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Zeta-Lab Mosin Nagant M44 Carbine.


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It finally happened, there's now a Mosin Nagant replica worth looking at, the Zeta-Lab Mosin Nagant M44 Carbine, which retails at aprox $370 USD.

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I'll kick off this review by adressing what is undoubtedly the first question most people have, namely: Is it a clone of that terribly expensive KTW model that wasen't very good?

 

Well it is and it isen't, Zeta obviously used the KTW as a template, and have copied several things including the magazine system, but it is not a straight clone, they have made some vital improvements to the design, and that's reason enough to give it a second look i'd say.

But let's just dig into this thing, shall we?

 

 

Build quality, materials and finish:

 

Solid is the first word that springs to mind here, there is no wobble or rattle on anything here, with the exception of the bayonet, which is made of Resin, which is probably for the best.

 

The wood on this gun exceeded my expectations, comming from a largely unknown manufacturer somewhere in China, i had expected the wood to be on par with what we normally see on ACM guns, slightly soft wood with short grains, so/so fitting and shaping of the wood, that's how it usually goes, but the wood on the Zeta M44 is harder than that, and has long grains, and the shaping is actually very good, as is the fitting of the brass inserts on the wood.

That's not to say it's the best woodwork i have seen on an Airsoft gun, Realsword still takes home that prize, but it's good and far exceeded my expectations.

The finish does leave something to be desired though, it's stained brown and varnished by the looks of it, whereas the real M44 would have had a clear or slightly red coating of Shellac, it would have been nice if they had just hit the right colour, and there is a lack of varnish in one spot on mine, on the grip just behind the reciver:

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The rest of the gun is made of steel (with a few exceptions, which i will point out later when we look at the internals, and ofcourse the bayonet), but it is build from two different types of steel.

Parts that are vital to the opperation and streangth of the gun are made of hardened steel of good quality, easilly on par with the stuff LCT builds their AK models from, and that is great news, because thease parts need to cope well with use and abuse. But the more cosmetic parts of the replica are made of a cheaper steel, it doesen't feel as hardened, but beeing steel, it is stronger than any potmetal i've ever delt with, so it does get the job done.

There is also a feint difference on the finish of thease parts, hardened steel parts look slightly nicer, the blueing looks a bit more glossy, and a bit less so on the cheaper steel, i'm not sure if this is a result of the steel beeing different, or if different finishes where applied to thease parts.

 

On the whole i would describe the finish of the gun as "good enough", it could have been better, and it could also have been much worse, it's adequate and you can tell it's steel, and that's allways nice, it certainly looks better than painted potmetal.

It should also be possible to redo the bluing yourself if you are so inclined, and i just might do that at some point.

 

The markings on the gun are definately good, the rear sight is marked out to 1000 meters, which was the norm for Mosin Carbines, and the rest of the markings are correct for an M44 assembled at the Izhevsk plant, the only thing that's lacking are proof-marks, and it's all nicely engraved.

 

It should be noted that the Zeta M44 is a post-war model M44, the production year "1947" is engraved on it, and it has the post-war frontsight and bayonet mount.

 

 

Internals and function:

 

I might aswell kick this off with a picture of the whole mechanism assembled, without the wood getting in the way:

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This thing is build solid and sensibly, with the exception of the internal magazine, which is build from ABS plastic (and what magazine guts aren't), it's all steel on steel in here, i even checked all the screws with a magnet, and they all passed the test with flying colours.

 

The fiering mechanism works on the "falling block" principle, the spring is compressed when you pull the bolt backwards, and a rear-facing "arrow head" mounted to the back of the piston threads a hole on the back-stop when the bolt is fully back, a spring opperated block then falls behind the "arrow head" trapping the piston. When you pull the trigger, it lifts this falling block clear of the piston and the spring releases it with a bang.

 

The guts of all this looks as follows:

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The backstop is a solid block of steel, and is mounted to the bottom of the reciver with 3 screws, the falling block is mounted to the rear of the backstop with 2 screws, and it's steel aswell.

The bolt-tube is a thick steel pipe with internal threading on the front, the spring and piston is inserted from the front, and the nozzle, a thick chunk of brass, is screwed in to hold it.

The pistonhead is made of aluminium and has two rubber o-rings in grooves along it's sides, the pole with the "arrow head" on it however is a different material, it runs the full leangth of the piston and is locked in place by a pin, the material is too hardened, heavy and shiny to be aluminium, but it is not magnetic, i think it may be "hammer steel".

