which made the weapon ready for battle cumbersome; the bayonet became loose over time, as a result of which the accuracy of shooting from the rifle decreased; the Cossack rifle could be sighted without a bayonet, but was still too heavy and generally inconvenient for shooting from a horse and being carried by a cavalryman; The loosening of the bayonet has been eliminated in the mod. 1891/30, but the bayonet still had to be on the weapon when firing; This problem was completely solved only on the carbine mod. 1944 with the introduction of an integral switch bayonet, which also remained on the weapon when firing, but could be folded, increasing the ease of handling;
• A short bolt handle that is not bent to the bottom, making it difficult to open it, especially when the cartridge case is tightly “slung” in the chamber; the handle is strongly moved forward due to the design of the bolt and its horizontal position without bending down, which forced the shooter to remove the butt from the shoulder when reloading, thereby reducing the rate of fire; (with the exception of sniper modifications, which had a longer handle bent down); advanced models of those years already had a handle that was set far back, bent downwards, which made it possible to reload the weapon without removing the butt from the shoulder, thereby increasing the rate of fire - the handle of the Lee-Metford rifle can be considered a reference in this regard;
• It is worth noting that both the experimental Mosin rifle of 1885 and the Nagan rifle had a bolt handle moved back, located in a special cutout, separated from the window for ejecting spent cartridges by a jumper, which also strengthened the receiver; however, during testing of the 1885 rifle, it turned out that with this arrangement of the handle there were often delays during reloading, caused by the fact that the long sleeves of the soldier's overcoat fell between the bolt stem and the receiver, and it was considered necessary to abandon the separate cutout for the handle, returning to the same configuration receiver, like on a Berdan rifle;
• Straight neck of the butt, less convenient when shooting than the semi-pistol version on the latest models of rifles at that time, although more durable and convenient in bayonet combat;
• The Mosin safety is very simple, but inconvenient to use and short-lived due to the coloring of the safety protrusion with frequent use (how much a safety is needed on a repeating rifle is a moot point);
• Some lag behind advanced foreign analogues in the design of small parts and accessories, for example - outdated and quickly loosening stock rings, a sight vulnerable to impacts, less convenient than the side, lower “infantry” swivels (since 1910, replaced by also not the most convenient slots for belt passages, originally available on the dragoon rifle), inconvenient ramrod stop, etc.;
• Low quality wooden parts due to the use of cheap wood, especially on later releases.

Technical characteristics of the three-line Mosin 1891 (infantry rifle)

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

Performance characteristics of the Mosin rifle 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

2 740

How the Mosin rifle was created - the most famous Russian weapon of the First World War

The S.I. Mosin rifle - the Russian “three-line” - became one of the most recognizable and famous symbols not only of the First World War, but in general of all the victories and defeats of Russian weapons in the first half of the 20th century, from the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 . and ending with the bloody epic of the Great Patriotic War.

In terms of its characteristics, even at the time of adoption, it was by no means particularly outstanding in comparison with its analogues. Its fame and long life - modifications of the "three-line" are in service in different countries and are still in demand among weapon lovers - were ensured by its amazing simplicity and reliability.

“Magazine” versus “single-charger”

Energetic research to create a multi-shot rifle operating on the “magazine principle” of feeding a cartridge was launched in the second half of the 19th century in all leading European countries. Civil War 1861-1865 in the USA, in whose battles Spencer and Henry repeating rifles were widely used, convincingly proved that the future lies not in single-shot, but in repeating infantry weapons.

As a reaction to these events, in 1882, by decision of the Minister of War P.S. Vannovsky, a “Special Commission for testing repeating rifles” was created. The Commission was headed by a prominent domestic gunsmith, Major General N.I. Chagin, and its members included professional gunsmiths, such as Alexander von der Hoven, a major specialist in the field of small arms and the author of many scientific works. From July 1883, artillery officer Sergei Ivanovich Mosin, who then held the post of head of the tool workshop of the Tula Arms Plant, also began to participate in the work of the commission.

Commission N.I. Chagina, fortunately, did not become another “paper project”. In less than seven years of its work, specialists and designers have studied and tested over 150 magazine systems for military-style shotguns. Among them were gun systems of famous foreign designers - Hotchkiss, Remington, Winchester, Fruhwirth, Gra-Kropachek, Lee, Larsen, Mannlicher, Mauser and others. At the same time, various systems of Russian gunsmiths were studied, as well as the internal and attached magazines they proposed.

It is important to note that, although the Russian weapons school was far from leading in Europe, nevertheless, among its representatives there were many bright nuggets of inventors. All of them were either professional gunsmiths (Kvashnevsky, Malkov, Varaksin, Ignatovich, Sergeev) or officers (Veltishchev, Tenner, Witz, Lutkovsky, Tsymbalyuk, Mosin and others). Within the framework of the Commission N.I. Chagin, they all had the opportunity to offer, test, and discuss their products in open discussions. The commission worked openly, seriously and very conscientiously.

