Bedding a mosin worth it?

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JBrady555

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Hello as you may know from one of my posts just under this one, I have a Mosin Nagant project that I'm starting. I'm fixing to order a Boyds Featherweight Thumbhole stock for the gun and I was asking about bedding. I learned some good information in that thread but it led me to another question, is it worth it to bed a Mosin? I really just want the gun to be combat accurate, I'm not some sub MOA target shooter. I would like to be able to consistantly ring our 300 yard gong at the local gun range with my newly stocked gun with a cheap couple hundred dollar scope. So with this information do you think I should fool around with bedding and bedding pillars? If I fit the new stock careful and tight will I get the performance I'm looking for? Thanks for any info.
 
The Mosin Nagant is a fun, inexpensive rifle that should be "combat accurate" as it stands, assuming that is does have a clean bore to start with. Even then, unless you plan to reload, you'll find the available surplus ammunition lacking in high accuracy. At the risk of sounding silly, how big is your gong? Anything over 9" or so should be at risk, as it stands.

Personally, I wouldn't invest much in improvements to a $100 rifle, but use it as is.
 
Im not investing money in it to make it more accurate. Its just a project to keep me busy. I like the look of the boyds stock, plus they are cheap. Cheap gun, cheap stock, and cheap ammo equals fun for me. Our 200 and 300 yard gongs are 16 inches in diameter.
 
How does it shoot now?

If your bore is in good shape and you have decent(surplus) ammounition your Mosin should still be able to hold 3-4" groups at 100yds. Triple that for 300yds and you see where I'm going with this.
 
Mosins in good condition can usually hit 1-2 MOA all day long with good ammo. Some can do better. While I haven't heard of anyone bedding a Mosin, one thing that works well in the default stock is to cork the barrel. That is, get a thin strip of cork and put it between the upper handguard and barrel. This is a trick that's commonly used to eliminate looseness in the upper handguard (caused by the wood shrinking over the years), but it also yields noticeable accuracy bonuses. It's effectively a poor man's bedding job. I'd expect similar results out of proper bedding.
 
Just did this project, you need to sand down the stock from the barrel base to the end and sand out the handguard until paper slides, than take some gasket cork and cut 4 1in long cut them wide enough to fit in the stock nicely, place the 4 pieces where they are over the top of each other right by the barrel clips ( which are pressure points) than torque your screws. My mosin now shoots a 5 shot 1.2in group at 100yds. Anymore questions shoot me a PM.
 
As has been said any improvement (and worth thereof) would depend alot on how it shoots now. I'm curious does the Boyd's stock have the 'upper handguard'? I doubt it does but didn't know for sure. If not you could try free floating the barrel first by sanding out the barrel channel and/or possibly shimming the action. With how thin the Mosins barrels are this seems to work great for some and not so well for others probably due to the barrels natural 'undisturbed' harmonics. If this didn't help I would then 'cork' the barrel as gunnerboy mentioned. Detailed descriptions, pictures and results of this project can be found with a simple 'corking a Mosin' search.

Best of luck and keep us posted!
 
If I get a second Mosin I would love to get a stock like that for it. I love the feel of thumb hole stocks but don't actually have any yet. The Mosin I have looks too good and shoots too well for me to mess with it.
 
yea I probably should have saved the one I have and did the project on a different one. I still want to buy another to keep in stock form. I traded a hi point .380 for the one I have now, I think I got the better end of that deal, lol. Those stocks are pretty nice for the price tag huh?
 
If the Mosin is in good condition, functions and shoots well you may have. I haven't actually put hands on a Boyd's stock but from reviews I've heard and articles I've read they seem GREAT especially for the price tag.
 
It is almost always not worth glass bedding, but I do it anyway.

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I glass bedded and pillar bedded this Mosin Nagant in 2004.

s9159fittedtostockpillarandglassbeddeddrilledandtappedforscopemounthandlecutextendedandTIGwelded.jpg

I glass bedded and pillar bedding this Mosin Nagant and Boyd's stock in 2009.




MosinNagantdrawingrelievestockforpillarsandTimneytriggerandrelievepillarfortrigger8-2-2011-1.jpg

I glass bedded a Mosin Nagant in 2011 and relieved the stock and pillars to make room for a Timney trigger, which if you have the bucks, makes for a good safety.
 
I hope this works and helps......... JUST finished mine, still have to add photos of scope mount and such.... haven't even been to the range yet,...

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I am currently working on the same exact project. I will not be getting the Boyds stock though. I have an original laminate stock on it already. Refinishing the original stock is going to take up a lot of time as well. Plan on doing the timney trigger, bedding, parkerizing, stock refinishing, cutting off the sights and getting a decent scope, rocksolid industries make a good bent bolt for it that I will be putting on it. I dont typically take on a project with this much detail but i think its a good cheap gun to work on. Good luck on your project!
 
thanks for the pictures. If my new stock free floats the barrel, do I still want to use the cork out on the end of the stock? Or would it be best to just leave it floated? I'm definitely going to run some cork gasket on the receiver end of the barrel where it does touch.
 
Very few Mosins shoot below 2" MOA and that exceeds original specs. It can't hurt anything to glass bed the receiver. I have used cork bedding and shims with good results. The Mosin barrel gets very hot real fast and it affected by harmonics which is why the groups string out. If you do glass bed the receiver I would still cork the barrel and not free float. They are cheap rifles and fun to play around with.
 
Why would corking be better than free floating? I thought free floating was the be all end all. Also since the mosins generally aren't that accurate I don't think I'll be bedding it. I am still open to using the cork gasket in any way possible if that will improve the gun though.
 
Why would corking be better than free floating? I thought free floating was the be all end all. Also since the mosins generally aren't that accurate I don't think I'll be bedding it. I am still open to using the cork gasket in any way possible if that will improve the gun though.
Click to expand...
Harmonics and heat allow the barrel to move around. I have better results with corking. The Russians also did something similar to corking to improve accuracy. The barrel on these things are thin in comparison to the round.
 
carbine85 said:
Harmonics and heat allow the barrel to move around. I have better results with corking. The Russians also did something similar to corking to improve accuracy. The barrel on these things are thin in comparison to the round.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't the cork contact also tamper with harmonics? If I do use cork should I just cork both ends of barrel like in gunnerboys picture, even though Im using a boyds stock and not the original like he did? Also how tight do I want that cork in between the stock and barrel? thanks
 
The cork acts basically as what a bull barrel does, with the military stocks the cork is a cushion that squeezes the barrel when the handguard clips are put on which in turn makes the harmonics move the same everytime which makes more consitant shots
 
but my stock doesn't have a top piece, its a boyds thumbhole stock, so there won't be any squeezing the barrel in between the top and bottom stock pieces. So would I still be better off corking underneath the barrel? Or should I just free float as much of the barrel as possible without cork? If cork is recommended for the bottom, how tight should the fit be? Wouldn't too tight put too much pressure on the underside of the barrel effecting accuracy also?
 
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