Weapon Profile: Mosin-Nagant 1891/30

The Russian-made Mosin-Nagant 1891/30 sniper rifle is featured in Metal Gear Solid 3, Portable Ops, and Metal Gear Solid 4. Lauded by experts as one of the greatest sniper rifles produced in the first half of the 20th century, the Nagant has been the weapon of choice for a number of masterful snipers, both real and fictional.

In MGS3, the Mosin-Nagant is used by The End, a member of the Cobra Unit who is said to be "the father of modern sniping." The End is a master of both sniping and camouflage, and engages in an epic sniper duel with Big Boss in a thickly-forested area of Tselinoyarsk called Sokrovenno. If he's defeated by depleting his stamina (using the M22 pistol or other non-lethal weapons), he'll leave behind his rifle for Big Boss to use. Here's what Sigint has to say about it:

Sigint: "The M1891/30 Mosin-Nagant is a real beauty of a bolt-action sniper rifle. It's been in use since World War II. Mosin-Nagants are created by selecting the best-made weapons out of the regular M1891/30 rifle production line for their high precision and upgrading them to sniper rifles. They add on an optical sight, make the trigger pull lighter, bend the charging handle underneath--that kind of stuff. The Mosin-Nagant has been known far and wide since the war for its superior capabilities. They were so highly valued that a lot of German snipers on the eastern front preferred to use captured Mosin-Nagants instead of their own rifles. It looks like The End took the one he'd been using since the war and modified it to fire tranquilizer rounds. It's also been fitted with a folding stock and a pistol grip."

Big Boss: "Maybe for parachute jumps?"

Sigint: "Well, I dunno why he did it, but that's the tool of a legendary sniper. It's got to be a fine piece of work."


In reality, the M28 Finnish variant of the Mosin-Nagant was used by a soldier named Simo Häyhä in the Winter War between Russia and Finland (1939-1940). Considered by some to be the greatest sniper in history, Häyhä racked up an unprecedented 542 confirmed kills in only 100 days, earning him the nickname "White Death" from his adversaries. Like The End, he used camouflage expertly and operated alone in the field (sniping is usually conducted by two-person teams). Unbelievably, his rifle lacked even a telescopic scope--Häyhä preferred to aim using just the iron sights!

In all of its Metal Gear series appearances thus far, the Mosin-Nagant 1891/30 has served as a long-range nonlethal weapon, making it especially useful when attempting a "no kills" play-through. Like the M22 tranquilizer pistol, shots fired from the Nagant will put enemies to sleep for a set amount of time rather than killing them, and will deplete a boss's stamina gauge instead of their life gauge. The only downside to using it is that it has no suppressor, allowing any remaining enemies nearby to hear shots fired from it.

For Further Reading:

The links below contain more interesting information about the Mosin-Nagant 1891/30, as well as several real snipers who used it to great effect.

http://www.snipercentral.com/mosin.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosin-Nagant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_Hayha

http://www.soviet-awards.com/digest/pavlichenko/pavlichenko1.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Grigoryevich_Zaitsev