Sergey Mosin. Photo from ITAR-TASS dossier

Despite the fact that the entire arms world relied on repeating rifles, in Russian army circles there were many traditionalists who seriously believed that even by the end of the 19th century the bullet was “still the same fool”, and the bayonet was still “well done” " Among them there were sometimes very authoritative figures.

Famous military theorist and teacher General M.I. Dragomirov was not only a convinced skeptic of repeating rifles, but also of firearms in general. “All improvements in firearms,” wrote General Dragomirov, “only lead to the fact that the bullet becomes somewhat less stupid, but it has never been and never will be a good guy.” In his article “Army Notes” M.I. Dragomirov called shooting from magazine rifles “stupid chatter” and fundamentally defended the thesis that single-shot rifles are better for the Russian soldier, since they are lighter than “magazines” and are much simpler in design. General Dragomirov was, alas, not alone in his negative perception of magazine weapons.

Practical work to re-equip the Russian army with a repeating repeating rifle became a reality only after the French “arms revolution”. In 1886, France was the first in Europe to adopt an 8-mm Lebel rifle with an under-barrel magazine and a new cartridge with smokeless powder and a jacket bullet. Following France, a wave of rearmament with rifles of the same type swept across Europe. Immediately after the French, Germany began to rearm (Mauser rifle, 1888), then Austria-Hungary (Mannlicher, 1889) and other countries: Great Britain (Lee-Metford, 1889), USA (Krag-Jurgenson, 1889). ), Switzerland (Schmidt-Rubin, 1889).

Not wanting to remain, as before the Crimean War, on the sidelines of the rearmament process, Russia was forced to sharply intensify research and design work to create a domestic repeating rifle.

Gunsmith Mendeleev

The invention of smokeless gunpowder in 1884 by the Frenchman Paul Viel opened a new era in the improvement of weapons, and not only handguns. Smokeless powder more than tripled the energy of a shot compared to traditional black powder. Accordingly, the cartridges with it became lighter, the shot became more flat, the shooter’s position was not indicated by a huge cloud of smoke from the rifle, smokeless powder was less afraid of moisture and was more durable during storage.

At the end of the 80s of the 19th century, smokeless gunpowder was already produced in Russia in industrial quantities. An important role in the creation of the industrial cycle for the production of smokeless gunpowder was played by the work of the great Russian scientist D.I. Mendeleev. It was he who came up with the idea of ​​replacing thermal drying of the primary mass of gunpowder with chemical drying with alcohol, which immediately made the production of smokeless gunpowder easier and safer by several orders of magnitude.

The creation of a new repeating rifle chambered for smokeless powder would probably have been greatly accelerated if not for the rash decision of the Russian Minister of War P.S. Vannovsky about the preliminary (before the release of a repeating rifle) production of a single-shot rifle of a reduced caliber.

Russian Minister of War Pyotr Vannovsky. Photo: Fine Art Images / Heritage Images / Getty Images / Fotobank.ru

This decision, which delayed the adoption of the Mosin rifle for at least two years, was, without a doubt, the result of the powerful influence of “single-shot guns” in Russian military science. Their undisputed intellectual leader, General Dragomirov, never tired of saying and writing that his ideal small arms weapon is a small-caliber rifle - “about eight millimeters, chambered for a cartridge with pressed gunpowder and a bullet in a steel jacket, but always single-shot.”

Archaic reliability

The popular name for the Mosin rifle - “three-ruler” - comes from the old system of measuring the caliber of a rifle barrel in “lines”. The Russian “line” is a pre-revolutionary technical measure of length equal to one tenth of an inch, or 2.54 mm. Three “lines” gave, respectively, a rifle caliber that is understandable to modern people - 7.62 mm.

The “three-line” cartridge was created on the basis of the 7.62 mm cartridge of Colonel N.F. Rogovtsev, modeled on the then new 8-mm Austrian cartridge M1888, but unlike the latter, equipped with smokeless powder and having a lead bullet in a cupronickel silver shell. The innovative cupronickel cartridge cap was more durable than the old-style copper cap, did not rust and did not wear out the barrel as much as a steel one.

The Russian 7.62R cartridge turned out to be very technologically advanced in production and stable in terms of ballistic characteristics. In terms of energy, it was slightly inferior to the recognized Western cartridge “grands”: the English 7.71 mm Lee-Enfield cartridge, the American 30-06 Springfield or the German 7.92 Mauser cartridge. At the same time, already at the time of adoption, the Russian 7.62R cartridge had an irremovable feature that gradually made this ammunition more and more archaic - a protruding rim, roughly speaking, a protruding edge on the bottom of the cartridge case.