 

I seriously doubt you could break thease parts any time soon, and they should be more than plenty to mount a bigger spring, i'm quite impressed by how solid this is.

 

Some pic's of the reciver, top and bottom:

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The hopunit looks like nothing i've seen before, and is probably propriatary, it is machined from a solid block of aluminium, an AEG inner barrel and hop rubber is inserted from the front, and secured by two small screws on each side. The hop is adjustable from the top, a hole behind the rear sight allows access, and a small screwdriver is needed.

Proprietary solutions are usually a bad thing, because if they break you are up the creek, but this is a solid thing, sensible if a bit crude, i doubt it's going to break, so i'm not too fussed over it. Hopunit, bottom facing upwards on pic:

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But alas, there is a snake in this paradise of otherwise sensible solutions, and it is the spring, for you see, this is no AEG spring, it looks like one, but it has a slightly larger diameter, and normal AEG springs will not fit over the piston's shaft.

Top: The spring that comes with the gun, correctly seated. Bottom: An AEG M130 spring, which obviously wont fit over this shaft:

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I'm not sure what type of spring this is supposed to take, anyone else have an idea? But the problem could be remedied DIY style by just sanding down the width of the piston's shaft, it woulden't take too much before an AEG spring would fit (though since i have not actually performed that particular piston surgery, i dare not make any absolute promises).

 

 

Shooting and opperating the thing:

 

There are problems with the Mosin Nagant as a spring loaded Airsoft gun, ask anyone who has tried to build one themselves, and they will tell you that the clouser you get to the real shape of the gun, the harder it gets to make it into a good springer. With that in mind, i was prepared for the worst with this gun, i was well aware that it would not work as smoothly as a VSR-10 or APS-2 with all the trimmings, but in reality, it's not as bad as i feared.

 

The bolt is definately heavy, despite the spring basically beeing the equivalent of an M90 AEG spring, the short bolt handle of the Mosin Nagant isen't much help in cocking the thing. The Mosin also has a rather short reciver, so there's not much space there for the long springs that are usually used in spring rifles. This was all to be expected, it's a Mosin Nagant, what can you do?

This puts a limit on how large a spring you could fit in there, this gun won't become the hard hitting M220 sniper of doom, but if you can find the spring, or modify the piston, it should work with something like an M130 spring (or M150 if you have the upper body streangth), and afterall, it's in infantry rifle, not a sniper, so i can live with that.

 

The weight balance is just like the real gun, it's front heavy.. you can either accept that as an endearing trait, because it's like the real thing, or you can fix it.

Fix it how? Well how about removing the butt plate, drill a hole, and fill it up with lead weights till the balance is right? Thouse little weights they use on fishing lines should do the trick nicely.

 

The trigger is also very heavy and has a short pull, which is a common trait on guns using a crude falling-block mechanism, if you have ever shot a cheap Chinese Air-rifle, then you have a good idea how heavy this trigger is.

I definately need to adjust to this, my shots had a nasty tendancy to pull a little to the left due to the trigger pull, but i know this is a matter of adjustment, i had the same issue with my BAM-QB3-1 Air-rifle till i got the hang of it (it too has an odd and heavy pull).

That said, it actually shoots quite well for a standard gun if you can get past the trigger, to remove the element of human error, i tried fiering it from a Bipod (AK "clip-on" type, that thing will clamp on to anything that has a barrel), at a 14x14cm target at 10 meters range, and i got respectable groupings, it will shoot straight if you do.

 

The sights are fully adjustable, the rear sight can be adjust for elevation, and the front sight can be adjusted for windage, though you'll need an adjustment tool, or a hard and heavy object to knock it left and right. There's also no wobble in the rear sight on mine.

 

And now, finally, we come to the interesting bit that you have all been waiting for, the magazine... what is this thing!?

The problem with Airsoft Bolt-Action spring rifles is that they need a longer bolt than the real firearms have, which means the BB's must be fed into the chamber futher ahead, and the position of the real firearm's magazine does not match up to where the Airsoft version has it's magazine.

For this reason the guns magazine is usually a total fake, and the real mag is inserted into the stock infront of what appears to be the mag, and that solution works well if you have a plastic stock with straight lines, but on a wood stock it's going to stand out, and on a wood stock with an odd curve like the Mosin Nagant has.. that solution would stand out like a sore thumb.

 

For this reason the Zeta, like the KTW before it, uses an internal magazine, which consists of thease 3 components:

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At the top we have the mounting plate, this screws on to the bottom of the reciver, and holds the magazine in it's correct position.

