The Mosin Nagant is an old warhorse of a rifle. The weapon served Russia for decades and is a favorite among new gun owners for its low price, and among experienced gun owners for its historical value. The Mosin Nagant is an old school design that fires a full-powered cartridge. While small, fast rounds like the 5.56 are popular today, they don’t come close in power when compared to the mighty 7.62 x 54R the Mosin fires. The Mosin hits hard, in terms of both your target and your shoulder. Luckily we live in an age where anything is possible, including taming the Mosin Nagant.
The Purpose of Muzzle Brake
Muzzle brakes, like most Mosin accessories, act as a nice upgrade to an old rifle. A good muzzle brake can do a lot to make your rifle a bit more controllable, and more pleasant to shoot. The Mosin Nagant rifle is a powerful beast, it throws a large, heavy round downrange and you feel that recoil in your shoulder. A muzzle brake is designed to dampen the recoil of your rifle, make it a bit more pleasant to shoot.
Mosin Muzzle Brake Options
There a wide variety of different muzzle brakes available for the Mosin and they vary in how they attach. Some are pinned into place, and they don’t require any permanent changes to your Mosin. Others may require you to thread your barrel, and, of course, this is permanent. The Mosin Nagant a healthy amount of barrel available for threading if you go that route.
Historic samples, be them M38s, Hex receivers, or Joseph Stalin’s own rifle should remain stock for historical and monetary value. This is where the simple pin on the brakes works the best. The downside is that as a shooter you have to make sure the brake is attached nice and tight, and they stay that way throughout the shooting experience.
Now if have a common M91/30 or a mismatched M44, round receiver, that there are literally millions of you who aren’t destroying any value by attaching a permanent brake. Barrel threading is often affordable and does allow the option for additional accessories like a suppressor. Fixed muzzle brakes don’t require tuning, but, of course, your rifle is never the same.
How do Muzzle Brakes Work?
You may be wondering how well do brakes work? Well simply put they are capable of reducing the felt recoil of your rifle up to fifty percent. A good brake can make the mighty 7.62 x 54R feel like the mousey 223. A brake does dissipate the recoil extremely effectively, it’s almost mind blowing to compare the two side by side. A reduction in recoil not only makes the weapon more comfortable to fire but makes a shooter more effective. It’s much easier to stay on target and fire rapidly when you aren’t fighting the recoil. One of the main advantages of the Mosin Nagant is the affordability, not only of the rifle but the ammunition. The Mosin Nagant is an excellent rifle for new shooters, but the recoil can scare them away.
Since a muzzle brake works by dissipating all that extra gas that’s exiting the barrel, this process does create a lot more noise, and I mean a lot. Double up on the hearing protection when shooting a lot. A muzzle brake. Muzzle breaks also add some length to your rifle, but if you’re shooting a 91/30 length isn’t a real concern is it? You’ll also lose the use of your bayonet, but again it’s not a realistic concern.
There are a few disadvantages. First off when you compare the price to the Mosin Nagant they can easily be a third to double the price. The brakes can range from 50 bucks to a few hundred bucks. If you choose to go the threaded route, you’re also looking at the cost of threading, which is usually between 50 and 100 dollars.
Choosing a Mosin Nagant Muzzle Brake
You’ll also need one made for the Mosin Nagant, a typical 7.62 or 30 caliber brake will not work. The reason being is that Russian 30 caliber is .310 to .312 of an inch, and American 30 caliber is .308. I can’t tell you exactly what happens when you send a .310 bullet through a .308 hole, but I don’t imagine it’s good. The effect may not be an explosion and chaos, but it may damage that nice new, muzzle brake.
I only have personal experience with one Mosin Muzzle brake, the Viper speed Magnum, it is a threaded model, and is highly effective. It uses the arrowhead design that was a critical component of the success of the Barrett 50 caliber rifle. Other models with good reputations include the Howling Raven muzzle brake and for the carbine variant the Texas Precision products M44 model. Both are reported to be excellent muzzle brakes.
If you decide to go the muzzle brake route my best suggestion is to avoid anything in the ten-dollar realm. These things gotta be tough to deal with the full blast of a Mosin Nagant. The Mosin Nagant is a beast of a rifle, and a muzzle brake like this can add a lot to the rifle, and help tame the beast.
