New 1946r Mosin Nagant M44! (pics)

[BulletFan]

Well I’ve finally done it, I have plunged myself into old surplus rifles. I finally got myself a Mosin Nagant. A good friend of mine had a few of these lying around collecting dust and needed some extra cash so I decided to help him out….boy did it work out great! This good friend of mine gave me such an obscenely low price on this rifle I just could not pass it up. I went to his house to pick out which MN I wanted (I really had no idea what to look for) and he had two traditional style (M38’s) and one M44 sitting in his closet. The M44 was wrapped in paper and stuffed in a box so I couldn’t see it. I handled the other two for a little bit just to get a feel for their operation and decided I’d like to have a look at the M44. I pulled it out of the box and checked it out. Oh my God, the cosmo, sheesh! I smelled like that crap the rest of the day just from taking it out of the box. I decided to take the M44 because it would be a restoration project for me and I have always wanted to bring something old like this back to life. The cosmo was just overwhelming.

I knew I had a daunting task ahead of me so I began reading as much as I could on here about how all these guys used all these different methods of getting the cosmo out and decided to take my own route. I will explain in detail how I got my cosmoline out in another post in the interest of keeping this one a little shorter. I spent a good week cleaning out the junk and restoring the stock. I have included pictures of how it all came out. I think I did a pretty decent job considering the lack of experience on my part and my complete impatience when it comes to waiting for stuff to dry, bake, sweat etc.

Take a look at the pictures an let me know what you think.
Thanks for looking!
MPB

 

[carterbeauford]

Well I’ve finally done it, I have plunged myself into old surplus rifles

It's a slippery slope, there's no coming back now very nice rifle.

 

[Lonestar.45]

You think cosmo smells bad now, just wait, once these old rifles get into your blood, it's like sweet perfume. Congrats on the rifle, looks great!

 

[armoredman]

Recoil will surprise you....Uncle Ivan was a TOUGH old bird!
Good, cheap surplus ammo all over the place. The Czech Silvertip ain't bad, and the Polish light ball is darn good.
Original stripper clips can be hard to locate, and the cheap repros do not work well at all. Make sure to decosmo the chamber to avoid the "sticky bolt" phenomena known to Mosins. Cosmo, put in there 60 years ago, will adhere to tiny pits in the chamber, (all ammo fired in this baby was corrosive!), and doesn't come out easily. When firing laquer coated steel case surplus ammo, it will melt to the laquer, and make it difficult as all get out to open the bolt. The cheap and easy solution is to chuck a cleaning rod in a drill, put a 20ga bronze brush on it, and spray the chamber with your favorite degreaser. Then drill that chamber clean! Take a cordless drill to the range, and do this again after firing a couple of shots, and that problem should be history.
BTW, almost all surplus ammo is mild steel core, ( NOT AP), and can casue sparking on rocks, etc, so be wary shooting at a wildcat range in a dry area.

 

[BulletFan]

No Prob

BTW, almost all surplus ammo is mild steel core, ( NOT AP), and can casue sparking on rocks, etc, so be wary shooting at a wildcat range in a dry area.

Shouldn't be much of an issue out here in Tennessee. However I know what you're talking about, I grew up in tucson and I am fully aware that a brushfire will errupt if you sneeze incorrectly. Thanks for the advice! I can't wait to shoot this thing.

With the drill in the bore idea: Wouldn't I be risking scratching the crap out of the chamber/bore if I were to attach the rod to a drill? Seems like I put too much effort into being careful with my sniper rifle to screw up my cheapo....is there an easy way to clean the chamber thoroughly without using a power tool?

 

[Tropical Z]

Mosins are cool,I wish I had about 20 of them.

 

[Kymasabe]

I've done the drill/rod/brush combo thing and it's fine, hasn't hurt the chamber yet. Sure, you can do it by hand if you have the time.

Recoil on the gun is an eye-opener. The LimbSaver small size slip-on recoil pad is ugly as all hell but does a great job of saving your shoulder.
The muzzle flash is impressive. I don't recommend shooting the thing in prone position in dry grass.

Regarding accuracy...the M44's were sighted at the arsenal with the bayonet extended. Some shooters have reported poor accuracy with the bayonet folded back, claiming it effects barrel harmonics, and have had to either extend or remove the bayonet for accuracy sake. My local range gets all nervous when they see a bayonet so I've removed most of mine....just the bayo, not the mount.
Great guns...enjoy it!

 

[marshall3]

Nice clean up!

Congrats on your new Mosin. What a great rifle! You cleaned it up and refinished it great! Here's mine:
http://www.mouseguns.com/mymosin/mymosin.htm