[Stolly]

Just yesterday my wife bought me a "brand new" (for me) Mosin Nagant from the local gunshop as an anniversary present. The "best of the two" available (the gun, not my wife :) ) and, IMO, she got a good deal too. $75 Anyway, once I learn the basics of posting pictures I'll show it off, but the reason for this thread is a possible problem I came across today at the range. I put approximately 30 rounds through it and noticed that I was shooting a little too high. I know some of you are gonna say I should have noticed that before 30 rounds and I did notice, I just didn't want to stop pulling the trigger to worry about adjusting the sight. Anyway, once I did decide that the adjustment was a good idea, I went to make the adjustment and practically sodered my finger to the elevation adjustment. :eek: The barrel was extremely hot. Not only that but the section of stock closest to the muzzle, once it became hot, began to seep oil :uhoh: My question for you Mosin Nagant experts is, is that normal? Should I just take a rag and wipe down the stock when it begins to seep? I mean, if the best way to get the oil out is to shoot the gun more often, I should have the oil out by Sunday. :D Anyway, sorry for the long-windedness, but whatever advice you guys can give me would be much appreciated.

[GD]

That is very normal for most rifles. My mosins can get so hot that the air above the sights makes the sights look wavy. That is why the rifles have so much wood around the barrel (handguard). The oil that is seeping out of the wood is cosmoline. I clear that up by heating the wood by either putting the stock on newspaper on my trucks dash in the summer or by using a hot hair dryer in the winter. I finish it up with a TSP cleaning and some BLO. If you don't clean the stock you will get cosmoline seeping out for quite some time.

[El Rojo]

If your gun didn't do that, you would have reason for concern. Everything sounds normal to me. :D

[armoredman]

She's just getting warmed up....sorry, couldn't resist! :p Yes, all normal.

[M99M12]

"the gun not my wife" LOL

My wife wants to know what's so funny. :rolleyes:

[Zeke Menuar]

There is an easy way to solve this problem. I have five Mosins. So I shoot the M38 until it is red hot. Put it down, grab Mosin #2, a Tula ex-sniper, shoot the begeezus out if it, put it down, grab Hungarian M44 shoot the heck out of it and so on. Pretty soon you will be out of ammo OR back to Mosin #1 which should have cooled down enough to start over again.

Simple huh? :evil:

ZM

[WayneConrad]

Pretty soon you will be out of ammo OR back to Mosin #1 which should have cooled down enough to start over again.
Zeke, That's genius! "Yes, honey, I do need five of each type of rifle."

[Clean97GTI]

I'd say you should clean the rifle. Cosmoline gets in EVERYTHING and can really attract dirt. You can use brake parts cleaner to get some of the cosmoline out of the small parts like the bolt.

One way to get the cosmoline out is to heat the wood. I do this in the oven (GF isn't around when this happens)
heat the over to about 200° and place the stock (just the stock) in the oven. Place it on some foil or something so you don't drip cosmoline into the oven. After a few minutes, you will start to see the wood sweat the cosmoline out. Be careful as the stock will be hot. The metal parts will burn with prejudice. Wipe the goo off and stick it back in the oven. When you put it in and doesn't sweat much anymore, you're done. This may take a few heat cycles. My M44 only took about an hour to be completely dry.

I've found that stripping the finish before hand makes this process faster. It's not a requirement though. I just like to refinish the stocks with lighter tones. The birch that most of them are made of is kinda pretty with a glossy finish on it.

[Matthew748]

Those Mosin Nagants sure get hot. I was out shooting with a friend in Iowa and he had his rifle smoking from the heat. When I go out shooting one of my Nagants I generally let it cool down a bit every 20 rounds or so.

[noonanda]

Stolly
is your rifle a 91/30 or one of the carbines???

[Stolly]

is your rifle a 91/30 or one of the carbines???

The one I got is a carbine.

I do find Zeke's idea to be brilliant and tha'ts pretty much what we did yesterday but I didn't go back to the gun because I was spooked that it might be jacked up. Now I know and will begin and end each range session with this gun.

Clean97GTI, what do you use to strip the finish off of your stocks? Secondly, what do you tend to refinish them with?

[RoyG]

Refinishing a Surplus Mil Rifle Stock. (http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting/refinish/hs.asp)

[dakotasin]

there's nothing like taking a tired mil-surp rifle and running enough rounds thru it fast enough to get it to pass the spit-sizzle test... often times, this will get your chamber hot enough that you start to get over-pressure systems, like sticky extraction and flattened primers. all in the spirit of its original design intentions! lol!

[goon]

I have burned my hand (slightly) on the rear sight of a Mosin Nagant before. Now that I have stripper clips for them, I will have to be even more careful.

[Clean97GTI]

Clean97GTI, what do you use to strip the finish off of your stocks? Secondly, what do you tend to refinish them with?

I use laquer thinner and steel wool to remove the varnish. Pretty much anything in the paint remover aisle of Home Depot will work. I then used varying grits of sandpaper to remove the rough spots and scratches in the stocks. This also get the remaining varnish out of the grain. Don't sand too deeply though.

As for the two MN's I have refinished, one simply got 2 coats of glossy-finish polyeurethane with a light sanding in between. The wood looks totally natural other than the bright sheen on it. You may need to buff it a bit after the final coat of poly.