In the middle we have the actual magazine, it is a square tube with a spring and a follower inside, a string is tied to the follower and fed through the spring, and out the back of the magazine, and a little ball is tied to the string at the base to prevent the string from falling into the magazine. When you pull the string it compresses the spring, and fully pulled, the follower will clear a hole on the bottom of the nag, allowing BB's to be fed into the mag-tube, releasing the string also releases the follower and spring, pressing the BB's twords the hop chamber.

At the bottom we have the feeding ramp, this part sits inside the Mosin's magazine, and the string is fed up into this part aswell so you can reach it from the bottom of the gun, and another ball is tied to the string here so it cannot fall into the gun. BB's are placed here, and can then fall through a hole at the front into the magazine when the string is pulled.

Thease parts, and the Bayonet, are the only plastic parts of the gun.

 

Here's the mag mounted and ready for feeding:

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To load the mag, you press a little latch on the magazine's baseplate backwards to open it (this feature exists on the real Mosin aswell, it's internal magazine can be emptied through this baseplate), hold the gun upside-down, prefably with the muzzle tilted slightly twords the ground, pull the string as far as it'll go and hold it there, feed 10 ~15 BB's into the feeding ramp and let them fall into the internal magazine, then release the string, put the string into the feeding ramp to get it out of the way, and clouse the base plate.

 

This is not the simplest way of loading an Airsoft gun, it's certainly not nearly as easy as slapping a fresh mag into the bottom of an AEG, and you'll need to be in cover to do it, doing it on the run is probably out of the question. But with a little practice, i'd say it's doable, it's no simple mag change, but it's not all that bad either, and on a positive note, it both preserves the look at the replica (and might make it easier to mount an RS stock, i'll need to look into that), and it doesen't rattle like a Hi-Cap, and thouse are good things.

Is it the ideal solution? That could probably be debated, it's a no-holds barred cage mach between goood looks, versus easy access, FIGHT!!

 

 

Potential problems and things to look out for:

 

No manual or tools where included in the packaging, it just contained the gun and the sling.

 

The leather on the sling was stiff as cardboard, totally dry, which seems common with leather on Airsoft slings, make sure to treat it with some leather-grease or similar before using it, or it probably won't last long.

 

Tighten screws before use, a few of them where not propperly tightened on mine on arrival, and no Loctite or similar has been used on any of them, you might also want to remedy that, especially for the screw on the back of the bolt, as that one seems partial to loosening when you cock the gun.

 

The Hopunit on version-1 of the gun has a problem, BB's can fall backwards out of the chamber, into the reciver, and jam the bolt, this problem has reportedly been fixed on version-2 of the gun, so make sure you get the second version (it can be identified by it's raw-metal bolt, version-1 has a blued bolt). Mine is a version-1 and definately has the problem, but the vendor has promised to send me a version-2 hopunit free of charge, and that's certainly good news!

 

There is no trigger safety on this gun, only a bolt safety, the rear end of the bolt can be turned counter clockwise when the bolt is pulled back, preventing the bolt from traveling forward.

The gun can be de-cocked however, just pull the bolt all the way back, hold it firmly, press the trigger to release the piston and gently slide the bolt forward.

 

The bayonet on the M44 is not usable, unlike others i've seen, like the bayo on the Realsword Type-56, the blade is not flexible and rubbery, and cannot be used to "mark" people. I doubt it could be dangerous to anything but unprotected eyes, the Resin blade would sooner snap off the gun than penetrate anything, but all the same, it is purely ornamental and should remain folded if you want to skirmish with it.

The blade also hinges on Resin, as depicted below, so no, it's not going to stand up to much punishemnt:

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Conclusion:

 

This is not a perfect gun, it has flaws, and it won't be for everybody, it's hard to cock, reloading isen't a fast and streamlined process, and that heavy trigger does limit it's potential for accuracy, i'm not quite sure what kind of spring it takes, and there's going to be a limited on how much power you can get and still cock it. But if you are fimiliar with Airsoft Mosin Nagant's, none of that should have supriced you.

It is however well build, solid, functional and good looking, the finish does leave something to be desired, though it is adequate, but with a little love, elbow grease and practice, it could become both a thing of beuty and a skirmishable gun.

 

Is it a sniper's dream? No, it is not, an APS-2 or VSR-10, with all the best trims and toppings from PDI will mop the floor with it if you need a high-powered spring sniper.

