Best Mosin?

The method of loading of bb's into those Mosins is rather stupid.
If you don't mind the bolt being too far back, or even the wrong shape, you can whack up a VSR based Mosin.

I'd second that, you can get cheap mosin parts, a vsr shoots far more superior than either and the magazine is still the best way to go, loading single bbs in the heat of battle can be a mare!

Plus there's far more available in upgrades and technical help! You can also buy mosin bolts for vsr's but I made my own

Or just buy a PPS K98 and remove the hood from the front sight, which is all the Russians did before re-issuing them.

A small guide to Mosin airsoft rifles.

Factory manufactured:

1. KTW M-N 1891/30 and M1944 carbie.
Type: Spring
Description: the very first, old as a mamouth, and cost the same veight of gold. Long time out of stock
Historical accuracy: very good. Fine made replica
Velosity: ~350FPS
Performance: Mediocre. Rather unreliable, no tuning possible. Small built-in magazine. Hang it on the wall.

2. ZetaLab M1944 carbine & M1891/30 rifle
Type: Spring
Description: a very good clone of KTW, later uprgraded with steel piston lock. Now out of stock, since ZetaLab closed
Accuracy: good. The markings are post-war, and it's actually a chinese version of M1944 carbine (but only few M-N experts can find that out)
Velosity: ~350FPS, up to 400 fps, but not a foot more. Insert a "150m/s" or "190m/s" spring inside - nothing will happen. I know only one case when a comrade got 490 fps - with polishing the bolt, cutting the spring and dancing with a tambourine under the moon light.
Performance: Good. Still small magazine with a funny rope and regular failures, but a good-built gun with no bolt flaws (version 2 - improved steel piston lock). Nice in combat and very accurate. The Germans may outrange you, but once in sights - they are "dead".

3. ZetaLab M1944 carbine & M1891/30 rifle
Type: Gas
Description: Zeta's own development, a gas bolt much like used in A&K Dragunov SVD. Now out of stock, since ZetaLab closed
Historical accuracy: good.
Velosity: 460-490 on Green Gas, may be reduced, but not improved. Will not eat CO2
Performance: Mediocre. The gas bolt gives you a chance to make 8 to 10 shots - which means you have to reload gas each time. And yet the bolt moves back only for 1-2 inches! That means you have to strip down the whole rifle in case of BB got stuck in hop-up or barrel.

4-6. RedFire, S&T, KingArms, PPS etc. M1944 carbine, M1891/30 rifle and M1891/30 Sniper Rifle
Type: Spring + Gas
Description: clones of ZetaLab, generally the same
Historical accuracy: same as Zeta, though on cheaper wood, alloy parts. Sniper version available, with a good scope replica.
Velosity: same as Zeta
Performance: Mediocre to Good - individually for each gun. You may get a nice gun out of the box or a box full of junk - a true lottery. Two parts tend to fail - bolt rear knob ("safety"/ hammer) and piston lock. The later you may buy, a steel upgraded version. Not compatible with Zeta, another pattern of screw holes.

7. WinGun M1944 carbine
Type: CO2
Description: "re-chambered" Gletcher 4.5mm rifle
Historical accuracy: satisfactory. It's plastic, with no historical markings. Wide magazine shaft.
Velosity: 490-560+ , may be reduced
Performance: Excellent. The Gletcher system works like the real M-N bolt, and by extending magazine shaft they fitted a CO2 with 10-12 BBs. Hop-up is fixed but easy to modify. This one is gun of the future in East Front skirmishing, being a good opponent for Tanaka and G+G. There is only one drawback: it's being sold only by Evike.com, so I don't have a chance to test one. But (see below) it have to be a weapon of choice.

Custom made:

8. VSR type springer. Bolt will not look like it should be, and milling solves nothing. But it will be an accurate all-weather gun.
9. KJW M700 type gas. Bolt will not look like it should be, and the magazine will be detached along with trigger guard frame. But it will be reliable and powerful gun, delivering lots of fps (if permitted) and lots of rpm, easy to reload, strip and clean.
10. Gletcher 4.5 mm sawed-off Mosin CO2 conversion. A true killer both by historical accuracy and combat performance, a home-made version of WinGun, but on real wood ad steel parts (you can find them easily in Russia and, of course, all over the world) of the design you want. Requires lots of work, but can be tuned from 360 to 650 fps.

I have one of the new WinGun M44 models. Beast of a gun, especially when compared to the KA version. While the stock is faux plastic, it is still real enough to fool most people until they inspect it up close. Metal is some type of non-ferro alloy that is surprisingly resistant to moisture, yet is solidly constructed. The magazine uses an allen key screw to put tension on the CO2 bulb and puncture it; the magazine also contains a miniature allen key bit for doing this in the field without needing extra kit!

Performance = chrono close to 500FPS (which is the sniper limit in ZA). A full CO2 cartridge likes a .34g or heavier BB; as the gas pressure drops, you can switch to lighter ammo and still get good speed out of it - just remember which speedloader carries which weight

Bolt handle is straight, so no chance of fitting a scope unless you have a way of replacing the bolt handle with a kinked version. Also no provision on the receiver for a scope rail; it would require some cutting of the stock, which, being plastic, might be troublesome.

Highly recommended for anyone with the $210 to spare ( +$38 per mag). Evike has discount specials from time to time... *hint hint*

Been playing around with my PPS Mosin and feel like I'm finally getting used to the odd magazine system. Only problem I've found so far is that I'm not getting many shots before I have to re-gas, in fact its barely one magazine. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

It was after seeing a chart of the FPS drop-off with each shot from a gas rifle that I decided a springer was the only viable option (for me). If the variation had been small per shot I might have thought otherwise but it's around 20fps per shot. That might not be terrible per-shot but between the first and fifth shot?!

A springer doing 450fps with a 90-degree sear really isn't that hard to cock.

Yeah it does seem the last few shots are a bit limp. Hoping it'll all be fine tomorrow, I'm sure I'll be shot before i run out of gas anyway with the way I play

Here is mine Wingun m1944 mosin nagant transformed to a m91/30.

Here is mine Wingun m1944 mosin nagant transformed to a m91/30.

Nice job!

Here is mine Wingun m1944 mosin nagant transformed to a m91/30.

Nice job!

Thank you, it was a pretty strait forward job