M1895 Nagant Followup: Manuals

It isn’t unusual for me to learn additional things about a particular gun from various folks after I write a post, which sometimes calls for an addendum to my original post or article. Well, after seeing Monday’s video on the M1895 Nagant revolver, a reader named Robert was kind enough to send me a collection of original Russian documentation for the weapon. They are all in Russian – which I don’t read – so I may get a few of these details wrong. All the files are available for download as PDFs.

First up, a 1901 armorer’s manual (14 pages, truncated):

M1895 Nagant Armorers' Manual (Russian,1901)
M1895 Nagant Armorers’ Manual (Russian,1901)

Note that the revolver is often referred to as a “3-line revolver” – the “line” is an archaic Russian unit of measurement equal to one tenth of an inch (or 2.54mm). You will also see the Mosin-Nagant rifle described as a 3-line rifle; this is equivalent to the US designation of “Rifle, Cal. 30”.

Anyway, next up is a document entitled “Instructions for Receiving and Making 3-Line Revolvers M1895” (typed, no pictures, and dated 1927):

Instructions for Receiving and Making 3-Line Revolvers M1895 (Russian, 1927)
Instructions for Receiving and Making 3-Line Revolvers M1895 (Russian, 1927)

Following that, a 67-page section of a technical repair manual for the M1895 (and the TT33 automatic pistol), clipped out from a larger document. I don’t have a date for this one, but it must be post-1930, since it includes information on the Tokarev pistol:

 

M1895 Nagant and TT33 Repair Manual (Russian)
M1895 Nagant and TT33 Repair Manual (Russian)

Finally, we have a trio of operators’ manuals covering both the Nagant revolver and the Tokarev automatic. The 1940 and 1950 editions are truncated and do not include all the Tokarev information (and the 1950 has a couple torn pages), and the 1954 edition is complete.

M1895 Nagant and TT30 Manual (Russian, 1940)
M1895 Nagant and TT30 Manual (Russian, 1940)
M1895 Nagant and TT33 Repair Manual (Russian, 1950)
M1895 Nagant and TT33 Repair Manual (Russian, 1950)
M1895 Nagant Revolver and TT33 Tokarev manual (Russian, 1954)
M1895 Nagant Revolver and TT33 Tokarev manual (Russian, 1954)

 

 

19 Comments

  1. I have been told that the 1895 is the only true revolver capable of having a silencer (suppressor) attached due to it’s cylinder to breach face lock-up method. I saw back in the 60’s at foreign weapons course a picture of a Russian with a 1895 and an attachment on the muzzle, picture caption said “1895 with Silencer” Any info on this?

  2. Right.. I have used a gas seal type ctg in Cal .30 for Model 70 Winchester and in .44 in a special built revolver for tunnel work amongst other things;in the 60’s. And I know the Russians have done extensive work on this type cartridge in several calibers. I was wondering if by chance you had anything on the Russian use with the 1895 and the use of them by the Chinese years ago.

    • ‘There is not too much
      information about a
      silenced Nagant revolver
      available, but they were
      really existing! No
      drawings (one from a
      German booklet, another
      in Russian source) exposes
      the bayonet mount
      construction of silencer.
      Jacket’s outer diameter
      was somewhat bigger
      than o.d. of revolver
      cylinder. There were nine
      straight rubber “wipes” or
      baffles inside the jacket.
      Silencing effect of them
      degraded presumably
      after just a few shots due
      to the bullet shape of
      Nagant revolver cartridge:
      The very first flat-nosed
      bullet could drill a
      permanent hole through
      all the wipes.
      Thickness of them was ca.
      8 millimeters. They had a
      cross-like slices on their
      center. Because of
      thickness of the silencer
      jacket and concentric
      mounting of it, the
      silencer covered iron
      sights of Nagant entirely.
      Use of silenced Nagant
      was therefore a short-
      range job: Maximum
      effective range was about
      four arshins (2.85 meters)
      when the silenced Nagant
      was used by an average
      Red Partizan who was
      never practised
      “instinctive shooting”
      without use of sights at
      all.
      It seems to be impossible
      to get reliable information
      about Nagant revolver
      silencer (photographs or
      detailed drawings,
      dimensions and weight). It
      was presumably never
      mass-produced because
      of it’s impractical
      construction and large
      size.’
      From guns.connect.fi/gow/QA7.html

  3. I can only imagine the engineering cost of this Fidel… Kinda like “lets do it cause we can do it” typical engineer think. During 60-70’s several single shot locked breach from .22 to .45 were developed for suppressed use with reduced loads… at about 1/3 the cost of the “enclosed cylinder” concept. The plain old High Standard HD w/suppressor.. (bit LONG)but w/.22shorts at 0-5 feet very successful. I just wondered if anyone had actual documentation on the 1895 w/suppressor.//Thanks All//Mike//

    • Yup.
      Peters Stahl (remember Joe Peters’ metric 1911 and other ‘improvements’ of JMB’s classic?) went belly-up and the Germans are about to follow.

  4. Fidel… THANK YOU! Yes .. suppressed weapons are not as 90% of the time depicted in the movies. And as you say.. were seldom “mass” produced until very recently. So much of the older documentation has vanished. I have two 7.92×57 Mauser 1943 “green” rds. No one has been able to show me the suppressor or documentation that in FACT was used on a K98. I would believe the Germans also attempted to use suppressors for snipers in WW I, as trench warfare degenerated into a “raid” and a “sniper” war as the massed use of the machine gun sorta put a damper on “across the wire boys” attacks. Thanks again.//Mike//

    • GREAT.. Thank you very much, and thank your friend for me also! Very very efficient looking, no frills just functional. Thanks again.//Mike//

  5. Fidel, Thomas, Ian and Markus :

    I have learned a lot about this particular weapon just following the discussion among the four of you. I’m reasonably sure that other readers have experienced the same. Thanks and hope you’ll never stop sharing!

  6. Re: Nagant silencer

    This thread w/photographs is about the Nagant silencer/suppressor, the BraMit device (“brothers Mitin device”). The op’s question is how does it really look like and what are its stats. The consensus reached seems to be that:
    a) there is a family of variants of the device, not a single model. In contrast with Mitins’ suppressor for Mosin’s rifle, which is dug up and sold often, suppressors for Nagant exist in numerous versions, both integrated and clip-on.
    b) a number of these different “BraMits” are fantasy reconstructions.

    http://forum.guns.ru/forummessage/36/379971-3.html

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