In cartridges that have a sleeve with a rim, the ammunition is supported in the chamber by the welt of the rim into the stump (end) of the barrel. In more technologically advanced cartridges with an annular groove (i.e. without a rim, instead there is a groove at the bottom of the cartridge case), for example, in 7.92 mm Mauser cartridges, this stop is carried out by rolling the cartridge case into the chamber slope (conventionally, the cartridge case is held guides that rest against the recess on the sleeve).

Cartridge for a three-line rifle of the 1891 model (Mosin rifle) with a rim (welt) - Russian 7.62 mm R. Photo: Vladimir Pesnya / RIA Novosti

The latter design in terms of production - both in the manufacture of the cartridge and in the manufacture of the rifle - is significantly more complicated, because requires increased precision in the manufacture of the sleeve slope and the corresponding section of the chamber. In the continuous production of weapons and ammunition in the conditions of the Russian production culture, it turned out to be impossible, according to the then military experts, to achieve an acceptable coincidence of the corresponding parameters of the cartridge case and the rifle chamber.

Only due to the technological backwardness of Russian arms factories did the archaic, although very reliable cartridge with a rim (welt) receive, now forever, its characteristic name - Russian 7.62 mm R.

The decision to adopt the welt cartridge into service, of course, could not be in vain. The main part of all the difficulties overcome by S.I. Mosin, when creating the “three-ruler”, had to eliminate the problem of the cartridge’s welt “biting” other cartridges in the magazine and parts of the rifle’s bolt group. Achieving trouble-free loading, Mosin developed a special mechanism for the rifle’s feeding device - a “cut-off reflector” - a simple but very important element of the rifle’s design. The function of the “cut-off-reflector” is that the upper cartridge of a filled magazine remains separated (cut off) from other cartridges in the magazine when the bolt moves, and therefore is fed into the rifle chamber without interference. All other cartridges are located under the “cut-off-reflector” ridge, which is released only with appropriate, strictly fixed positions of the bolt.

Competition with Leon Nagant

In 1889 S.I. Mosin submitted his three-line (7.62 mm) infantry rifle, created on the basis of his previous, single-shot model, to the War Ministry competition. Some design ideas for this rifle were apparently borrowed from the Austrian rifle of the Mannlicher system, tested in the same year, with batch loading of an in-line (one above the other) middle-positioned magazine.

A little later, Mosin’s product was presented at the same competition with a Nagant system rifle, which was actively lobbied by the Belgian businessman Leon Nagant in the Russian military department with his characteristic enchanting energy. In October 1889, he personally brought to the newly established “Commission for the Development of Small-Caliber Guns” an 8 mm caliber rifle (3.15 lines) and 500 rounds of ammunition for it. Thus began a rather intense competition between Russian and Belgian designers.

The Belgian Leon had very good connections on all levels of the Russian military department. Subsequently, he was able to successfully introduce into service with the Russian army a very controversial model of his revolver, from the point of view of ensuring the rate of fire, the famous “Nagant”.

In competition with the Mosin rifle, Leon Nagant's initial lobbying positions were somewhat weaker: just the day before, Belgium refused to produce the Nagant system rifle, which at the competition lost in all respects to the German Mauser rifle. Both rifles underwent shooting and operational tests in the Izmailovsky, Pavlovsky, 147th Samara regiments and in the first guards battalion.

It is curious that the soldiers and officers of the military units who conducted the tests unanimously spoke in favor of the Nagant rifle. Later, the Russian military department explained their clearly unpatriotic decision by the fact that the Mosin competition rifles were manufactured at the Tula Arms Plant, allegedly in a hurry, which, they say, could not but affect the overall quality.

During the voting in the “Commission for the Development of Small-Caliber Rifles,” the majority also spoke in favor of adopting the Belgian Nagant rifle for service with the Russian army. 14 people voted for the Nagant rifle, including the most authoritative experts Chagin, Roediger and von der Hoven. Only 10 experts spoke in favor of the Mosin rifle.

The future of the Mosin “three-line” was decided thanks to the tough position of the inspector of weapons and cartridge factories V.N. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and professor of the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy V.L. Chebysheva. Their decisive argument, which was also supported by Chagin and Roediger, was that the Mosin rifle was significantly simpler and cheaper to manufacture.

Inspector General of weapons and cartridge factories Vasily Nikolaevich Bestuzhev-Ryumin. Photo: Library of Congress

In addition, the production of the Mosin rifle was technologically based on machines that were already producing the Berdan rifle, which was in Russian service, which made it possible to establish the production of the Russian rifle much faster than the Nagant rifle. V.L. Chebyshev, whose authority among rifle specialists of that time was indisputable, specifically emphasized in his report that operational tests showed the absolute advantage of the Mosin rifle. During the entire testing period of the Mosin rifle, 217 delays were recorded, while the Nagan system rifle had 557 failures during the same number of firings.

