Mosin rifle 1891 1930. Mosin sniper rifle

The "three-ruler", or Mosin rifle, was created and put into service in 1891. It combined outdated technologies and modern scientific solutions. This made it possible to create a weapon that adequately proved itself on the battlefields of several world wars.

Mosin sniper rifle (photo)

The Mosin sniper rifle, due to its technical characteristics, was used for many decades, and the army of the Soviet Union already abandoned it in the 60s of the 20th century, replacing it with the SVD.

During the operation, a number of upgrades were made, but still the Mosinka sniper remained a reliable weapon capable of confidently hitting the enemy at a distance of up to 1 kilometer.

History of creation

It is worth noting that Tsarist Russia in the 19th century did not produce weapons of its own design and foreign weapons were assembled at the factories according to purchased licenses. However, attempts to develop and adopt a domestic rifle took place, and gunsmiths offered their projects to the army officials for judgment.

Among them came across exotic samples, which had several barrels and a drum loading scheme, in the manner of revolvers. But despite such a flow, the command refused, arguing that the options presented did not meet the criteria. In particular, in terms of reliability and accuracy of the guided fire.

C.I. Mosin

This went on for quite some time, and it seemed that foreign domination of the arms market in Russia would never end. The situation was disturbed by an event that came from a completely unexpected direction.

The famous scientist and chemist Mendeleev in 1891, after several years of experiments, discovered the formula of pyrocollodic smokeless powder. This chemical composition had more power than simple gunpowder and at the same time cost several times cheaper.

Another factor was the creation of a new type of cartridge, which used a recently discovered chemical composition. Veltishchev designed this ammunition, taking as a basis the French cartridge for the Lebel rifle.

Mosin rifle stock

Simultaneously with the advent of the trilinear cartridge, technical innovations began to appear that marked the beginning of a new weapons era - the era of repeating rifles. The appearance of store food had a positive effect on the rate of fire of guns and the armies of the world began to introduce new models into infantry and cavalry units. The Russian Empire was no exception.

The generals of those times faced a difficult choice. On the one hand, the license for the production of the Nagant rifle had already been paid, on the other hand, the first sample of a completely domestic weapon appeared, a rifle created by Captain Mosin chambered for 7.62 caliber. A number of field trials were scheduled to make a final decision.

Mosin rifle cartridge caliber

After all the checks and tests, the commission made a number of conclusions about both submitted samples. In particular, the Belgian Nagant had best performance in accuracy and rate of fire, but experienced problems in conditions of increased pollution. Another disadvantage was indecent a large number of misfires (almost 2 times more than the “mosquito”).

TO positive aspects Mosin rifles were ranked: high reliability and simplicity of the mechanism, a small number of failures and ease of production. As a result, it was decided to adopt a "three-ruler", but with a magazine from a Nagant rifle.

Mass production of the rifle did not start immediately, but several years after the events described above. The reason was the low industrialization Tsarist Russia and long adjustment of technological lines.

Cartridges for the "Three-ruler"

Simultaneously with the adoption of the Mosin rifle, the production of new ammunition began. The cartridge for the three-ruler consisted of 3 parts:

• blunt-pointed bullet enclosed in a sheath:
• propellant charge of smokeless powder;
• sleeve, bottle-shaped, with a pronounced rim (the rim was boring to facilitate the transition to the production of new ammunition for cartridge factories).

The caliber of the three-line cartridge was 7.62 mm, or three lines, according to the measurement system adopted at that time. For this, the rifle got its nickname in the infantry units - the “three-ruler”.

Training cartridges for the Mosin rifle: 1, 2 - cartridges of the "1st sample", 3 - cartridge of the "2nd sample" (OSSH development), 4, 5 - modifications of training cartridges mod. 1908, 6 - one of the variants of the training cartridge

Modifications

Adopted by the "Three-ruler" Mosin, specifications which differed in 3 modifications, for different types of troops. Basically, barrel length:

• infantry option. Long bayonet and barrel;
• cavalry variation had a shortened barrel and a different principle for fastening the belt;
• Cossack version was not supplied with a bayonet-knife and had the shortest barrel length.

The bayonet with which the rifle was equipped had a tetrahedral shape, fastened with a tubular coupling, and the tip had a horizontal sharpening. Such design feature considered outdated.

An interesting fact about such a bayonet was that it was used as a screwdriver when disassembling a gun. For this, a tip of this form was provided.

Mosin rifle bayonet

In the course of combat operation, another unpleasant fact came to light. The bayonet could not be removed, and the weapon was always worn in a combat position. When the thing was unlocked, the balance and accuracy of shooting were disturbed. The defect was corrected during the modernization, already in 1930.

A little about the places of production

The industry of the Russian Empire at the time of 1891 did not make it possible to establish a full-fledged production of the “three-ruler”. Therefore, the first batches of new weapons were ordered in French Chatellerault.

Later, in 1894, the production of “mosinki” started at domestic arms factories. First, at the Sestroretsk arms factory near St. Petersburg (it was led by Mosin himself), and then in Tula and Izhevsk.

During the First World War, Russian industry could not cover the needs of the army. The rifles were ordered from the USA and shipped by sea.

After 1917, a large number of guns that were never sent to Russia remained in warehouses in the United States. Later they were used to train recruits or sold to other countries.

1891 design

The Mosin rifle is a five-shot weapon with a rifled barrel and manual reloading. For a shot, the barrel is locked with a bolt having 2 stops located at different points. One in the front, the other in the horizontal plane. It is in the gate that the mainspring and a simple drummer are located.

Scheme of the Mosin rifle of 1891

In order to reload the rifle after the shot, it was necessary to do these steps:

• move the reloader handle to the rearmost position;
• remove the sleeve;
• take the reloader to its original position;
• remove the cartridge from the magazine and lock it in the barrel.

The receiver was marked with the manufacturer.

Unlike modern rifles, the Mosinka had an integral box-type magazine. It housed 5 rounds in one row.

Reloading took place by introducing a cartridge through a specially designed window, accessible with the shutter open. If necessary, the store was opened from the bottom and all the ammunition was removed.

The design of the store provides a reflector-cutoff, which blocked the supply of cartridges when the shutter was open.

The bed is made of wood, usually birch. In addition, there are wooden lining on the barrel, preventing burns to the shooter's hands. Initially, the barrel was "naked" and the soldiers were often injured because of this.

Sights open type. Later, during the First Plague, they began to install optical sights, captured or domestic. Optics were extremely expensive and snipers were equipped with it.

Starting talking about snipers, I would like to note the sniper modification of the rifle released already during the Great Patriotic War. For the production of such guns, more advanced technologies were used. In particular, a different metal alloy, chrome plating and a vertical method of cutting the barrel. Such rifles were marked with "CH".

The model showed the best parameters of range and accuracy of firing. As a regular sight, an optical "PU" - "Shortened Sight" was used. By the way, such a sight was installed on anti-tank rifles - its resistance to damage was incredible.

