During the initial panic about the Kung Flu when the country was locked down I decided to modify the Mosin just to give me something to do. So I started by removing the bayonet and all the "top" wood on the rifle. The big ole bayonet lug looked weird so I turned it down.

Shooting it I discovered that the gun tended to walk the shots around the target when it got warmed up. I floated the barrel and it still did it so I figured maybe the bayonet lug attachment, even though turned down, may have something to do with it. And possibly the muzzle end of the bore was worn. So I cut the barrel off.

I cut a dovetail and installed a Marble's White Bead front sight.

The accuracy improved some but I was still having problems. One was the rear sight. It was mounted in front of the receiver and now the sight radius with the shorter barrel was only 13"!
And I could not get the sight low enough to get onto the black at 50 yards. I cut up the rear sight and milled off as much as I could with my portable mill - a mill bastard file - but I really needed a new rear sight and would prefer a peep!

This did not work well!

I could not figure out how to mount a decent sight on the gun with that durn straight bolt handle sticking right in the way. So I put the gun away. Every once in awhile I would think about it but could not come up with a way to do it easily.

FAST FORWARD A YEAR AND SOME MONTHS .....

I found myself thinking about the Mosin one day and suddenly got the idea of "Why not ask Papa God? He would know how to do it." so I said out loud, "Lord, How would you mount a peep sight on the Mosin?" and almost immediately the idea popped into my head, "Mount it on the cocking handle."

My first thought was "Would that work?" .. so I dug out the rifle and went to the shop. I got a straight edge and my calipers and by golly it WOULD work!

Now boys, I ain't saying I heard God's voice. But when I asked the idea came to me immediately.
You can attribute that to whatever you wish but I will stick with the thought that He answered me.

So I went to work to make a rear sight.
I milled a flat on the cocking handle.

I cut out a rear sight.

Once I had it fitted I clamped it in place and drilled the hole for the screw. When it was in place I used a straight edge to measure where the hole for the peep sight should be and drilled that.

During that time I removed some of the wood from the stock to lighten it a bit and installed a recoil pad.

On the range I fired the first shots at 25 yards to make sure I was at least on the paper. Then I moved to 50 yards. The rear sight is adjustable for elevation, the front sight for windage. I got it hitting pretty close to center.

Today I shot it some more with same powder charge but with soft point hunting bullets.

This ain't too bad for my old eyes. It is certainly Minute-of-Whitetail. The old gun has become fun again.