finally cleaned my Mosin....

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springmom

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Mind you, I've had this rifle now for several months, but a rainy Sunday afternoon seemed a good time to strip it down and take a look. It was imported by Century International, and my first surprise was the lack of cosmoline. I was expecting tons of congealed glop. I am reasonably sure, though, that somebody oiled the thing with what looks like motor oil. Anybody here ever do that for long term storage?

Finding nothing that appeared to need the hot-water-and-soap treatment recommended for cosmoline, I started using Hoppe's on the bore. And the patches came out....green. Malachite, actually. Copper fouling. Lots and LOTS of copper fouling. I worked on it for quite awhile, and it is currently sitting with Hoppe's Bench Rest copper solvent swabbed down the bore. Tomorrow I'll get back to it and go at it again.

If anyone has any better way of getting copper fouling out, I'd love to hear it.

The rifling is good, and I look forward to getting this functional. Although Archerandshooter is going to be the first to shoot it, as he has shoulders that won't break when that blasted recoil occurs :rolleyes:

Springmom
 
I wasn't so lucky, Springmom. I got 4 more spare M44 stocks from Numrich last week and they were loaded with cosmoline. I cleaned one up with TSP and a vat of water. I grabbed handfuls of TSP with a coarse glove and rubbed the wet grit into the stock, soaked and repeated. Then I let it soak for about 15 minutes and rinsed it thoroughly with a garden hose. There was a bunch of cosmoline that came out of it. Today that stock is a dull gray color compared to the others which are reddish brown. I left them all outside in the workshop and today the 3 uncleaned stocks were oozing cosmoline from the heat, the cleaned one wasn't.

While I was at it I changed out a straight bolt with a surplus bent bolt body I also got from Numrich for $29.95. It's stiff but I hope that'll work itself out over time. The fun part was going to this link and getting to use the "Mosin tool" to check the firing pin protrusion during reassembly. It made me feel like a Cossack.
 

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One of my m44s came through Century, they did a pretty thourough job of getting rid of the cosmo. Just a bit oozed out from under the buttplate, but there was a bunch INSIDE the slider on the sight.
 
I just used Hoppes # 9 and a 20 gauge brass brush attached to drill to clean mine. It works great. Don't worry about the recoil. You'll get used to it.
 
Did I say, "cleanED"? I should say, "am still cleanING".....

I left the Bench Rest in the bore overnight, and this afternoon set to finishing the job. I have to say, the Bench Rest worked well. The first few patches through there were bright blue/green, but I got it finished up, and at this point am comfortable that the copper fouling is gone.

Then there's that pesky cosmoline question. I couldn't SEE much, although the occasional little oily brown blob came out on the patches during the fouling removal. So I decided to go the hot-water-and-soap route and see what I could see.

EW. :barf:

Yeah, there was cosmoline. The water turned a very odd shade of muted olive drab brown :rolleyes:. It's currently soaking a second time so I can be certain I get it all out (as certain as I can be, anyway).

But there's also bits of black plastic stuff. Given that there is nothing plastic ON a Mosin, I'm baffled. It looks like the stuff that comes out of my shotgun barrel after I've shot trap. Any ideas on what I'm seeing? (There are parts on the receiver and barrel that look like they've had this stuff put on them.) Might this be some sort of refinishing job gone bad?

Many thanks for any info.

Springmom
 
Springmom, try Montana X-Treme Copper Killer. You can get it from Midway, but make sure you use a nylon brush. Worked pretty well on my M1 but it stinks to high heaven. If you are sensitive to the smell of ammonia, avoid it.
 
Just Guessing, but.....

I wonder if the plastic fouling is from the use of the plastic cored light weight training ammo?

I never actually pulled any of the x54r stuff, but the x39 had exposed plastic on the base of the East German rounds I broke down to look at. A friend shooting at a steel plate at some range reported that his x39 plastic cores where extruded as a liquid and ignited!!!! Only shot either at sand back stops and paper so I can't cry "BS" at him.

Someone else I knew bought multiple cases of the x39 training light weight ammo. He thought it was just normal M43 ammo. He was shocked when the complete round weighed less than just the bullet should have on an M43. I could not use and enertia puller on the 68 grain plastic core ammo and ended up using the classic "Vise-Grip" (TM) bullet puller to show him what he had bought. Wish I had bought a case or two myself from him. After he sold it all I found that the few blisted packs of ten rounds he gave me cycled just fine in an SKS and shot "OK" for 25 meter plinking.

Oh and while the friend reporting the burning plastic down range had problems with it in a treeo of AKs, it cycled a dealer sample Chinese RPD just fine.