And for Russian snipers, there exists good SVD replica's out there, both spring and AEG, that are a far superior alternative if you need a Russian sniper rifle.

 

Is it an Airsoft reenactors dream? Not quite.. the looks of the thing would certainly do you proud, and i maintain that with some practice, and some PPSh-41 laden guys to cover you when you reload, this gun could be skirmished.

But there is no denying that a Tanaka Kar-98K, an AEG M-14-to-M1 convert, or some of the VSR-10/APS-2 based homebrews will be at an advantage over the Zeta Mosin, and things would not get better in 'Nam reenacting. It is heavy to cock, and slower to reload.

 

This is not the cream of performance and utillity, no, this is a gun for mad Russians! It's crude and flawed, but it's fun, you could probably club a bear to death with it, and it works.

I know i'll be shooting plenty with it, it's not going to replace my AK's and SVD as my go-to skirmish arms any time soon, but a gun like this was made to be enjoyed, and to put a smile on your face, and at that it certainly succeeds.

 

The pricetag is a bit steep however, and for that reason alone, i would only recommend it to people who really want an Airsoft Mosin, it's pretty much the only gig in town if you want a Mosin that both looks the part and can be used, and that fact has undoubtedly pushed the price up where it is.

But it's not as unreasonable is it might first appear, sure you can get other spring rifles considerably cheaper at retail, but if you really want to use them, you'll quickly spend quite a bit more than first anticipated on Zero-triggers and various other steel upgrade parts, that you don't need for the Zeta, and if we where to throw in the price for a real-wood stock and cosmetic steel parts (the few there are), then it's not really cheap anymore.

Likewise, if you look at the various VSR-10 and APS-2 based homebrew conversions out there, they aren't exactly cheap as chips to pick up either.

 

 

Flawed, a little rough around the edges, but fun, solid and functional, thouse are my findings, take it or leave it Comrades.

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How does the stock spring compare with an AEG spring in terms of length?

 

They are clouse to identical length wise, ergo i belive it would be no problem to use AEG springs if one where to modify the piston, but of course, i haven't actually done it yet, so i won't make any promises.

 

From top to bottom:

Zeta-lab spring.

M130 AEG spring from an "Action" V3 gearbox.

Realsword M90 AEG spring.

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And how is the piston tail end attached to the piston shaft and head?

 

The piston and it's shaft are one machined part, and the tail section is inserted from the back, and locked in place by a pin that goes through the piston shaft and the tail end (you can see the pin as a black dot on the pictures of the piston in the review). The tail also runs the full length of the piston, at the front you can see it in the center, you can just make it out in the top left corner in the above picture with the springs.

 

 

As an aside: Looking clouser at some of the pictures now, i have noticed that the bolt tube appears curved in some of the pics, like it's been bent slighty, this is not actually the case! That's just my camera beeing less than super for clouse-up shots, it's lens distortion.

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Could you please measure the outer diameter of the original spring?

 

Also just for reference, i just compared your photographs to a real Mosin sitting in the cupboard and i have to say that the finish on the airsoft one is actually -better- than the real one. Remember these rifles were made in the millions, quickly, and as cheaply as possible, and the wood varied drastically from whatever was available, and the finish was always random at best.

 

The sad part about it all is that of the few M44 carbines i shot (Real ones) they actually shoot more accurately with the Bayonet on than off. The M1891/30 shot incredibly well though, for such a rough rifle.

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Could you please measure the outer diameter of the original spring?

 

I don't have my... that measuring tool i just realized i don't know the english name of, for accurately measuring the diameter of an object, freind of mine borrowed some tools for a project he's tinkering with.

 

I'll post it eventually when i get it back, lest someone else can chime in with the answer first.

 

Also just for reference, i just compared your photographs to a real Mosin sitting in the cupboard and i have to say that the finish on the airsoft one is actually -better- than the real one. Remember these rifles were made in the millions, quickly, and as cheaply as possible, and the wood varied drastically from whatever was available, and the finish was always random at best.

 

The sad part about it all is that of the few M44 carbines i shot (Real ones) they actually shoot more accurately with the Bayonet on than off. The M1891/30 shot incredibly well though, for such a rough rifle.

 

Aye, Mosin's can vary quite a bit in finish, they wheren't all hastilly build, so some of them can be quite nice, but many of the wartime productions can be very crude.