The other one got coat of stain that had a slightly red-gold hue to it. Brought out the dark grain in the wood VERY nicely. A coat of glossy poly over that to ensure a good seal. If you really wanted to go traditional, you could strip the laquer and then use boiled linseed oil on it to give a beautiful finish. Hand rubbed oil finishes are very nice.
I think BLO looks better on darker woods. If they were Maple or Walnut, I would have gone the BLO route. Both of the stocks I did were rather light colored Birch.

[rockstar.esq]

DON'T USE BRAKE CLEANER!!! I don't know how many times we are going to go over this but brake cleaner can/will remove blueing on guns. That old time advise has almost certainly screwed up as many nicely finished guns as it has left them unharmed. Unless you really think the extra couple of bucks isn't worth the gamble on your gun's finish. As for the smoking, I know you got the gun cheap but heat isn't a barrels friend. What accuracy you have will most likely degrade with this continued regimen. There are lots of rifles that were designed for rapid fire / high volume firing, this one was not. There is a reason it has a five round magazine as opposed to a hundred round drum. If you take it just a little slower, you won't hurt your rifle and you'll appreciate just how wonderfully accurate these rifles can be.

[KriegHund]

Oh, this reminds me,

Be really careful after your done shooting!!

I was finished shooting my mini 14 and rested it against my shoulder, and the bare barrel touched my neck, ouch!

[Zeke Menuar]

Russian Mosin-Nagants are finished with shellac. Use denatured alcohol to remove shellac. Use mineral spirits to remove anything else.

ZM

[Stolly]

Zeke, you suggest denatured alcohol. Is this gonna work better than the oven cleaner that was suggested in Roy G's post? If so, any specific instructions or cautions for using the denatured alcohol or just swab it on and wipe it off?

[Zeke Menuar]

Yes and no.

If the stock is dripping in cosmoline then yes you need Easy-Off.

If your gun is a Russian rearsenal, they are usually in pretty good shape. They usually have a shiny thick reddish-orange coat of shellac on them. Shellac is durable and very easy to touch-up. I left the shellac finish on my Russian guns.

Before you go crazy with the easy-off. Here is some info on the topic http://p077.ezboard.com/fparallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforumsfrm34

Pictures of a Commie weenie roast. Mosin M38 style

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/ZekeMenuar1/cid_X.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/ZekeMenuar1/2.jpg

ZM

[Cosmoline]

Soviet barrels tend to be quite thin and light. On the plus size this makes the rifles easier to tote. On the down side it causes heat problems with prolonged firing. The Finns tend to have much heavier steel barrels, and consequently don't heat up quite so quickly in rapid fire.

[Stolly]

The stock of my particular gem does not appear to have the nice shiny shellac of which you speak. Actually, it appears as if the previous owner already removed a large amount of the shellac. I don't want to make it sound like it's blotchy, it's consistent. I may use the denatured alcohol just to verify that everything is off and then proceed from there.

[TimboKhan]

Zeke, that is impressive gout of flame issuing forth from your rifle. Seriously though, Easy-off? Is that actually good advice? I don't know, so I am actually seriously asking because I wouldn't think that would be at all healthy for any rifle....

Timbo

[MutantCO]

Got a russian 1945.
As for how many Rds? I'm on my second sear spring & bolt stop.
And yes she still bleeds.And watch the muzzel!! Got a little love scar,
to prove it.300 Yds. No problem. But remimber most ammo Corsive.
Clean as needed in proper mode for this ammo.
Yes i use Windex or like, then Hopes-9 then light lube.
Zeke you using Bulg,Yogo,Chek.? Mine Lights up the
N.Cent AZ. Sky the same way.My 13 Yr. Old wishes the old man,
would put a Pack. Or other recoil pad other then steel plate.
Oh well cut my teeth on dad's "0-3" when i was 8 Yr. Old!
The sado-Mas. U.S.M.C. Sarg. He was. :D

[Zeke Menuar]

Wolf 200gr SP and 148 FMJ. Couldn't tell you which one when the pic was taken.

Seriously though, Easy-off?

Easy-Off is a last resort. My usual method is to take a cheep plastic hard case, remove foam, fill half full with cat litter, put the stock in, close lid. Leave in the sun for two or three weeks, rotating the stock in the case every day. Slow, but very effective. Use Easy-Off a lot in the winter when the sun is a distant memory.

ZM

[MrTuffPaws]

Don't destroy a piece of history. :cuss: Please don't use easy off or any other thing to strip the wood. If the finish is good, just heat the stock and wipe it down, or just deal with the seeping when the thing gets hot. I just cleaned up my M44 stock with CLP and wipe it down at the range when it gets hot. No mess, no dirt, but it does smell like petroleum.

[roo_ster]

Water-based solvents (Easy-Off, Simple Green, etc) & cosmo-soaked furniture are a bad combination. The water-based solvents generally damage the wood cells in a permanent fashion and accelerate the break-down of the wood over time.

The mild heat over a space of time combined with very fine steel wool will do the trick without damaging the furniture. Unfortunately, sometimes there is so much cosmo, it will never be completely free from cosmo.

Hey, the next milsurp I buy might be yours. I'd like it to be good-to-go for another 100 years for my great-great-gandkids use.

Have fun.