Mosin rifle with bayonet

There was also a not entirely successful modification of the "three-ruler". It was called the Mosin carbine of 1907 and was distinguished by low efficiency at long distances, poor mechanism development, a number of negative design decisions and unsatisfactory performance characteristics of the three-ruler.

Mosin rifles are produced by a number of countries and are actively sold from military warehouses.

this year the gun became the best-selling in the US

According to a number of services, the gun became the best-selling in the United States in 2012. Use it for sports shooting or for hunting large game.

Technical characteristics of the Mosin rifle (TTX)

The Mosin rifle has the following dimensions and performance parameters:

• Weapon weight 4.5 kg;
• Length without bayonet 130 cm;
• Length with attached bayonet 173 cm;
• Barrel length 51 - 80 cm;
• Caliber 7.62 mm or 3 lines by the standards of Imperial Russia;
• Type of cartridges used 7.62 * 54;
• Rate of fire 55 rounds per minute;
• The bullet starts at a flight speed of 870 m/s;
• Sighting range with optics 2 km.
• The lethal force of the Mosin rifle is 3000 m.

Advantages and disadvantages

The technical characteristics of the Mosin rifle have a number of positive and negative parameters.

Positive sides

• excellent ballistics;
• high cartridge power;
• long life of the barrel and shutter;
• manufacturability of production;
• undemanding to care;
• trouble-free operation in conditions of increased pollution;
• ease of disassembly;
• high rate of fire.

Negative sides

• cartridge with a rim, obsolete design;
• the presence of a "capricious" cut-off delay;
• horizontal shutter stops;
• complexity of ammunition equipment;
• sharp pull of the trigger.

I asked the author to return once again to this important and interesting topic. Open it up deeper. Tell in detail the history of the creation of the famous rifle, which faithfully served the Fatherland in many bloody wars.

And here is the article for you...

« Mosin rifle - 124 years in the service of Russia

Recently, on the website of Nikolai Starikov and on his pages in social networks, my article was published about Russian weapons as an object of information attacks from the West. I am sincerely grateful to readers for their feedback on the article, but I would like to continue this conversation in a slightly different, narrower perspective. This is partly due to the essence of the comments to the previous article. But more than that requires the very logic of the development of the topic, to which, dear reader, we will return more than once. The subject of this article will be one of the tactical tricks of our geopolitical opponents, which consists in creating and fixing in the mass consciousness of the people of Russia the myth of the chaotic randomness of all its achievements and the systemic mess in all spheres of Russian government. And since we started talking about weapons last time, let's continue it (I remind you that we were talking about Sergei Ivanovich Mosin and his legendary three-line rifle). In the final part of the article, we will also talk about purely practical things - the combat qualities of this weapon, incl. - from today's point of view.

To understand the essence of the problem, you need to know its background. Therefore, let's start from the very beginning, which for our three-ruler does not belong to 1891, when it was put into service. And not even by the eighties of the nineteenth century, when Sergei Ivanovich began work on his first samples. It all started earlier, even with the predecessor of the Mosin three-line rifle - the 4.2-linear (10.67 mm) Berdan rifle of the second model of the 1870 model. Yes, Berdan was a foreigner, an American. But, there are a few "buts" here, more on that later. In the meantime, we look even a little further, to the 1870s, when military officials in European countries began to figure out whose rifle is still better. Like last time, I will ask the reader to be patient, the article turned out to be quite large in volume. But it will be better this way to present and understand all the vicissitudes of such a complex and very expensive event, which is the development and adoption of a new model. small arms for huge army Russian Empire.

Predecessors of the three-line

In 1875, on the territory of the Volkovo Pole, which served as an experimental shooting range for the Russian Artillery Academy, comparative tests of the latest models of small arms of the armies of the leading European countries- Russia, Prussia and France. The Russian army, having suffered with an incredible variety of outdated systems in the 1860s. (the period of the "arms drama", according to the apt definition of the then Minister of War D. Milyutin), then it was just re-equipped with the aforementioned 4-line Berdan rifle No. 2 arr. 1870.

Since 1869, the French have been reworking their Chasspo needle rifles arr. 1866 under a unitary cartridge, and the Prussian army was armed with a Mauser rifle arr. 1871. In addition to these three copies, our specialists optionally tested and described the rifle of the American designer Hotchkiss. It was assumed that this system would be adopted by the French army, so the Russian military became interested in it in advance.

The secret of comparative tests was not made - after field tests and compiling comparative descriptions of the tested rifles, the students of the Academy immediately received public lectures based on the results of the analysis of constructive, ballistic and performance characteristics studied systems.
Our Berdan-2 rifle (as well as sources for its study and any amount of ammunition) was available and well known. The experimental commission, deciding the fate of the 2nd model of the Berdan gun back in 1870, noted the advantages of the new model over all the then existing systems.

The Mauser gun in 1875 was presented in Russia in a single copy and, interestingly, was a gift from Emperor Wilhelm to the Russian Tsar Alexander II. In addition to the Mauser rifle and cartridges for it, the specialists of the Academy had the original instructions for the gun and information about its testing in the Prussian infantry training battalion. It is difficult to say whether family ties were the reason for such a broad gesture on the part of the Kaiser, but, as it turned out, in this case, our specialized services insured themselves in a timely manner: the Mauser rifle was well studied in Russia even before it was put into service in Germany (!). With the help of Russian military intelligence, fragments of the barrels and parts of a “secret” rifle were taken to Russia from private German arms factories, which made it possible to theoretically calculate its parameters and ballistics with great accuracy.

And the Gras and Hotchkiss rifles were delivered to the GAU shortly before the tests thanks to the efforts of a Russian military agent in Paris. Here it must also be assumed that these guns were not exported to Russia in a completely legal way, because there were only 90 cartridges for them and no technical documentation. All the data provided for the analysis of these systems was obtained through a thorough study of French rifles at the experimental shooting range of the Academy, where, using available ammunition, our specialists obtained all the necessary data on ballistics and materiel. Thus, there were all the prerequisites for an objective comparison of serial infantry rifles of the leading European countries (at that time no one considered the USA a worthy opponent, even theoretically).

Without touching on the design details of the rifles involved in the comparative shooting, I note that according to the results of the tests, the Russian rifle turned out to be the most original structurally. Let's not forget that when the Berdan-2 system was adopted, the sliding bolt did not have a dominant distribution. The future has shown that the foresight of our GAU specialists has fully justified itself. After a detailed impartial analysis, the opinion of the Academy's specialists was as follows: the domestic rifle in terms of rate of fire, reliability of extraction and ease of disassembly surpasses the best of foreign guns.