 

As for sighting, having a bayonet attached/detached or folded/unfolded changes how the barrel behaves when fired (atleast when it is mounted to the barrel, like it is on most guns), and thus the sights must be zeroed in for the configuration you intend to use. Soviet doctrine durring WWII was that rifles should by default be used with the bayonet attached/unfolded, and thus, the sights are likely to work best in that configuration when you buy one, that's how they left the factory.

 

That can be changed however, the front sight is adjustable, so if you wanted to, you could re-zero an M44 to be at it's best accuracy when the bayonet is folded, so it's a minor problem.

 

Though just for funsies, i have tried swapping the bayonet for the rubbery one from the Realsword Type-56, and it can be fitted, it's not a perfect match to the M44 type, but if you happen to own both guns, it can be done! ;)

 

External looks veru good, but how does this gun function in airsoft battle? Is this gun so accurate that u can fire the bb almost straight or is this just a new member to the Dboys's Kar98k club?

 

Read the whole review please, i've covered that as best as i can at the moment, and i have no futher obervations to offer at this time.

 

The TL;DR answer is: It's a lot more skirmishable than the Dboys Kar, a lot more, but it's not perfect, the main problem accuracy wise beeing it's very heavy trigger.

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Read the whole review please, i've covered that as best as i can at the moment, and i have no futher obervations to offer at this time.

 

The TL;DR answer is: It's a lot more skirmishable than the Dboys Kar, a lot more, but it's not perfect, the main problem accuracy wise beeing it's very heavy trigger.

 

But u can hit the targets alot better with this gun than with Dboys kar98k, if i understood right

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Yeah let me know about the spring OD as it may still be an AEG, just one of the more oddball ones, they do vary alot between manufacturers, i've had springs from one maker not fit in pistons made by another.

 

OffT: Nah, what i meant by inaccuracy was the rifle shot a 3.5" group at 150m with the bayonet off, but with the bayonet on the grouping cut down to 1.5-2" due to canceling out harmonics, not a bad thing you may ask but it defeats teh purpose of having a "Carbine" when it shoots most accurately with the massive bayonet extended. :P

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It's actually the inner diameter that's interesting here, because unlike an AEG piston, where the spring needs to fit inside, the Zeta's piston needs the spring to fit over the outside of it's shaft.

 

But yeah there are oddball AEG springs, i can tell you that the Realsword spring very nearly fits, because the steel it's made of isen't nearly as thick as the M130 one i have, making the inner diameter larger, so it is possible that there exists some brand of AEG spring that could fit, i just don't know what that brand or type would be..

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Thanks for the additional details! Just one more question: Does the spring slide into another spring guide at the back? What holds it in place from the rear?

 

The backstop, it's that big and vaguely T-shaped block of steel that's shown below the reciver on all the disassembled pic's, it's mounted to the bottom of the reciver, and it's head reaches up into the bolt-tube through a cutout on the tube's underside.

 

It pretty much fills out the bolt-tube, so the spring is stopped by that at the rear, and since it's part of the reciver and doesen't move, that's what the spring is compressed against when you cock the gun, and it's also the part that traps and releases the piston.

So no, it's not really a spring guide at the rear, that's made impossible by how the gun opperates (it's pretty much the inverse of an AEG piston, with the spring on the outside of the piston, and the piston beeing locked from inside the spring instead of outside of it), but the bolt-tube itself pretty much acts as the guide.

 

 

As for the rest of the questions: Honestly now, do read the review guys, that's what it's there for, i am not your Mum, and i will not cut it into bite-sized chunks and feed it to you for your conveniance.

Edited by Grobut
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Thanks again for the detailed answer. So basically, to be able to fit an AEG spring, the piston shaft diameter will have to be decreased. If this doesn't affect the integrity of the whole piston and tail end assembly, one can mill the stock piston to fit. Otherwise, a new one-piece piston with the correct diameter will have to be fabricated....

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Thanks again for the detailed answer. So basically, to be able to fit an AEG spring, the piston shaft diameter will have to be decreased. If this doesn't affect the integrity of the whole piston and tail end assembly, one can mill the stock piston to fit. Otherwise, a new one-piece piston with the correct diameter will have to be fabricated....

 

Yeah that's my take on it aswell, if the diameter of the piston shaft can be decreased just a bit, then an AEG spring should absolutely work, i see no reason why it woulden't, nothing in the mechanism should prevent it from functioning.

 

The only real question is: Will the piston's shaft still be strong enough if you mill off a bit of it's width? I honestly don't know, which is why i haven't just done it, and have decided to look into alternative solutions first.

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