“I cannot agree with the conclusion of the majority of experts,” Professor Chebyshev specially emphasized at the end of his report, “that both tested systems are equally good, this is obvious, if only because the Mosin system has enormous advantages over the Nagan system.”

As a result of several stages of discussion, the Commission adopted the S.I. rifle. Mosin. However, given that members of the Kabakov and Rogovtsev Commission also took part in its design, and some elements of the system were proposed by L. Nagan, it was decided to call the rifle “Russian three-line rifle of the 1891 model.”

Tsar Alexander III, who for some reason is called the nationalist tsar, having read the final report of the Commission, crossed out the word “Russian” from the name of the rifle. Such a wonderful product by S.I. Mosin, contrary to all international weapons traditions, received a completely faceless - without national and design indicators - serial name: “three-line rifle of the 1891 model.”

No upgrade required

The famous book by Vladimir and Valentin Mavrodin “Russian Rifle” claims that the Mosin rifle of the 1891 model was “the best of all foreign similar models of small arms.” It is unlikely that this such a categorical assessment is objective - the English Lee-Metford rifle or the famous German Mauser of the 1888 model were in no way inferior to the Russian “three-line”, and in a number of important positions they were superior to it. However, what the Russian rifle was undoubtedly good at was its unique simplicity and reliability, maintainability and undemanding manufacturing technology.

The simplicity of the “mosinki” design is probably a kind of weapon absolute. Suffice it to say that the rifle bolt - the most complex part of any gun - consists of only seven parts, and disassembly and assembly of the bolt can be done without any tools. This incredible simplicity ensured a very long production of the rifle without any significant modernization - there was simply nothing to modernize in the Mosinka. A very important advantage of the rifle is the presence of a detachable bolt action, which, if broken, could be replaced with any other - all parts of the “mosinka”, regardless of the manufacturer, are interchangeable.

In 1891, simultaneously with the infantry modification of the rifle, dragoon and Cossack three-line rifles were adopted.

The infantry rifle weighed 3.99 kg without a bayonet when the magazine was empty, and after adopting a barrel lining that protected the shooter’s fingers from burns and a long ramrod, its weight increased to 4.2 kg without a bayonet. Of the infantry rifles of the European powers, the Mosin rifle was the longest - 1306 mm.

The Dragoon type of rifle was seven centimeters shorter (the barrel became 73 cm instead of 80 cm). This had almost no effect on the weight of the rifle - it decreased by only 300 g. The Cossack rifle differed from the dragoon rifle only in the absence of a bayonet, and for a horseman it was inconvenient - heavy and poorly balanced.

Model 1891 three-line rifle. Photo: Imperial War Museums

With the beginning of the First World War, the Cossacks began to rearm on their own with the captured cavalry Mauser, which, although it was also quite heavy, was at least significantly better balanced.

The Mosinka magazine held five cartridges. The muzzle velocity of the standard factory cartridge was 620 m/s. In the specialized literature there is an indication that a Mosin rifle bullet pierced 16-35 one-inch boards at 50 steps. If the first number (16 boards) can still be somehow believed, then the second is clearly inspired by “jingoistic” inspiration. This same “inspiration” also includes the indicator of rifle combat that is often found in the literature, such as the longest sighting range, which is defined as 1900 meters.

The problem is that at the “target range” of 1900 meters you can only aim at a railway car, and then, probably, if it is facing the shooter. The full-length figure of a man is completely covered by the front sight of a rifle when aiming at 300 meters. At 600 meters, aiming at a person with an open sight is the same as aiming at him without a sight at all - at random, along the barrel. Even when using a four-fold optical sight, the practical firing range of a “mosinki” (i.e., the distance at which you can actually aim and actually hit) is unlikely to exceed 800, maximum 900 meters. However, all infantry rifles in Europe, produced in the same generation as the Mosinka, give approximately the same practical result.

Abroad, the S.I. Mosin rifle is known as the “Mosin” rifle system, or as the “Mosin-Nagant” - in memory of the borrowing of some elements of the Nagant system into the design of the Russian “three-line”. By resolution of November 25, 1891, the Artillery Committee of Russia awarded Colonel S.I. Mosin the prestigious Grand Mikhailov Prize, awarded once every five years.

The adoption of the Mosin infantry rifle required significant costs to organize a full production cycle, including powder, cartridge and weapons components. The War Ministry requested 156.5 million rubles for these purposes. At the report of the Minister of War, Tsar Alexander III imposed an uncharacteristic resolution for him: “The amount is terrifying, but there is nothing to be done, we must get started.” The Russian army never subsequently regretted this decision of the Tsar the Peacemaker.