by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier
Mosin Nagant M1944 BB gun.
This report covers:
- Correction
- Install CO2
- Daisy BBs
- Air Venturi Copper-plated steel BBs
- H&N Smart Shot BBs
- Shot count
- The sling
- Trigger pull
- Evaluation
Correction
In Part 1 I told you the true barrel length of this Mosin Nagant M1944 BB gun is around 5 inches. Someone called me on that so I measured it again today. Now I am reading a length of 15.5 inches. The real barrel is buried deep inside an outer jacket that conforms to the appearance of the firearm barrel, so measuring is done by means of a thin cleaning rod. I’ve gone back and corrected Part 1 to reflect what I’ve learned.
Install CO2
Today is velocity day. This BB gun is rated to 427 f.p.s., which is very brisk, so take precautions to eliminate bouncebacks. Let’s begin by installing one 12-gram CO2 cartridge.
First, I want to note that there is an Allen wrench inside the magazine for tightening the CO2 piercing screw. That’s always a nice touch. This one fits flush with the mag in a special compartment made just for it.
There is an Allen wrench in the magazine for the CO2 screw.
The cartridge pierced with no hiss of gas. It sealed, though, as attested by the resistance when I tried backing the screw out again. Let’s shoot!
Daisy BBs
First to be tested were some Daisy Premium Grade BBs. I noticed right away that the M1944 drops velocity fast if you don’t allow it to warm up between shots. Daisy BBs averaged 436 f.p.s for 10 shots. The spread went from a low of 421 f.p.s. to a high of 452 f.p.s. That’s 31 f.p.s., but as I noted, I wasn’t allowing enough time between each shot.
Air Venturi Copper-plated steel BBs
Next I tried 10 Air Venturi Copper-Plated Steel BBs that are not in stock at Pyramyd AIR. I would guess they are similar in performance to Air Venturi Zinc-Plated Steel BBs. These averaged 433 f.p.s. with a spread from 422 f.p.s. to 444 f.p.s. That’s a difference of 22 f.p.s. It’s a little tighter than the first BB because I was allowing more time between each shot.
H&N Smart Shot BBs
The last BB I tried was the H&N Smart Shot lead BB. Pay attention to the link I just gave you — it’s for a small tin of 150 BBs, for those who want to try them but not spend a lot of money before knowing if they work.
This time I really tried my best to allow the gun to warm between shots. The average was 387 f.p.s. with a spread from 376 to 393 f.p.s. That’s 17 f.p.s. and I think it’s about as good as we’re going to see.
I want to say that the larger velocity variations with the first two BBs were due to how they were tested — not due to any flaws in the BBs themselves. I think this will be interesting when I test accuracy. At 10 meters it may not make a differencer, but at farther distances it probably will.
Shot count
Okay — how many shots can we expect from a single CO2 cartridge? Because this is a bolt action rifle, I worked the bolt and shot as fast as I could and chronographed every 5th shot. There were already 33 shots on the gun when I started, and I used Daisy BBs for this test.
Shot 38 went out at 404 f.p.s. Shot 53 went out at 371 f.p.s. Then I paused for about 5 minutes to let the rifle warm up again. Shot 54 went out at 426 f.p.s., so the velocity recovered after a warm-up. I then fired four shots fast, and shot 59 registered 398 f.p.s. Then I shot four more fast shots and then reloaded. Shot 64 was 431 f.p.s., with about a minute’s pause during reloading. Then four more fast shots were fired, and shot 66 was 394 f.p.s.I thenI waited five minutes and shot 67 was 425 f.p.s.. This puppy still has gas!
Then I put 10 fast shots through the gun, followed by waiting five minutes for it to warm up, and shot 78 registered 380 f.p.s. The gas is running out now. The next shots looked like this.
Shot………Velocity (f.p.s.
79……………357
80……………366
81……………339
82……………351
83……………330
84……………321
85……………didn’t register
86……………308
87……………305
I stopped recording after shot 87, but there were more shots in the magazine so I shot them. About 4 were powerful, then the velocity dropped like a stone. Based on this test I would say there about 90 good shots on a CO2 cartridge. If you don’t like to count, stop after the fifth full magazine, which is 80 shots. That should be very conservative.
The sling
I told you I was going to show how that dog collar sling attaches. The two leather collars pass through the stock at the butt and forearm, and the sling attaches to both of them. It’s a strange arrangement, but it works. And the sling is stout enough to be used as a hasty sling for shooting offhand. I don’t like a sling for anything other than carrying a rifle in the field, but I have to admit this one is the real deal!
The leather dog collar fits through the forearm and butt and pass through the ends of the sling.
Trigger pull
The trigger is single stage — just like the firearm. It releases at 3 lbs. 3oz. on the test rifle. You can feel it move until it releases, but there’s no creep (a jerky catch-and-release movement).
Evaluation
I’m liking the realism of this BB gun, so far. The power seems great and the discharge noise is minimal because the barrel is buried so deep inside the outer jacket. Accuracy testing comes next!