4.2-line rifle Berdan-2 mod. 1870

Now back to the name Berdan in the name of our rifle. Let's omit a huge array of historical information about searches the best system for arming the Russian army, which was eventually found in the United States by Russian military agents A.P. Gorlov and K.I. Ginnius (competent specialists and true patriots who brought great benefits to Russia). Let me remind readers only that General Hiram Berdan was a hero of the American Civil War, where he commanded a sniper unit, and was the author of both models of the Russian "Berdanka" arr. 1868 and 1870 It is known that he ceded to Russia the rights to design his first rifle for 50,000 gold rubles (38,000 dollars). But few people know that Gorlov and Ginnius made so many changes to the design of the rifle and the technology of its manufacture (this also affected the cartridge) that they practically created a new type of weapon. At the same time, they defended Russian interests in America in the most worthy manner, where the production of Berdan-1 began. Then they also had to work on an incredible scale to establish the production of a new rifle in Russia. And already in 1870, the more advanced Berdan-2 rifle with a longitudinally sliding bolt was adopted by the Russian army - it was impossible for our country to lag behind in the race to improve infantry weapons. Interestingly, at first the Berdanks of the second model were assembled in England, but our specialists did everything possible to establish their production at Russian factories.

Rifle Berdan-2 arr. 1870 and a three-line rifle mod. 1891 (photo by S. Eremeev)

Rifle arr. 1870 was never modernized, having gone through a whole series of battles, incl. Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 Plevna, Shipka, Bayazet - these are all the battles of Russian soldiers with a "Berdan" in their hands. Having worthily served in the Russian army for 20 years, before the adoption in 1891 of a small-caliber (at that time, the caliber of 7.62 mm really seemed like a "small") rifle mod. 1891 system S.I. Mosin, "Berdanka" was by no means withdrawn from service. She fought in both World War I and the Civil War. The rifle, by introducing lugs in front of the bolt, was also tried to be adapted for a powerful three-line cartridge (designed for the Mosin rifle), since the strength of the structure completely allowed.

A significant number of famous rifles were sold to hunters, incl. after reworking for a wide variety of cartridges - from a revolving cartridge to the "Smith-Wesson" to a hunting 12 gauge. The well-known Dersu Uzala did not part with the Berdan-2 rifle. And to this day, any alteration hunting rifle in Russia is called a "berdanka".

So, before moving on to the history of the development of the three-line Mosin rifle and its famous author, we specifically note that Russia in the 1870s had practically no modern machine production at that time, but the Russian army was armed with an excellent rifle , which today is admired by the beauty of the elegant silhouette and thoughtful design.

The formation of S.I. Mosin as a designer

Let's get back to the Mosin rifle, which in the West is called nothing more than the Mosin-Nagant rifle. To understand why, to this day, so much provocative misinformation and outright lies are thrown in regarding the authorship of this weapon, imagine what benefit a foreigner could get with a ringing gold coin who would “push” his design into the armament of the huge imperial army and navy rifles. And what a trump card for the commanders of the information war is any pretext, one way or another connected with foreign participation in the national weapons system of any country. In this case, our country. And that's pretty much how it all happened!

When designing the rifle, Sergei Ivanovich Mosin took into account not only the vast experience of the Russian weapons school, but also the generalized military experience of the Russian army, constantly howling in the vast expanses of Eurasia in a wide variety of climatic zones. This is not surprising - his father was Ivan Ignatievich Mosin, who deserved his "George" back in the Russian-Turkish war of 1828-1829, as a result of which the Black Sea coast of the North Caucasus went to Russia. Sergey Ivanovich walked a long and thorny path of selfless study, faithful service and constant self-education to a high officer rank and extensive scientific knowledge. The first important milestone in the biography of the future designer was the Tambov Cadet Corps, where Sergei Mosin entered in 1861. And already in 1862 he was transferred to continue his studies in the more prestigious Voronezh Mikhailovsky Cadet Corps. In 1867 Mosin successfully completed this educational institution, which by that time had been transformed into a military gymnasium with a predominance in the program of exact and natural sciences. For further studies, Sergei chose the Mikhailovsky Artillery School, although at first, due to a lack of vacancies, he had to study at the Third Military Alexander School in Moscow.

You can often hear that S.I. Mosin was allegedly self-taught and, in principle, could not design a rifle that was modern at that time and, in the shortest possible time, establish its production at several factories at once. This is complete nonsense and an outright lie! The Mikhailovskoye Artillery School, founded by Peter the Great himself, had a long and remarkable history. It was the oldest and most prestigious military school in Russia, which produced officers with a very high level of professional training. The curriculum of the school provided for a solid mathematical course, which included integral and differential calculus, analytical geometry, the beginnings of higher algebra, all artillery disciplines, including fortification and topography. Therefore, Sergei Ivanovich strove to get there, whose potential at that time was already obvious.

Three years have passed. Mosin easily passed his final exams, having received the rank of second lieutenant for his academic success and almost immediately departed for his duty station in Tsarskoe Selo, where he quickly gained the authority of an intelligent and active officer. Interestingly, Soviet sources, more than favorable to Sergei Ivanovich, nowhere indicate his desire or at least a predisposition for any revolutionary activity. Rather, on the contrary, behind this restraint was Mosin's sincere desire to devote his life to serving the Fatherland (which happened), which did not fit into the essence of the destructive activities of various revolutionaries.

Move on. After a couple of years of successful service and ongoing systematic self-education, Sergei Ivanovich enters the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy, which at that time was a real military university. This educational institution, where world-famous and recognized experts of the highest level taught, graduated many outstanding creators of Russian and Soviet weapons. Sergei Ivanovich studied at the academy for two years, completed a full course in artillery sciences, in the summer of 1875 he brilliantly passed the final exams and was released from the academy in the first category with production as a staff captain in field horse artillery, after which he was immediately assigned to the Tula Arms Plant. Some sources note that the famous plant at that time was one of the most advanced and equipped weapons enterprises in Russia and Europe. The reason for this appointment was precisely the excellent scientific and technical training and Mosin's pronounced penchant for invention. I think the reader has long understood that it is simply inappropriate to talk about Mosin's "homegrown" as a designer and manager.

At the Tula Arms Plant

By the time Mosin appeared in Tula, the production of the Berdan rifle was in full swing at ITOZ. For five long years, Sergei Ivanovich, having changed several job specialties, in the role of "eternal deputy" is engaged in practical acquaintance with the smallest nuances of weapons production, until in 1877 he finally receives his first leadership position. Needless to say, Mosin thoroughly studied all the systems of small arms known at that time, while brilliantly mastering all the subtleties of the organization technological process? And certainly we can confidently say that Sergei Ivanovich perfectly understood the need to develop a rapid-fire magazine infantry rifle. This type of weapon proved its destructive effectiveness in the hands of Turkish soldiers on the battlefields of the war of 1877-1878, when the Russian infantry could only oppose the enemy with single-shot Berdan rifles and even older Krnka rifles converted from flintlocks. The era of magazine weapons has begun.

A whole decade in the 1880s for Mosin, it turned out to be woven from an endless series of tests and a relentless search for the optimal repeating rifle system. In the midst of the second scientific and technological (industrial) revolution, the leading gunsmiths around the world were solving one problem - a radical solution to the problem of the rate of fire of infantry weapons. And here is the first success! In 1885, the first rifle designed by Mosin became the best of 119 tested systems, which did not go unnoticed, incl. and abroad. But this was only the beginning, although in 1886 experiments with 4.2-linear systems of small arms were practically stopped in Russia - the whole world switched to small-caliber weapons, in which smokeless powder began to be used. The empire needed a completely new rifle.

