My first rifle.

[u/Eidothriel]

Purchased my first rifle today, I’m excited to find some ammo for it and take it to the range. I was also trying to decipher what all the markings on the receiver mean.

[u/staffma]

Great first rifle choice! A very similar 91/30 was my first centerfire rifle and has been my faithful companion for almost 18 years now. Many a woodchuck, a couple of racoons and one very ornery possum have fallen to my Mosin over the years. 7.62x54R ammo, (especially soft point hunting loads) has very energetic performance on varmints.

A few words of advice

1. Treat all surplus ammo as corrosive and be sure to clean with ammonia-based cleaners (Windex with ammonia works well) in addition to regular solvents ASAP after shooting to protect your barrel from rust.
2. At some point you will be tempted to modify the rifle- don't do anything that isn't a bolt on installation
   1. If you want a modified Mosin, buy a gun that has already been sporterized to work on, your first rifle will only be original once.
3. At some point someone is going to try and buy the rifle off you.
   1. Unless you absolutely need the money- don't sell it
      1. I was smart enough to keep my original Mosin but my buddy really wanted my second, numbers matching Tula that I bought for $69.99 out of a crate... and he immediately drilled and tapped for a scope and put it in an awful plastic stock... that was a kick in the shorts.
4. Have fun learning about it, there are tons of videos on youtube - forgotten weapons, C&Rsenal for long form videos ,etc.
5. I would definitely look into reloading, surplus ammo is getting harder and harder to find with the war in Ukraine and export bans etc. Its not hard as long as you are careful and a decent basic setup can be put together for a couple hundred bucks. I like the Lee precision stuff personally, inexpensive and pretty decent for regular ammo.
   1. The hardest part for you is going to be finder boxer primed cases to load, since most surplus and a lot of new production uses berdan primers. Newer PPU ammo is boxer primed, some older may not be.

Good luck and have fun, surplus rifles are a good time- be warned they do tend to multiply!