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Nagant M1895 Revolver

• moderate
• Shop tier 2
• medium confidence
• Revolver
• revolver
• gas seal
• loading gate
• surplus
• historic
• seven shot

field strip ~3 min · reassembly ~5 min · detail strip ~40 min

Specifications

Model-specific safety

• The Nagant is a gas-seal revolver: the cylinder moves FORWARD as the hammer is cocked, and the case mouth enters the barrel to seal the cylinder gap. Nothing else in common circulation does this, and it means the cylinder position changes during the firing cycle.
• It uses a unique 7.62x38mmR cartridge whose case mouth extends past the bullet. Substituting other ammunition is not a casual matter — some shooters fire .32 calibre substitutes, which defeats the gas seal and can be unsafe. Use the correct cartridge.
• It loads and unloads one chamber at a time through a loading gate, with an ejector rod that swings out from under the barrel. There is no swing-out cylinder and no star extractor. Check all seven chambers individually.
• The double-action trigger pull on an original Nagant is extremely heavy by modern standards. That is the design, not a fault.
• Surplus ammunition of this era is frequently corrosively primed. Clean with a water-based solvent the same day you shoot.
• Newly imported pistols are often packed in cosmoline throughout, including the firing pin channel. Clean it out and reinstall the firing pin dry — a pin held forward by congealed grease causes slam fires.

Under spring tension

• Mainspring
• Loading gate spring
• Ejector rod spring

Easily lost parts

Cylinder axis pin / ejector rod assembly · Sideplate screw · Cylinder

Tools

No tools required for the field strip.

Shop difficulty

Shop tier 2 Tier 2 — moderate among revolvers, for the full job: strip to the parts that get coated and put it back together working. Sideplate lockwork with a two-leaf mainspring relaxed by the trigger guard, but the gas-seal system adds a cylinder-advance cam that must work after reassembly; published accounts call the take-down easy once understood. No parts list found, so moderate at low confidence.

No sourced part count yet.

Bench time: about 40 min to strip, 65 min to rebuild (estimate). Estimated: cylinder axis and cylinder, ejector, sideplate, trigger guard (relaxes the mainspring), mainspring, hammer, trigger, pawl, gas-seal cylinder-advance parts, gate and recoil plate. Rebuild longer for aligning the gas-seal cam and pawl under the sideplate and checking that the cylinder moves forward on cocking.

What comes off for coating

• Cylinder: ejector rod assembly, cylinder axis pin and cylinder (with its tube/spring)
• Sideplate and lockwork: grip screw and grips, sideplate screw and sideplate, trigger guard screw and trigger guard (relaxes the two-leaf mainspring), mainspring, hammer, trigger, pawl/hand, gas-seal cylinder-advance slide and link, rebound/hammer-block parts, loading gate and gate spring — fitted screwdrivers
• Frame: recoil plate if removable, front sight left in place (integral/staked on most)

Special tools

• Fitted hollow-ground screwdrivers — Sideplate, grip and trigger guard screws (old, often tight)

Known pain points

• The cylinder and sideplate have to come off to reach the mainspring; the lockwork is reached only through the sideplate. (disassembly)
  Source: Wheelgun Wednesday: M1895 Nagant Trigger Job with a Bullet? — The Firearm Blog thefirearmblog.com [4] — “You will want to remove the cylinder and side plate in order to get at your mainspring.”
• The design is unusual enough that it is only easy once you understand it. (both)
  Source: More Than an Oddity: The Revolver Sistemy Nagana obr. 1895g — Firearms News firearmsnews.com [5] — “is not all that difficult to maintain, despite is unusual gas-seal design.”

Fit or check on rebuild

• Timing / carry-up: every chamber locks before the hammer falls, single and double action; cylinder gap and end shake — Standard revolver check after lockwork has been out; worn hand or cylinder stop gives the "does not lock up" fault under Common issues.
• Cylinder moves forward onto the barrel cone on cocking and retracts on release (gas seal) — The Nagant’s defining mechanism; a cylinder that does not advance is this page’s main fault.

This is Pew-Takedown's rating, not the manufacturer's. How tiers are rated. Forum reports are owners' experience, not specifications.

Procedures

Torque specifications

No sourced torque values from the manufacturer are recorded for this firearm. Where a fastener has a specified torque — action screws, scope bases, muzzle devices, barrel nuts — get it from the manufacturer or a gunsmith rather than estimating it.

What the manufacturer does say: The official military manuals give no torque value. They say: "надеть дверцу ушками на стойку рамки; завинтить винт дверцы и винт ее пружины;" [translation by this project: "fit the side plate's lugs onto the frame post; screw in the side-plate screw and the screw of its spring;"] (Наставление по стрелковому делу (НСД-38). Револьвер обр. 1895 г. и пистолет обр. 1930 г. (1941 printing), p. 44 (PDF p. 48), ст. 47 (order of assembly)) "завинтить винт спусковой скобы;" [translation by this project: "screw in the trigger-guard screw;"] (Наставление по стрелковому делу (НСД-38). Револьвер обр. 1895 г. и пистолет обр. 1930 г. (1941 printing), p. 44 (PDF p. 48))

Function check

• Verify all seven chambers are empty before each check.
• Cock the hammer slowly and confirm the cylinder both indexes and moves FORWARD to seal against the barrel.
• With the hammer at full cock, confirm the cylinder is locked and seated forward.
• Press the trigger and confirm a clean hammer fall and that the cylinder returns rearward.
• Cycle the action in double action through all seven chambers.
• Confirm the loading gate latches and the ejector rod stows securely.
• If the cylinder does not move forward on cocking, the gas-seal mechanism is not working — see a gunsmith.

Maintenance

Lubrication points

• Cylinder axis pin
• Cylinder bore where it rides on the axis
• Gas-seal cam surfaces
• Hammer and trigger pivots
• Loading gate pivot

Cleaning notes

Clean the barrel throat where the case mouth enters — fouling there is what stops the gas seal working. Surplus ammunition of this era is frequently corrosively primed. After shooting it, flush the bore, bolt face, and gas system with hot soapy water or a water-based solvent the same day, dry completely, then oil. Keep the firing pin channel clean and dry — a pin held forward by congealed cosmoline causes slam fires.

Suggested inspection interval: roughly every 500 rounds. This is a general guideline, not a manufacturer specification.

Wear parts to inspect

Cylinder axis pin · Gas-seal cam · Cylinder stop · Mainspring · Firing pin

Common issues

Also covers

The procedures above are reported to apply to: Tula and Izhevsk production Nagant revolvers · Polish and Soviet wartime variants. Verify against the manual for your specific model.

Similar manual of arms

• Smith & Wesson Model 10
• Mosin-Nagant M91/30

Sourcing