Work on a three-line rifle

In the form in which we know Mosin's three-ruler, the rifle did not appear immediately. First, Sergei Ivanovich designed a single-shot version of the rifle mod. 1889. And only then, after several stages of the competition, the rifle received a single-row magazine with an original cartridge cut-off mechanism. It should be noted here that the then experts, like some of today's researchers, also did not consider Mosin the sole author of the new rifle. The Minister of War Bankovsky imposed the following resolution in the magazine of the weapons business of the Artillery Committee: “The new model made contains parts proposed by Colonel Rogovtsev, the Commission of General Chagin, Captain Mosin and gunsmith Nagan, so it is advisable to give the developed model the name: Russian three-line rifle of the 1891 model of the year” .

Trilinear arr. 1891 early release (photo by S. Eremeev)

From the point of view of a number of researchers and the official history of Russian weapons, this is a rather controversial resolution. Judging by the compensatory payments to the Nagant, something really could have been taken from a rifle of his design, although this, I repeat, is a very controversial and difficult point, the discussion of which is beyond the scope of our story (actually, the design of the clip was taken from the Nagant rifle). It is possible that a number of people from our side were interested in adopting the Nagant system for the banal reason of the promised “rollback”, but the Belgian’s rifle was very expensive and really had several serious design flaws. An important nuance was the difficulty of adapting it to the production capabilities of our arms industry. Therefore, in the report to the emperor, we still read the following: “The system proposed by Captain Mosin deserves in many respects preference over the system of the foreigner Nagant, both in terms of a simpler device and the cheapness of gross production, and in the fact that, with its adoption, our factories can more quickly begin to produce guns in bulk” . As they say, no comment.

And in the order for the military department of May 22, 1891, it was announced: “The Sovereign Emperor, on the 16th day of last April, the highest deigned to approve a tested sample of a new reduced-caliber burst rifle and a cartridge for it, as well as a burst clip for cartridges, and the highest command deigned to call this rifle “3 line rifle of the 1891 model of the year”. The surname Mosin was not in the name of the rifle. In fairness, we note that in the name of the Nagant revolver, adopted by the Russian army in 1895, there was no name of the Belgian manufacturer either. There were no names of Smith and Wesson in the name adopted in 1871 in service with the Russian army and a 4.2-linear revolver.

Sergei Ivanovich, who shared a state award with a team of fitters working with him for his participation in the development of a rifle, allegedly tried to fight for recognition of his authorship for a rifle, but to no avail. It’s hard to say here whether this is true or not, but it makes sense to note that such “oblivion” can be considered quite fair - after all, Mosin was in the public service, received a salary and really worked on a rifle within the framework of the state technical assignment and by no means alone. The Russian state ideology of that time clearly did not provide for the exaltation of individual gunsmiths. Indicative is the fact that after the 1930s. modernization of the three-ruler, she never received the name Mosin. And in one of the Soviet military documents it was directly stated: “7.62-mm rifle mod. 1891, adopted by the Russian army in 1891, was designed by Captain Mosin together with other members of the commission formed for this.

Imperial decree on the start of production of the dragoon trilinear

But the main thing was different - as a result of this whole epic, a domestically developed rifle was adopted by the Russian army, after which it began hardest job on the establishment of the production of a three-ruler at the imperial arms factories. The tasks included ensuring the complete interchangeability of parts for new weapons, including those produced at different factories, which was a new level of quality for our industry. Sergei Ivanovich began to do this, continuing to cheer for his offspring with his soul. But here again we must understand that he could not deal with such complex tasks alone - at several factories a large number of people worked on this at the same time. Most likely, Sergei Ivanovich acted as a curator and coordinator of the work, which by no means begs his merits in this matter. Without going into unnecessary details, I note that this task was completed by Mosin and "his team" on time and in full.

Gross production of the new rifle was started at the end of 1892 at the Tula, Izhevsk and Sestroretsk arms factories. And by January 1, 1903, the re-equipment of the Russian army with magazine rifles was completed. In total, the troops received 2 million 964 thousand rifles manufactured at domestic factories, and about 500 thousand rifles from the first batch shipped from factories in France. The long journey of the Russian rifle across countless battlefields of large and small wars began.

Russian soldiers with a Mosin rifle. World War I.

Operational features of the Russian three-line rifle

Some readers' comments on the previous article about the Mosin rifle carry a whole set of myths, which let's deal with together. Fortunately, now any model of the three-ruler is available as a hunting carbine. Of course, the most affordable in all respects is the most common dragoon modification of the rifle (the price at the end of 2015 is about 10-25 thousand rubles). Basically, these are specimens of arr. 1891/30's pre-war and military editions. Carbines in good condition are quite rare, rifles produced before 1917 and the 1920s. - even rarer and they are expensive, and sometimes very expensive. Now you can buy a sniper version of the three-ruler (price 20-40 thousand rubles). As a rule, these are weapons of the Izhevsk factory, produced during the war years, with a PU sight on the Kochetov bracket.

The rarest collector's item - a three-line carbine arr. 1907 in perfect condition

The tsarist army was armed with three-line rifles of the following modifications: infantry, dragoon and Cossack. The carbine was not considered a full-fledged weapon then, but it was introduced in 1907 to arm the crews of machine-gun teams, artillerymen, and so on. In Soviet Russia, only the dragoon modification was left in service with all branches of the military, although in 1938 a carbine nevertheless appeared, last modified in 1944 and produced in Izhevsk until about 1950. At the end of the war, the dragoon three-line was also taken out of production - its excess length in a maneuver war was obvious to everyone. During the war, a huge number of “three rubles” were produced, mainly in Izhevsk (in total, Mosin rifles, according to various estimates, about 39 million were made). The conditions for the work of gunsmiths were terrible, and after all, mostly women and teenagers were employees of the factories, which should not be forgotten either. Nevertheless, it was possible to increase the production of rifles to 12 thousand units per day (!), thereby fully providing the Red Army with small arms (we do not touch other infantry small arms in this article).

7.62 mm carbines mod. 1938 and 1944 (photo by S. Eremeev)

After the war, a number of three-rulers were collected from the remaining backlog. Our rifles were also produced abroad, in the countries of the ATS, for example, in Poland, Romania and Hungary. All Eastern European “mosquitoes” rust terribly in the trunks and, compared to the Soviet ones, have a much smaller resource. In service with some units of the Soviet Army, a rifle arr. 1891/30's stood until about the 1960s, after which it was replaced by SKS carbines and Kalashnikov assault rifles (by the way, the names of the main developers were not forgotten in the name of these weapons). In the 1990s due to the lack of SVD, old sniper three-line war-years of release were used in the combat units of the Russian army in the Caucasus in the 1990s. Interestingly, the three-ruler has not yet been withdrawn from service with the Russian Army. The terms “out of production” and “out of service” should not be confused here, because the T-34 tank was removed from service only in the 1990s.