Looking forward to the accuracy tests. I wondered about the the short barrel length as stated in part one. As a relative newbie, was wondering if that is another trick I am missing. Mount a pistol in a full size stock, add a fake barrel to have a further distance between the sites to gain more accuracy.
Thank you for the report BB
Harvey
BB
Correct the amount of “shots” in the Daisy BB para.
Bob,
THANK YOU!!!
Caught it before most of the world saw. 🙂
B.B.
BB
Most welcome … just noticed a picture of mine with the scope on it is posted on the PA sight, customer image. Did not have the canvas lace-up cheek riser with extra mag storage or sling on it yet. Submitted a review mostly describing how I mounted the scope since it is listed as ‘Not Scope-able” and never intended to be, even with Mosin Weaver rail mounts. The dovetail under the sight is too wide for most rings and too short for adaptors. Wanted to clear things up for future customers.
I replaced the double scope rings with a single wider one to move it forward a little and work better.
BB,
I am surprised you did not try the Daisy Avanti Match Grade BBs.
RR,
I may try them for accuracy, but for velocity I think they would be exactly where the first two BBs are.
B.B.
BB,
With the “high” velocity, relatively long barrel and the long sight picture they might do pretty well.
I have been thinking of picking some up to try in my 99.
B.B.,
On the PyramydAir Customer Reviews page for this gun, I found the following comments interesting:
“At 10 meters, I put all the shots in 1″ or less with Daisy BBs which it prefers over the Hornady black BBs. If you love authentic repros, get one!” — Brian from USA
“If you use Daisy Avanti Ground Shot your groups will be cut in half. This gun can compete with the 499!” — Dave from Canada (in reply to Dave)
I realize this is not backed up with targets, but it will be interesting to see if your detailed testing bears out that this gun is even close to the 499 in accuracy.
Keep up the good work!
Take care & God bless,
dave
Dave,
Thanks!
B.B.
You are most welcome =)
BB— The magazine that came with my 1944 averaged 424 fps. I bought 2 extra magazines. One averaged 500@fps, the other 530 fps. The Russians issued a non-adjustasble sling with some carbines. This replica comes with a sling that is too long. I replaced it with a Mosin-Nagant 91-30 adjustable sling. I am looking forward to part 3.—-Ed
Bob M—I found your picture Have you done any accuracy tests ? —-Ed
Zimbabweed
Sorry to say no. I have a lot of other interests and chores that take up my time and tend to be sporadic with my involvement with each … have over a dozen cars that need my love and attention and this CA gas is slowly killing them all since I don’t drive much anymore . Misfires everywhere !
I collect airguns and tinker with them but accuracy is not a high priority for me. Some I never shoot, others just to verify they work OK. I’ll keep them anyway. I grab my FX Independence when I want to hit something however I really should find time to contribute more to the blog, I sure received enough info from it. Especially if I have an airgun being discussed. See what I can do. For now, a friend just stopped by looking for help fixing his Land Rover. It never ends ! Always something else to do !
Bob M
Bob M.
BB
While we are on the subject of WWII era lookalike airguns… do you have any plans to test Diana’s Mauser K98 lookalike? Please keep in mind that my question is more of a request/demand than an actual question.
SL,
That Diana is on backorder. Yes, I plan to review it.
B.B.
Slinging, I too look forward to that review!
Doc
Doc
Should Diana decide to finally ship these rifles, it will be their best looking springer, IMNSHO.
Would like to see some more repeating bolt action rifles like an 03 Springfield and Mauser K98,Enfield SMLE. An M1 Garand semiauto using the 8 round pellet clips and having a wood stock would be a winner
Only if the M1 goes “ping” of course!
-Jan
Of course!
I guess I’m the only one disappointed in the velocity. Not that it’s just weak, I just expected the longer barrel to produce more velocity from a C02 power than basically the same gun in the M1891 with a shorter barrel. They are more or less the same in that department. When I think “good” power in a C02 “BB” gun, I think of the Umarex MORPH that cranks out over 600 fps and is accurate (for what it is) to boot. If any of you guys own one, I’d love to hear how it shoots with Smart Shot.
Doc
Doc
If you look closely at the mag, that silver block and tube in front of it, under the spring, are a one piece unit that pushes the bb into the barrel when the bolt closes. It pushes on the top lug moving it forward. The air tube from the air valve is fixed and inside it, a smaller diameter, and the silver block slides over it. There is a fair amount of play involved there and may let some air bypass behind the sliding block when it’s forward and contribute to a lower FPS.
The inner air tube is short and only extends into the block enough to reach the front of the block when retracted and is just barely reaches inside it when it’s forward. Not easy to verify an air loss there or able to do anything about.
Can the air valve be modified ? I won’t be going there myself.
You are not alone .I suspect the velocity is kept low for global sales . A rifle like this should be capable of over 600 fps for the USmarket. My 6 inch Webley revolver hits 435fps. Ihave two older pellet rifles a Crosman 99 and a 400 both of which hit ovet450fps with Crosman wadcutters . This rifle should’ve been able to throw a bb at over 600 fps