Stupid question time - has anyone ever used the single action Nagant revolvers?

[Dapper Dave]

I saw it was approved by the handbook, (I have time at work, so I get to read the handbook every so often  ) and I was wondering if anyone ever did use them? Imagine being costumed up like an Imperial Russian officer for a match...the time periods are right.  

Just a random thought, thanks for reading. 

[PaleWolf Brunelle, #2495L]

Here's a related discussion from 2017:

 

[watab kid]

yes i saw one once in over 20 years , im not certain why it was used or what the overall reaction mught have been - local matcxh and i was just getting started , didnt need added distractions back then  [or now] why do you ask ? its a period piece but late period and most likely not common on the frontier , a webley ...maybe , but not the ones you see on the market - these would be older 

[Dapper Dave]

Why do I ask? I saw them listed in the SASS rulebook, was just curious if anyone had actually done it, that's all. 

[Cheatin Charlie]

I have one and have used it for my shotgun when we shoot Josey Wales at Tusco.  It is so hard to cock I shoot it two handed.  Why it is legal I have no idea.

But I did hit all the shotgun targets if I remember correctly.  Charlie

[Chantry]

Years ago there was a shooter in NY who shot a pair of Nagants.  Pretty sure you won't find factory lead ammunition for a Nagant, so a person would have to reload the ammo for it to shoot one in SASS.

 

Interesting revolver, there are surprisingly few parts when you take the side plate off.  From what I've read they were popular with those who carried one, due to their reliability.  Military ammo was hotter then the commercial ammo available today, falling in between the .38 Special and 9mm loads of the time period.  Supposedly it is still in limited use with train guards/train police in Russia.

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

Yes!  In fact, here's a video of me shooting them at a match.   The angle isn't great, but those are my Nagants.

 

 

There is NO SUCH THING as a stupid question, IMO.   

Anyway, you won't win any speed contests with them, but they are interesting to shoot.   I use the Lee dies to straighten out .32-20 brass.   Works pretty good.  You can see that my left pistol has a strange "issue" that I have to correct with my index finger.   I'll have to have it looked at.

 

I think they are oddly ergonomic, they fit my hands very well, and it's easy to cock them.  And, the single action trigger pull isn't all that bad.

Edited November 12 by H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619

[watab kid]

i couldnt use my nagant revolver - it was doubl/single action , 

[Dapper Dave]

Thank you H.K. Uriah, much obliged. 

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

17 hours ago, Cheatin Charlie said:

I have one and have used it for my shotgun when we shoot Josey Wales at Tusco.  It is so hard to cock I shoot it two handed.  Why it is legal I have no idea.

But I did hit all the shotgun targets if I remember correctly.  Charlie

Are you talking about a Nagant or LeMat? The LeMat has a shotgun barrel under the cap & ball barrel. The Nagant is 7.62 x 38mm double action revolver that can fired as a single action. 

[McCandless]

On 11/10/2024 at 9:59 PM, Dapper Dave said:

I saw it was approved by the handbook, (I have time at work, so I get to read the handbook every so often  ) and I was wondering if anyone ever did use them? Imagine being costumed up like an Imperial Russian officer for a match...the time periods are right.  

Just a random thought, thanks for reading. 

 

I shoot my Nagants now and then.  Just for something different.  I make a semblence of the ammo using 32-20 brass.  It doesn't give you the gas seal as real Nagant ammo, but it gets the job done.  They'll slow you down a good deal, but for once in a while it's something different.  Confounds the Loading Table officer, if your club used one.

[Cheatin Charlie]

5 hours ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said:

Are you talking about a Nagant or LeMat? The LeMat has a shotgun barrel under the cap & ball barrel. The Nagant is 7.62 x 38mm double action revolver that can fired as a single action. 

I used 7.62 Nagant mine is single action only the hammer was not machined for extra double action part.  There is no way you could not tell the difference between a Nagant and the LeMat.  I have had both.  Charlie

[Dapper Dave]

I read that there were two Nagant revolvers built, a double action one for officers and a cheaper single action one for enlisted, or something like that. I have also been told the double action pull is very stiff and unusable, but I haven't actually fired one. 

What IS interesting is allowing the Nagant actually violates the ammo rule that states ammunition that is seated below the case mouth isn't allowed, which is the way Nagant factory ammo is setup for the gas seal operation - gotta use reloads only, I guess.

 

[Woody Shootem, SASS # 24816]

Years ago (perhaps early 2000's) Nagant revolvers were being imported in large quantities at very cheap prices (I seem to recall $199), so that may have been the reason people were wanting to have them be SASS-legal.  Now they sell for several times that amount and more, so they no longer are the bargain they used to be.  An those actions are STIFF.

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

8 hours ago, Dapper Dave said:

What IS interesting is allowing the Nagant actually violates the ammo rule that states ammunition that is seated below the case mouth isn't allowed

 

I asked this very question many years ago.  PaleWolf quickly answered and said that if the gun is legal, the ammo is legal.   I take that as an authoritative statement.

 

 

As far as the DA and SA versions of the Nagant go, the only difference is a small piece on the DA model that can be removed, making the DA version functionally identical to the SA version.  This has been stated to be a legal modification.

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

25 minutes ago, Woody Shootem, SASS # 24816 said:

Years ago (perhaps early 2000's) Nagant revolvers were being imported in large quantities at very cheap prices (I seem to recall $199),

 

They were going for $69.00 at first.  I got one, then about a year later, I got a second one, and they were up to $89.00  Now, they are going for several hundred a pop.

First gun I bought on my C&R.

[Three Foot Johnson]

19 hours ago, watab kid said:

i couldnt use my nagant revolver - it was doubl/single action , 

As in Palewolf's link above, it only takes a minute to remove the screw, DA fly, and spring to make it legal. 

 

The only time I ever shot one in a match was as part of a stunt I did several years ago where I shot different guns on every stage. Not just different guns, but all 24 were also in different dedicated chamberings and gauges, meaning I didn't shoot .38 spls in a .357, or .44 spls in a .44 mag, and so on. With the consent of the MD and the posse, I threw a .410 and 28 ga into the mix to get six different shotgun gauges.  I finished with the dreaded one-miss match. 

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

Three Foot, you are a man after my own heart.   Last year at the MA/CT/RI Tristate, I used different guns on every stage.   The "theme" was Westerns through the decades.   Each stage was based on a specific western from a specific decade.  So, for each stage, I used guns that were seen in those movies.  As such, at different times, I used a Spencer, a "Hollywood Henry" made out of a 66, a Henry, a large loop 92, a regular 92, a 73, a 66, and other things.  For pistols I used a 75 Remington, a Walker, a Dragoon, Colts of all three barrel lengths, a Schofield, a New Model 3, a 58 Remington, an 1860, and I am not sure what else.   Shotguns included a long and short barreled Parker.   And, I shot the match clean!

[watab kid]

3 hours ago, Three Foot Johnson said:

As in Palewolf's link above, it only takes a minute to remove the screw, DA fly, and spring to make it legal. 

 

The only time I ever shot one in a match was as part of a stunt I did several years ago where I shot different guns on every stage. Not just different guns, but all 24 were also in different dedicated chamberings and gauges, meaning I didn't shoot .38 spls in a .357, or .44 spls in a .44 mag, and so on. With the consent of the MD and the posse, I threw a .410 and 28 ga into the mix to get six different shotgun gauges.  I finished with the dreaded one-miss match. 

that sounds interesting but id most likely forget where i was