The two photos above show the original three-line sniper rifles from the 1930s. with PE sights

And this is the most common sniper three-line, produced after 1942

In this photo - the weapon of the Wehrmacht - a modified Mauser carbine mod. 1898 with a telescopic sight. That is - a sniper "Mauser", and the original one.

Now some terminology. The name "three-ruler" for our rifle comes from the caliber of the bore, which is equal to three lines (the old measure of length, equal to one tenth of an inch, or 2.54 mm). Accordingly, three lines are equal to 7.62 mm, this is the caliber of our rifle along the rifling fields. By the way, one line is equal to ten points. Ordinary dots, placed in a row close to each other with a fairly sharpened pencil. Difficult? And you remember about arshins, vershoks, sazhens and other versts. The inch measurement system in the domestic weapons school was used even after the war (calculated drawings of the Kalashnikov assault rifle barrel were made in inches). However, also remember how the diameter of water pipes in our homes is still measured? What about car rims? That's right, in inches. And it doesn’t scare or confuse anyone, right?

Next, the design features of the cartridge. You can often hear about the obsolescence of our flanged cartridge (which, by the way, is called Russian in the West). Like - because of the flange (welt), it is inconvenient and outdated even exactly at the time of its development by 1891. In fact, this design was required by the specifics of the combat use of our rifle in cold regions - for the “hat” of our cartridge it is simply easier to pull it out of the cartridge belt (I know about the clips, but initially the three-ruler was generally developed in a single-shot version). Yes, and the rifles of the armies of France and England in both world wars used cartridges of the same "obsolete" design, but for some reason no one considers them obsolete. And we left the cartridge even after the Second World War, they don’t look for good from good, and our sofa experts should not consider themselves smarter than domestic gunsmiths.

Range. Do not confuse aiming range with effective fire distance. On the aiming bar of the three-ruler there are numbers up to 2 km. This is a very long distance for modern large-caliber sniper weapons with precision optics. Yes, a bullet from a “three-ruble note” will reach 2 km and kill a person, but at such distances they usually fired in volleys and at targets like an infantry column. But at 500 m from an open sight it is quite possible to hit a growth target with a gross cartridge from a three-ruler, if the vision allows you to see the target. During the Second World War, our snipers effectively shot up to 1 km from sniper rifles, but real distances were limited to 400-600 m - the sight was only with a 3.5-fold increase, which is still frankly not enough. The survivability of the barrel of our rifle is more than sufficient - 15-20 thousand shots while maintaining the proper parameters for the accuracy of the battle.

Accuracy and accuracy of combat. I declare with all responsibility that a pre-war three-ruler with a good barrel and high-quality cartridge is capable of ensuring accuracy, which is also considered an indicator for modern weapons- within 1 MOA (one arc minute or 30 mm per 100 m distance). I personally got an accuracy of about 1.5 MOA (40-45 mm) at 100 m when shooting from an open sight with a gross hunting cartridge from a 1928 rifle with a native barrel. Repeatedly met military-issue rifles with an accuracy of no more than 1 MOA. I know for sure about consistently positive results when shooting from a pre-war three-line rifle with a rare “Fighter” diopter sight at a distance of 1 km at a growth target and very accurate shots at a small target from the same rifle with a modern sight installed at a distance of up to 1250 m inclusive. This is the real indicator. So sofa warriors can once again be recommended to break away from computer games and find an opportunity to shoot from well-preserved historical weapons before mindlessly repeating worn out clichés.

Ergonomics. You can often hear that the three-ruler is an uncomfortable rifle. Like - the bolt handle is straight and too far from the shooter. Another nonsense from couch and computer theorists. Believe me, the bolt handle of the Mauser rifle, which is almost a reference for many, is not more convenient than the bolt handle of our rifle. And the practical rate of fire of a three-ruler in the hands of a trained shooter is comparable to a self-loading rifle - during the war years, Sergeant Nemtsov developed a method for rapid firing from a Mosin rifle, which allows hitting a chest target at a distance of 100 m 50 times within 52 seconds! it's one sighting shot per second, with clips reloading! So there is nothing to blame on the mirror ...

The three-ruler has a comfortable stock, relatively small mass, excellent balance and good weight distribution. Go to the military souvenir shop - now you can buy a mock-up of almost any weapon, which is an emasculated combat model. Twist the “three-ruble note” in your hands, throw up. Many questions will disappear by themselves. Generally speaking, our rifle was at least as good as its “classmates.

In 1934 on VII party congress I.V. Stalin from the Tula gunsmiths was awarded unusual gift- 7.62 mm sniper rifle mod. 1891/30's

Conclusion

Probably, it is unlikely that anything would have changed in the military history of Russia if the name Mosin was officially added to the name of our three-line rifle. In any case, this weapon is the personification of Russian military glory, this is undeniable. The three-ruler, unlike the products of the Mauser brothers, was not originally designed for export and, in general, apart from several countries of the Warsaw Pact, was in service with the armies of the Russian Empire and the USSR.

One of the strategic postulates is that the most important quality of any type of weapon is the possibility of its rapid and complete replenishment during a great war. That is, mass army weapons should be as technologically advanced and cheap as possible. Here it must be recalled that before the war, the Red Army began to rearm with semi-automatic weapons, and the modern SVT-40 became the main infantry rifle. But, as you know, at the very beginning of the Second World War, the stocks of weapons available in warehouses and in the army were quickly exhausted for various reasons. And the evacuated factories simply could not cope with the production of a sufficient number of expensive and complex self-loading SVT (yes, there are still a considerable number of brand new SVT / AVT manufactured in 1944 in warehouses, but at the end of the war the situation allowed resuming the production of self-loading).

The rarest specimen is the Simonov ABC-36 automatic rifle.

SVT-40 (bottom) and AVT-40 (AVT - Tokarev automatic rifle, ordinary SVT, at the beginning of the war, forced to be converted to the possibility of continuous fire).

Therefore, in the winter of 1942, our gunsmiths had to urgently restore the mass production of the Mosin rifle, at the same time bringing its manufacturing technology to the maximum possible threshold. At the same time, the rifle did not lose its fighting qualities. The front received the necessary number of weapons. The three-ruler fulfilled its purpose completely. And, probably, it is no longer so important who has priority in its development. Indeed, among the people, the “three-ruble note” is still called the “mosinka”.

Soviet female snipers during the Second World War with three-line sniper rifles issued after 1942. Pay attention, what beauties!

Yuri Maksimov.

There are weapons that appeared a long time ago and will not disappear soon. He is not loved by beginners and respected by professionals. It's hard to shoot and easy to hit. It is equally reliable in mountains and jungles, in snows and deserts. A weapon that never gets old. This weapon is a repeating rifle.