I seem to recal the x54r has a muzzle velozity of something like 3600fps with the plastic core training ammo. Less recoil and flame than I was used to from an M44, but LOUD. No tests for groups though it seemd about minute of gallon milk jug at 100 yards. Have not seen any for a bit. Mine had a grey case and greenish bullet and felt like toy ammo. Did not notice any plastic when I cleaned the M1944 but YMMV. Did drop the barreled action etc in the bath tub and the wife was not happy about the divet out of the tub enamal or my shin. THere is a move affoot to have all corrosive ammo rifle cleaning sessons under the cold cold hose in the side yard.

-Bob Hollingsworth
 
Did drop the barreled action etc in the bath tub and the wife was not happy about the divet out of the tub enamal or my shin. THere is a move affoot to have all corrosive ammo rifle cleaning sessons under the cold cold hose in the side yard.
Click to expand...

ROTFLMFHO!!!!! That's what you get for not using a bucket for the cleaning :neener:

A whole lot of cosmoline was loosened up by pouring almost-boiling water into a bucket, letting it soak awhile, then using a two-cup measuring cup to pour the water down the barrel. It's quite nice and clean, and my bathtub remains intact.

At some point, I need to deal with the stock. I'm assuming that it is impregnated with cosmoline, and I am *not* going to put it in my nice new car and let the cosmoline leach out (one method that's been recommended to me). Or I can just leave it...apart from looking a bit odd, it won't impact the rifle's shooting.

Now it's time for Archerandshooter to go give it a run-through at the range. :D

Springmom
 
My T-53 was nasty. The bore was caked with gunk. I let it sit for three days with the muzzle plugged and the barrel filled with WD40. It took less than ten minutes to get a clean patches after a briek scrubbing with bronze brush.

Followed that with hoppe 9 and then a copper solvent and that buggar shined.
 
I have heard of much better ways of removing cosmoline. Heat is the thing to remember. You can get most of it out by baking it in the oven and avoid that water damage.

Survivor's SKSboards is LOADED with info on cosmo, and so is SurplusRifle.

Also, your patches may not come out completely clean because the bore is not chrome-lined. The steel bore will actually stain your Hoppes and make the patch come out gray. If you look down 'er and she's shiny, you're good.
 
Hoppe's No. 9 seems to have copper solvent in it, which is annoying when I use my brass cleaning rods. Hoppe's cleaned the blueing out of a RC K-98, revealing a beautiful bore, and also did the same with a K-11. So, your bore must just be overloaded, and apparantly, the cosmoline is probably hindering the removal of the copper. Automotive brake cleaner is a pretty god solvent on cosmoline, but it is best to wipe all of it a possible with rags or paper towels before using solvent. I don't like disassembling the Moison bolt so I have always used solvent on them. Bore cleaner doesn;t seem to work very well on cosmoline. If you are spending the time, see if you can get a chamber brsh and clean the chamber up real well, as it will prevent sticky bolt with laquered ammunition.
 
Remember to that it may be pitted. If I scrub mine until its clean, the accuracy actually drops until the barrel fouls alittle. Then it shoots tighter groups.
 
My M-44 had so much cosmo in the barrel I thought at first it had no rifling. After 4 weekends of mineral spirits, scrubbing with normal metallic brushes, and wearing out 2 of the Hoppes stainless steel "Tornado" brushes, the bore looked really good.
 
At some point, I need to deal with the stock.
Click to expand...
Get some Formby's furniture restorer. Smells like acetone & mineral spirits, worked very well on my CMP Garand, along with some boiling water and Dawn dish detergent.
 
I still get cosmoline outta my 44 after 6 months when it heats up. Those Rooskies love their cosmoline. Why do you think they named their astronauts after it?
 
I'd plug the bore and pour some hoppes or other solvent into the bore, store it on end and soak it overnight. As far as the cosmolene goes... If you still have a few hot days grab an old, no longer being used, dishwashing rack. Put that in a large industrial black garbage bag. Set that in the most direct sunlight. I did it in about 2 or 3 days, going out every so often and wiping down the stock. Handguard I did in the oven on 200 degrees.

There's a product out there, Outers does it I believe, foaming bore cleaner. I do that for range to home cleaning. Spray it down, let it sit for 15 minutes and clean. Haven't tried plugging the bore and letting it soak yet, but I might do that on one of my up and coming projects.

Slip on limb saver recoil pad, let's me shoot over 100 rounds and not feel it in the morning. Also depends on the ammo type, certain surplus is rather hot
 
Yeah I remember cleaning each of my Mosin Nagants for the first time (except the ex-sniper which has not been shot by me) and remember how nasty the patches came out. I use Hoppes Elite Foaming gun cleaner and I found it works pretty well for cleaning. Romak makes a good point in that your patches will most likely not come out white, but a tint of grey. Though I will note that every time I clean, I feel like I am pulling up more residue from the past.

As far as copper cleaners, I had researched this brand, but never purchased any copper cleaner,
http://www.kgcoatings.com/firearms.html#11

Don't know much about them, but it seems they have good ratings online for their cleaner.
 
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