The Mosin-Nagant, made popular in the movie “Enemy at the Gates” was issued to the Russian Infantry during the 1890’s. Now the airsoft company Zeta Labs who also released the airsoft version of the Soviet Union RPG-7, has released its airsoft version of this beautiful and historical rifle. We are privileged to be provided a review unit by the Hong Kong-based online airsoft retailer Get Reload.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Being a fan of modern and future firearms, I am always very sceptical when it comes to historical replica rifles. One reason is that I regard myself as purely an airsofter and being as such, functionality and quality bear more importance to me rather than authentic looks. On the other hand, when news around the airsoft world spread about historical replicas coming out to the market, it makes me wonder if they are not only authentic looking (as replicas such as these target the collectors and re-enactment enthusiasts) but also can they actually function as proper skirmish firearms.

When the Zeta Labs Mosin-Nagant arrived there was nothing surprising with how it was packaged. I was actually surprised that it survived the journey it took all the way from Hong Kong. The box is a simple brown carton with “Zeta Labs” printed on the lid. Inside, the rifle is wrapped in thin foam and any other remaining space on the box filled with the same material. The rifle as I said was in surprisingly good condition, so credit to Zeta Labs and note to other companies: cheap packaging works as well… within the pile of foam wrappings I found a good quality sling, a plastic bayonet and some spare parts.

The rifle itself is very impressive. It has very good solid weight with all the steel and wood that they used on it. The real wood stock is very well made although I am unsure of the quality and type of wood used. The stock extends almost up to the end of the barrel. The end of the butt has a metal plate that protects it from scratches even if the rifle is stood on its butt. The other end of the stick is protected by what looks like brass plates. The top side of the front end of the stock is a separate piece of wood that is held in place by two ring locks.

The front sight of the rifle is what I normally call a halo sight and aligns very well with the adjustable rear sight that may have inspired the AK rear sight design. The cocking handle and cylinder is made of silver coloured metal, I would love to call it stainless steel but I don’t think that it is as the replica sent to us already has some wear marks on the cocking handle itself.

On the underneath, the trigger functions very well, the trigger pull is a bit hard, which I personally prefer on a sniper rifle as it allows the shooter to “feel” the shot as the trigger is pulled. The dummy magazine is also well made and has a latch that opens on the underside where the BB feeding mechanism is located.

The package also contains a plastic bayonet that attaches to the front end of the rifle.

In general the looks of the rifle is great, it bears marking on the top just behind the rear adjustable sight. The wood colour is a bit light for my liking and may benefit from a good lick of dark wood colour tint or varnish to give it that slight old/hard wood effect.

USABILITY

As I have mentioned earlier on, one of the things that somehow put me off is that most of these historical replica firearms suffer from performance and usability as an airsoft rifle in exchange for authentic and accurate appearance. Unless you skirmish with other period airsoft rifles, this one won't be able to keep up with all those AEGs and Gas Blowback rifles that have full auto and higher capacity magazine features.

The first thing that I look for on a rifle, especially one that has limited ammunition capacity is its ease of re-load. The BB loading and feeding mechanism of the Zeta Lab Mosin Nagant is something uniquely designed and which I have never seen before on an airsoft rifle. To load the BBs, the user needs to open the latch underneath the dummy magazine. Inside, you will find a red string that when pulled, pulls the string inside the hole where the BBs feed into. Along the underside of the magazine is a track where, in theory, the BBs to be loaded should be placed and then roll down the feeding hole while the string is pulled. The rifle did not come with a user’s manual therefore it is difficult to guess how the BB feeding mechanism work. Another thing is that the string that feeds the BBs in is made of ordinary string material making me think twice of pulling it too hard just in case it snaps. The first time I tried to load the BBs was a total failure as the BBs, although they stayed on the track and started to slide down the hole, they kept on popping back up every time I pull the loading string. Eventually and with the help of YouTube, I found out that I was not pulling the string hard enough to retract the loading spring fully too let the BBs in. The magazine can accommodate 10 Bbs and sadly the BB track that I mentioned could not hold any spare BBs that can be re-loaded once the 10 BBs inside have been spent.

Pulling the cocking handle is a bit of a chore. It is quite stiff that I found it easier to cock the rifle with the butt resting on my thigh while pulling the cocking handle. Although it is possible to pull the bolt whilst the rifle is shouldered but doing this a few times will make your wrist start to ache.

When it comes to shooting, the Mosin Nagant is surprisingly accurate at a decent distance of roughly 20 meters with a velocity of 330fps. The rifle is a bit heavy and I started feeling this shooting from a standing position after about 10 re-loads. The plastic bayonet will be quite handy for poking people in the shoulder for those ever sneaky knife kills or if you're in the mood of making a bayonet charge when you run out of ammo.

TAKEDOWN

Taking this rifle apart is easy but a bit long winded. I followed a video from the Internet and found the job quite straight forward. No special tools required for this, I was able to fully disassemble the rifle using Gerber multi-tool pliers.

The first part of the take down is to detach the wooden parts from the entire barrel and receiver assembly. First, remove the dummy barrel rod located on the underside of the barrel, simply pull it out. Then slide the two ring locks towards the front end of the barrel by pressing the two locking mechanism that hold them in place. Once this is done, the top wood cover should detach. Locate the big screw on the mid part of the stock, use a long nose pliers to turn the knob that holds the screw in place. Next, remove the screw located on the front end of the trigger guard. Now flip the rifle over and remove the screw on what I believe is the bolt locking mechanism. This will be a flat head screw on the rear end of the bolt cylinder. Be aware that there is a small metal ball bearing that allows this mechanism to turn so, do not loose this. Remove the long screw located just behind the bolt cylinder. Once you have done this, you can now pull the trigger assembly and dummy magazine off but be careful as this is still attached to the main rifle by the red loading string. Inside the dummy magazine are two cross head screws, remove them, open the loading latch at the bottom and push the loading assembly out. This will now fully detach the trigger mechanism and dummy magazine.

Once the trigger and dummy magazine has been completely detached, the main barrel and receiver assembly can now be separated from the stock. Again keep in mind of the loading mechanism and the string.

To remove the bolt cylinder, remove the trigger spring on the underneath behind the BBs loading chamber. The metal part where the trigger spring is attached is the bolt spring lock. Detach this by removing the three screws underneath. Once this has been remover, the bolt cylinder can be pulled out.

CONCLUSION

Zeta Labs yet again has given us a very beautifully made replica of a historical firearm. I would say that having this as a collectors’ piece is a must for any fan of this era. But looking at it on an airsofter’s point of view, I would not take this rifle out for a skirmish simply because of the long winded BB loading process and the very limited ammunition that it can hold. It is, in my opinion more suitable for war re-enactments and/or maybe for stage or movie props use.

The Zeta Lab Mosin Nagant Rifle is available at Get-Reload's online store. For a price of US$350.00 as of this writing, you get the full package, including the dummy bayonet. If you want to turn it into a sniper rifle, the PU scope can be purchased separately.

Many thanks to Get Reload for providing us this unit for review.