At the end of the last century, many varieties of rifles appeared - each power was armed with its own national system. As time passed, and on their basis, models of hunting and sporting weapons appeared, while the army samples themselves were replaced by more modern automatic designs. After a hundred years, very few “shops” remained in combat use, which were successfully designed and turned out to be indispensable. Among them is a Russian three-line rifle (photo 1). It is appreciated by those who attack and those who defend themselves. It is kept in collections of weapons rarities. It is available for free sale. Finally, this weapon in small quantities is in service with special forces for particularly accurate work. And for this reason alone, it is worth getting to know the three-line rifle better.

Photo 1. Rifle sample 1891-1930.

Its official name is the Mosin-Nagant rifle of the 1891 model. But in the real design of the weapon, only the name of this undeniably talented gunsmith remained from Nagant. His very successful mathematical layout and balance calculation was ingeniously embodied in metal by the Russian artillery officer S.I. Mosin. Captain Mosin set himself the task of creating a weapon for practical use in the most difficult conditions of various climatic zones. Russian Empire, capable of withstanding barbaric exploitation in the mud of the trenches and the sand that constantly falls in war from top to bottom. Mosin reached the goal. He laid in his rifle conceptually new principles of operation of parts, assemblies and mechanisms. The geometric profile of the weapon parts and the system of their interaction were carefully thought out, tested in the most severe conditions, and only the correct design decisions were made based on the test results. A fundamentally new detail was introduced into the design of the rifle - a cut-off reflector, which made the system practically trouble-free. There were no extra parts in this weapon. The rifle did not break - there was nothing to break in it. Moreover, it was easily disassembled and assembled, which was very important when it was mastered by young soldiers recruited from the semi-literate peasantry of the then Russia.

The system submitted to the gun competition in 1891 was not a Nagant rifle. It was a Mosin rifle. Its caliber was measured in the old inch system and was equal to three lines (one line is equal to 2.54 mm). And therefore, despite the official names of modifications of various times of release, for the population of Russia it remained a three-line rifle. So it has been called for over a hundred years.

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 4

The principle of operation of this weapon is based on the operation of a rotary bolt (photo 2), sliding longitudinally in the receiver (7 in photo 3). When the shutter is sent forward, it picks up the cartridge from the magazine box, pushes it beyond the impact of the cut-off reflector (7 in photo 4), which. does not allow the cartridge to "fall out" vertically upwards, and feeds the cartridge into the chamber along the guide grooves of the receiver. When the bolt handle is turned to the right, the lugs of the combat larva (7 in photo 2) turn 90 ° and go behind the lugs of the receiver. Thus, the system is locked (schemes 1, 2, 3).

Scheme 1. Technical section of a rifle of the 1891-1930 model.

Scheme 2. The position of the parts of the shock and trigger mechanisms in the position of the shutter

Scheme 3. The position of the parts of the shock and trigger mechanisms with a locked bore and a cocked striker

When the trigger is pressed (7 in photo 5, 6), the sear (2 in photo 5, 6) is lowered, from which the trigger breaks (3 in photo 5), the drummer breaks the primer, and a shot occurs. When the bolt handle is turned up, the lugs of the larva and the receiver are disengaged, the system is unlocked, the trigger is cocked by the interaction of its helical worm geometry with a similar helical geometry of the end of the bolt stem (2 in photo 2). Thus, the trigger of an open bolt will always be cocked. When the bolt is pulled back, the ejector, pressed into the combat larva, removes the spent cartridge case from the chamber. The geometry of the open shutter forms a groove-groove (7 in photo 7), with which the shutter, when moving backwards, slides over the cutoff-reflector tooth (2 in photo 4). The removed sleeve "runs" on this tooth, is reflected from it and thrown out towards the hook.

Photo 5

Photo 6

Photo 7

To load the weapon, you need to open the shutter, insert into the special grooves of the receiver (3 in photo 4) a clip filled with five rounds (photo 8), pressing the upper cartridge near the clip, squeeze all five rounds into the magazine box down to the stop in one motion. Then close the shutter. The rifle is ready to fire. After the shot, open the bolt back to the stop, close it again, shoot again. And so five times. You can shoot "one at a time" by putting cartridges directly into the chamber. By the way, the masters do this in order to avoid changing the weight of the weapon, which affects the trajectory of the bullet when firing at long distances. The rifle is extremely easy to handle.

Photo 8

Photo 9

Now about the intricacies of the design, making it extremely reliable. The cartridges of the three-line rifle have a hat-rim, which guarantees the engagement of the cartridge case by the ejector. In addition, sleeves of this form are not "rubbed" with sand in the mechanism. But, in turn, this rim, during the longitudinal movement of the cartridge through the mechanism, "clings" everything in its path, including the rims of other cartridges. Because of this, the rifle of the Nagant system often fed two cartridges into the barrel at once, which led to jamming of the weapon. Mosin eliminated this drawback by introducing into his design a special part - a cut-off reflector, which is a spring-loaded plate with a tooth (scheme 4, photo 9).

Scheme 4. Cut-off reflector:
1- blade; 2 - spring part; 3 - tooth

This plate is placed with the tooth inside in the slot of the receiver (7 in photo 10). The shutter stem is eccentric in cross section (photo 11). When the shutter is open, the cutoff-reflector tooth is located deep in the eccentric (7 in photo 11). In this position, the blade-plate protrudes from the receiver body and keeps the top cartridge of the filled magazine from falling out. In turn, the cutting tooth of the spring part (7 in photo 9) is extended into the cavity of the magazine box (7 in photo 12) and is located between the upper cartridge and those located below. When the upper cartridge is pushed forward by the bolt, the spring tooth keeps the rest from feeding up - it "cuts off" them. When the shutter is turned to the right, the eccentric of the stem (look again at photo 11) presses on the tooth of the blade-plate and "sinks" it into the groove of the receiver, at the same time "sinking" the spring tooth to the side, "cutting off" the cartridges. The cartridges spring-loaded from below are fed upwards, the cavity under the bolt is filled again. After the shot, the shutter opens, the cut-off reflector returns to its original position. When the shutter is open, the cartridge that has risen from the magazine upwards will be fixed from below by the cutting tooth of the spring, from above - by the blade-cutoff-reflector plate (Scheme 5).

Scheme 5. Shop rifle model 1891-1930:
1 - box; 2 - feed mechanism; 3 - cut-off reflector; 4 - cutting tooth

It cannot move up or down. It is disconnected from the rest of the cartridges, and nothing can hook its rim when moving the cartridge forward into the barrel. The cut-off reflector performs a dual function - it cuts off cartridges from unnecessary feed and reflects the spent cartridge case.

Photo 10

Photo 11

Photo 12

The review article was written about Mosin sniper screw, as it was technically different in production and in its purpose.

