The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

Hello all, new guy here. Lots of great info on this site. A couple of years ago I came into possession of a 91/30 with a repro PEM scope mounted on it (bad, bad I know). It's a great shooter and I've been enjoying it very much. I've been reading this book "Guide to Super Snipers" published by Soldier of Fortune magazine. One of the chapters has to do with WW2 and contains an article about the Finnish sniper Simo Haya. I was suprised when I got to this part, and I quote,

"many other Finnish snipers had Soviet-made PE or PEM 4x riflescopes, either purchased pre-war
or taken off captured Soviet weapons. Unlike th British, U.S., German, and Sovirt armies, the
Finns developed a special curved stripper clip that allowed these rifles to be quickly reloaded
despite the scope"

I've been looking for other references to this device for a while without success. I'm curious how well a curved stripper clip would work. I don't think the book is accurate. I don't think the Finns produced such a device, although I can imagine they may have experimented for a time. I'd love to hear some opinions as to historical accuracy and how a working curved stripper clip could be fabricated.

Welcome to the board, Mr.Häyhä did the bulk of his work with a basic M28 service rifle, he did not care for glass sights for the same reasons as I never cared for them. Iron sight rarely bust, get knocked out of alignment, or fog up, and they allow for the shooter to keep a lower profile . 505 kills with iron sights and a sub machine gun, that's an average of five kills a day for the 100 days of the Winter War. I never heard of a curved stripper clip, but things were always being experimented with that didn't always make it to the front lines.

gasmann wrote: I don't think the book is accurate. I don't think the Finns produced such a device,

I must disagree with you.


These are really scarse though.

If the regular Mosin straight clip is a pain in the ass I can only imagine what the curved variety must have been like to deal with.

Mr. Bugelson,
Have you seen an actual reference regarding a curved stripper clip used by the Finns ?

Mr. Bugelson,
Sorry----I wasn't logged in so I didn't see your picture of the stripper clips.
Where did you find that ?

Junk Yard Dog wrote:If the regular Mosin straight clip is a pain in the ass I can only imagine what the curved variety must have been like to deal with.

I haven't, to date had any real problems with stripper clips. Please enlighten me on what can make them a PITA?

Even when using the original's they can be stiff to load even if you are lifting the first bullet when you do it. I fooled with them for years and got at least as good as any Soviet soldier was, but they never come close to the smooth operation of a Mauser stripper clip, or our version of the Mauser clip used with the US M1903.

Yes, I see what you mean. The design if the Mosin-Nagant stripper clip produces more friction and resistance.

As a side note, there is a first person shooter computer game called Red Orchestra which simulates individual, squad, and platoon combat on the Eastern Front, WWII. The reloading animation shows the thumb and forefinger lifting the first bullet, and it takes two pushes to get the cartridges to load into the magazine.

Realism in games and attention to detail that isn't always expected.

Last video game I played was Atari in 1978, I learned how to deal with that clip on the range by repetition. Before I became arthritic and old I used to shoot 100-110 rounds a day, nearly every day, out of many different rifles. Case after case of surplus ammo that was at the time dirt cheap went down range. I did that for better than 20 years, I accumulated so much berdan primed brass that when scrap prices were up I got enough cash scrapping it to buy several more milsurps ( I get dealer prices, it was a lot) That was the best way to learn the rifles, now of course arthritis in my hands makes gripping the weapon difficult, and flexing the finger joints on the trigger downright painful. I learned that some rifles loaded OK with the lift the cartridge way, and others preferred it if I just mashed the rounds straight down as if they were Mauser's, some hated the clips no matter what I did.