J&G Nagant Revolvers

[stover]

Have one inbound from J&G along with a 32 acp cylinder from Century.
Anyone else purchased a Nagant Revolver recently from them. What did you get, how do you like it, how was the condition ...etc?

[68gmcfan]

I am really curious on how the 32 acp cylinder works out. I want one of the Nagants, but I can't throw down $22 or more for 50 rds of ammo. I also don't like the idea of shooting 32 s&w long in it either. It looks like those Ruskies would make us some affordable plinking ammo for the Nagant as everyone seems to have them for sale around $100 bucks. I have read mixed results on the 32 acp cylinder. What are the cost on these now days?

[stover]

I have a C&R license and found the cylinder on Century arms website for $54.87 plus shipping, which is $12 and change if you buy $75.00 worth of stuff. I've also found the cylinder advertised for $70+ by Century. Not sure if the $54.87 price includes a C&R licensee discount or why I found it at 2 different prices.
Anyway, I ordered the Revolver from J&G and the $54.87 Cylinder and a couple 30 round AK mags, to qualify for the lesser shipping amount, from Century last Wednesday. Pistol arrived yesterday via FedEx. No word from Century, so I logged in to my account to check status this morning. Order has a note asking me to call because their is an issue shipping the magazines to my location. Denver and Vail have magazine capacity limits, but not where I live. CSR told me they are just being conservative, so I guess if any town in your state has a local ordinance they apply it to the whole state by default? Very strange. I told the guy I only ordered them just to get the lower shipping, so he processed the order without the mags and with $12 shipping. Fair enough I guess.
So I have the revolver, has a decent bore but the finish is a little rougher than I expected based on J&G's description. Now I 'm waiting for ammo or a cylinder to try it out. I'm with you on the 32 S&W / 32 H&R ammo in a Nagant. I don't like the idea of split cases. If the 32 acp Cylinder runs well I may ream it out to accept 32 H&R. Then I would have the original for 7.62 Nagant and a second cylinder for 32 acp, 32 S&W and H&R mag. 1 revolver to shoot dang near anything 32. Will try to update as things come together.

[68gmcfan]

Hmmm, 32 h and r now that would be fun.

[stover]

I've searched online and found people claiming to shoot everything from 32 S&W short to 327 fed and 7.62x25 Tokarev out of their Nagants. Several 2nd and 3rd hand accounts of 7.62x25 blowing up the revolvers. Haven't seen anything about 327 fed going kaboom but seems like it should.
I think 32 H&R should be ok if the case wall is properly supported. Have to give it some more thought, never liked the nick name lefty

[eugene213]

I got a 1941 Tula from J&G about three weeks ago... good bore, seems fine. It has the Century billboard next to the Tula star.

[stover]

Haven't been able to procure any 7.62x38r ammo but did get the 32 acp cylinder installed and took a trip to the range. The cylinder took a lot of fitting to properly advance and lock up. Fairly easy to do on the Nagant, was pleasantly surprised.
Shot about 100 rounds of 32 S&WL, got decent groups at 7, 15 and 25 yards. Could keep em in the head at 7, chest at 15 and somewhere in the torso at 25. Not bad considering, I'm shooting the wrong ammo and I can barely see the front sight blade. Switched to the 32 acp cylinder with similar results, and it is a real pleasure to shoot in both calibers.
Fired 32 acp cases were a little sticky and had to use the ejector rod. 32 S&W would just fall out 9/10 cases. All of the 32 S&W cases bulged above the rim but none of them split. May have been able to reload them but I'm not going to mess with bulged cases.
Painted the front sight white when I got home and ordered some more ammo. Can't wait to get back to the range with it -- fun gun.
Need to find a 32 H&R reamer for cheap, or a gunsmith that is willing to ream out the 32 acp cylinder. I'll give 32 H&R a go in the original cylinder, but still like the idea of reaming out the 32 acp one to 32 H&R for kicks.

[Edub]

I have shot multiple boxes of, .32 S&WL, .32 S&W shorts, and .32 H&R mag out of my nagant with no ill effects. One of my most trusted C&R gurus says any of the ammo I mentioned will be just fine. You may notice the cases may bulge a bit making it necessary to use the ejector rod but other than that, all is good. Stay away from the .327 fed mag! Some people have blown up their nagants using that. Also, I would definitely stay away from the 7.62 Tok ammo.

Recently, I received a .32acp cylinder in a trade and luckily, it dropped right in with no filing. Some guns may require a bit of filing to get it to fit correctly. I really like it. It works flawlessly and the .32acp ammo is cheaper than the other revolver ammo.

[lklawson]

Also, I would definitely stay away from the 7.62 Tok ammo.

The 7.62x25 required a specially rebored cylinder. The seem to have been pretty rare to start with.

If you have one, don't use it. If you don't, don't worry about trying to find them.

I don't have the pressure specs for the 7.62x38R (Nagant) but it appears to be closer to that of the 7.63 Mauser (.30 Mauser). The .30 Mauser is still over pressure though. The 7.62 Tok has a max pressure of ~42K CUP. The .30 Mauser has a max pressure of ~27K CUP. The only docs I've found on the 7.62x38R list it at 11K CUP but that's supposedly for a light "target" round (which is all that anyone produces now). Apparently the "original military" round used a much heavier bullet and a stouter load. I couldn't find pressures for it anywhere but it cronnied 100 fps slower than even the .30 Mauser. Now, the .30 Mauser has a lighter bullet by about 30-40 grains so that would speed up the bullet a fair amount. Still, I'd use caution with even a .30 Mauser round if you had one of those converted cylinders.

If you have a converted cylinder and want to use it, I'd say, reload and cut the load for a .30 Mauser in half or something. But even that gives me the willies.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

[daven]

I have used 32 S&W Longs for years with both a regular and a target Nagant. No problems at all. The 0.32 ACP cylinder required some work on the ratchet to advance properly but works well. I have a C96 and a CZ52, but no way would I use 7.63 Mauser or 7.62 Tokarev in the Nagant. DaveN