Mosin Sniper Rifle is a modernized version of the Mosin rifle. The rifle was put into service in 1931 under the index GAU-V222A. The shutter handle was upgraded, which was lengthened and bent down so that when reloading, the shutter handle did not rest against the sight. For this reason, the rifle was loaded only with single cartridges, since it was no longer possible to insert a clip into the grooves. The rifle also has mounts for optical sights. The trigger sensitivity was reduced from 2.4 to 2 kg. The sniper rifle did not provide for the use of a bayonet. A lot of attention has been paid, as tolerances for barrel machining have been increased. The technology of the barrel was also changed: the barrel had a narrowing of the barrel of 2-3% choke. The bullet in such a barrel was better centered and there was not a flight, but a “spitting out” of the bullet due to the check. The first rifles were equipped with a PT sight, later on with a PE sight, followed by a PU sight. The PU sight could be used for firing at ranges up to 1400 meters. Although the sighting range of 1300 meters is declared, it is most likely a harassing fire or shooting at group targets. The real effective range is not more than 1000 meters. The most massive sight for Mosinka PU with an effective range of 1300 meters, effective fire at a distance of 600 meters.

production Mosin sniper rifle was engaged in the Tula Arms Plant. In 1940, it was planned to replace the rifle with the SVT-40 sniper rifle, but the new rifle did not meet the requirements that were expected from it. SVT-40 came in insufficient quantities, accuracy was lower, since the rifle was semi-automatic, when reloading, the cartridges often received deformation, which reduced the accuracy of the battle. To increase the production of sniper rifles, it was decided to resume production at the Izhevsk Mechanical Plant. In October 1942, it was decided to abandon the production of the SVT-40 sniper rifle, please note that the production of the SVT-40 was until the end of the Second World War.

Arms factories of the country will produce 108 345 Mosin sniper rifles. Snipers with a Mosin rifle often inflicted significant damage on the Germans in manpower. Below is a list of the top 50 snipers of the Soviet Army (usually armed with the Mosin Sniper Rifle), the most surprising thing is that the most legendary sniper of Stalingrad Vasily Zaitsev with his list of 225 Wehrmacht soldiers and officers was not included in this list. The Mosin Sniper Rifle was replaced by the Dragunov-SVD Sniper Rifle. Which had worse accuracy, but was semi-automatic and had a conveyor production. On the basis of the Mosin rifle, rifles for sniper shooting are still being produced in different countries of the world. And an ordinary sniper rifle still gets into the lenses of cinema and video cameras in different parts of the country where military conflicts take place. On the basis of Mosin rifles in different countries of the world, modern options sniper rifles.

TTX Sniper Rifle Mosin

Number of shots	5
barrel caliber	7.62x54 R
combat rate of fire	10-14 shots per minute
Maximum rate of fire	55 rounds per minute
Sighting range	2000 meters
Maximum firing range	3500 meters
Effective Shooting	600-800 meters
Initial departure speed	870 m/s
Automation	rotary lock sliding bolt
Weight	4.5 kg, sight PE-0.6 kg, sight PU-0.3 kg
bullet energy	2600-4150 J
Dimensions	infantry-1500 mm

Top 50 snipers of the Soviet Army during the Great Patriotic War:

• 534 - Vasily Shalvovich Kvachantiradze
• 502 - Akhat Abdulkhakovich Akhmetyanov
• 500 - Ivan Mikhailovich Sidorenko
• 494 - Nikolay Yakovlevich Ilyin
• 456 (including 14 snipers) - Vladimir Nikolaevich Pchelintsev
• 446 - Nikolai Evdokimovich Kazyuk
• 441 - Petr Alekseevich Goncharov
• 437 - Mikhail Ivanovich Budenkov
• 429 - Fedor Matveyevich Okhlopkov
• 425 - Fedor Trofimovich Dyachenko
• 425 - Afanasy Emelyanovich Gordienko
• 422 (including 70 snipers) - Vasily Ivanovich Golosov
• 422 (including 12 snipers) - Stepan Vasilyevich Petrenko
• 418 (including 17 snipers) - Nikolai Ivanovich Galushkin
• 397 - Tuleugali Nasyrkhanovich Abdybekov
• 367 (including general) - Semyon Danilovich Nomokonov
• 362 (including 20 snipers) - Ivan Petrovich Antonov
• 360 - Gennady Iosifovich Velichko
• 350 - Ivan Grigorievich Kalashnikov
• 349 - Alexander Alekseevich Govorukhin
• 349 - Abuzhi Idrisov
• 346 - Philip Yakovlevich Rubakho
• 345 - Leonid Vladimirovich Butkevich
• 340 - Ivan Ivanovich Larkin
• 338 - Ivan Pavlovich Gorelikov
• 335 and two aircraft - Arseniy Mikhailovich Etobaev
• 331 - Viktor Ivanovich Medvedev
• 328 (including 18 snipers) - Ilya Leonovich Grigoriev
• 324 (including general) - Evgeny Adrianovich Nikolaev
• 320 - Mikhail Adamovich Ivasik
• 313 (including 30 snipers) - Zhambyl Esheevich Tulaev
• 309 (including 36 snipers) - Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko
• 307 - Alexander Pavlovich Lebedev
• 307 - Vasily Alexandrovich Titov
• 302 - Ivan Timofeevich Dobrik
• 300 - Moses Timofeevich Usik
• 300 - Nikolai Stepanovich Vedernikov
• 300 - Maxim Semenovich Bryksin
• 299 - Nikifor Samsonovich Afanasiev
• 298 (including 5 snipers) - Ivan Filippovich Abdulov
• 287 - Grigory Mikhailovich Simanchuk
• 280 - Ivan Grigoryevich Ostafiychuk
• 279 - Yakov Mikhailovich Smetnev
• 279 - Vitaly Methodievich Bezgolosov
• 270 and one aircraft - Tsyrendashi Dorzhiev
• 265 - Anatoly Ivanovich Chekhov
• 261 - Mikhail Stepanovich Sokhin
• 261 - Pavel Georgievich Shorets

Small arms are the most massive in all the armies of the world. Tanks aviation and navy all of them by and large they are preparing a bridgehead for a battle in which the last word remains with the infantry. What were the infantrymen of the USSR army armed with?

• weight of a rifle with a bayonet without cartridges - 4.5 kg.
• weight without bayonet 4.2 kg.
• length with bayonet 1660 mm.
• length without bayonet 130 cm. magazine capacity 5 rounds
• muzzle velocity - 865 m / s
• range of aimed fire - 1920 meters
• rate of fire 20-30 rounds per minute
• About 26.000000 rifles were produced

As in the first world war in the USSR, the main weapon was a rifle of the 1891 model of the year (Mosin rifle, three-ruler) In the Soviet Union in 1930, the 7.62 rifle of the 1891 model, the famous Mosinka in its dragoon version, was adopted for service. The Mosin rifle, also known as the three-ruler, essentially remained from the First World War, having practically not undergone any changes. Of course, in the USSR, work was underway on new models of rifles, but the Great Patriotic War took place under the era of the Mosin rifle. It was invented by Sergei Ivanovich Mosin, a Tula gunsmith with the rank of captain. There were three modifications of the infantry, dragoon and Cossack rifles, at that time it was believed that each type of troops should have its own rifle. In other respects, the differences were minimal, the rifles differed in length, and the Cossack rifle did not have a bayonet. In 1938, they adopted a carbine. A rifle with a short barrel is called a carbine, according to one version, the word carbine comes from the Arabic - "Karab" which means weapon in translation. The aiming range of the carbine was 1000 meters. For those who were not comfortable with a long rifle, the appearance of a carbine came in handy. The large length of the three lines was an advantage in bayonet combat, but in close trenches or in the forest, the advantage became a disadvantage. They fought with the Mosin rifle both for the tsar and for the Soviet power. They fought with the three-ruler for the happiness of the people and for the tsar, they went on the attack for their homeland for Stalin. The rifle was the main small arms of the Red Army, the soldiers with it were not only trained in shooting but also in bayonet combat. in 1922, from three types of rifles, they switched to one dragoon rifle in 1930, the name of the designer was returned. The Russian Mosin rifle received its first baptism of fire during the suppression of the uprising of Chinese boxers in 1900. The rifle performed well Japanese war 1904-1905.

Positive features inherent rifles:

• Good bolt and barrel survivability
• good ballistics
• ease of disassembly and assembly
• ease of production
• unpretentiousness
• use of frame clip
• easily mastered by soldiers
• reliable

Disadvantages of the Mosin rifle:

• the main thing is not the convenience of the rifle is that the soldiers had to constantly walk with the bayonet attached
• heavy and slow trigger pull
• there was a straight short bolt handle, which prevented the quick ejection of the sleeve
• inconvenient use of a fuse
• excessive length
• magazine box protruded beyond the box

In 1883 Mosin Sergei Ivanovich began developing the first versions of his magazine-type rifles. He started with a Berdan rifle, he took it as a basis and attached an 8 round magazine to it. April 16, 1891 was shown a sample which was later approved as the Mosin Rifle. Its original name was "Russian three-line rifle model 1891". But by decree of Alexander 3, on April 16, 1981, it received the name - Three-line rifle of the 1891 model. For the creation of the rifle, the tsarist government paid Mosin 30,000 rubles, seven times less than the Nagant for one part. This fact and the absence of his name in the name of the rifle offended the inventor. The bitterness was not even smoothed out by the awarding of the Order of St. Anne, 2nd degree, and the Mikhailovsky Prize. The rifle was issued the Soviet army almost until the very end of the war and was in service until the end of the 1970s. Since 1894, Sergei Ivanovich was the head of the Sestroretsk arms factory. He died on January 26, 1902 from pneumonia, and was buried in the city of Sestroretsk. At the time of his death, Mosin was in the rank of major general.

Both the rifle and the revolver in Russia had the same caliber - three lines. A line equals one tenth of an inch, and three lines equals 7.62 mm. in the metric system. At that time, Soviet engineers used the English system for measuring small arms caliber, weapons were designated in lines from here and familiar to many went - a three-line rifle. The rifle was a magazine type. a clip for 5 rounds was loaded into the store.

In the early days of the war, all volunteers were given a rifle - a simple powerful weapon.

The rifle cartridges had a caliber of 7.62 × 54 mm. To infect the rifle, a three-line cartridge of the 1908 model was used. Charging took place with the help of a clip:

The cartridges were inserted from above into the receiver, the cartridges were pressed into the magazine, 4 cartridges ended up in the magazine, the fifth cartridge, when the magazine was closed, ended up in the barrel. the shape of the cartridge has a rim. Many experts consider the rim not convenient, from a constructive point of view. It complicates the design of automatic weapons.

A light bullet in the immediate vicinity of the muzzle of the 1981/30 model pierces a slab up to 6 mm, an iron plate up to 12 mm, a layer of gravel up to 120 mm, peat up to 2.8 m, a wall of oak tree 0.70 m, pine boards up to 2.5 cm each. A bullet from a Mosin rifle can pierce brushwood one and a half meters thick. Compacted snow 3.5 meters thick. It will not be good for the enemy hiding behind straw 4.50 meters thick. Sandbags 0.70 cm thick or clay obstacles a meter thick will not save you from a bullet.

The rifle was equipped with a standard four-sided bayonet, which was used in the First World War by the Russian army. The rifle was produced in three versions, two of which were equipped with bayonet knives. The bayonet at the end has the shape of a screwdriver, it was also used to disassemble the rifle. When the Red Army soldiers ran out of ammunition, they used a bayonet, the bayonet knife was long enough and could pierce through two people.

When shooting, the weapon was used precisely with a bayonet, if you shoot without it, the bullets went to the side. The bayonet of the Mosin rifle is adjacent to the right of the barrel. If the bayonet is set from below when firing, as is often shown in old Soviet films, then when fired, the powder gases were ahead of the bullet, and influenced its flight, taking it to the side. They were partially reflected from the bayonet and under their influence the bullet went to the left. All rifles except the Cossack were shot with a bayonet.

At the rifle, it was rather uncomfortable, in comparison with the same Mauser rifle (Mauser Gewehr 98 Mauser 98), it was quite problematic to use it, especially in winter time years in gloves, in order to put the Mosin rifle on the fuse, it was necessary to apply a sufficiently strong force.

The Mosin rifle was easier to manufacture, it is not very sensitive to contamination of moving parts. It has earned a reputation for being a reliable and powerful rifle. Its main drawback is manual reloading, which did not allow for a high rate of fire.

A container for oil, a pouch with tools for disassembling a rifle. bayonet-knife bags for cartridges rifle lubricated with grease.

Mosinka, as it was affectionately called by the people, has become one of the most massive rifles in the world. In total, from 1981 to the victorious 1945, about 26 million rifles were produced. And about 12 million for the year of the Great Patriotic War.

Rifles were produced at Izhevsk and Tula machine-building plants. Tolerances in the manufacture of parts were large enough, thanks to this, the three-ruler could withstand the most severe operating conditions and forgave the owner for careless care for the time being.

Based on the Mosin rifle of the 1891-1930 model, its sniper version was developed. It featured an improved bore finish and tighter manufacturing tolerances. The bolt handle of the Mosin sniper rifle was changed, it became a characteristic l-shaped shape. This was done for convenience with an optical sight installed. The sniper version of the three-ruler became the first domestic rifle specifically designed for marksmanship. Active propaganda of the sniper movement began in the Soviet Union.

The rifle was easy to use, any soldier could be taught to use it, and its shortened version, the carbine, was also created on the basis of a three-line rifle. It was primarily used in the artillery of the engineering troops and in the nfv cavalry where the large length of the rifle became inconvenient.

And so the Russian Mosin rifle was the main weapon of the Red Army. The Mosin rifle model turned out to be so viable that even after a hundred years this system is in demand again. In the early nineties of the 20th century, the SSH-96 sniper rifle was developed in Finland, which is a modernized model of the Mosin system. There are also rumors that the first Chechen war it was used by several riot policemen Russian army as the main sniper rifle.