Can you polish a Russian Mosin into higher quality?

I picked up a Mosin years back. I cleaned it up and shot it. When I bought it, it came with a sniper scope mount. I had some fun remounting the scope mount and adapted it for a modern scope. It still gave me a shotgun like pattern. What I did next was to work up a load that gives me a 1.5MOA. It's not my go to rifle, but I have a lot of fun with it. Kicks like a mule.

My Mosin was obviously re-worked in the ‘50’s. The stock looks near new, the barrel is very good. Only wear was some one using a steel punch to drift the front sight in an attempt to sight it in. (Obviously unsuccessfully).

I believe what the op wanted was suggestions on lightly dressing up the rifle.
After watching some videos, and having read several articles over the years, I did some light “cleaning up” on the rifle.
1. I “LIGHTLY” ground, sanded, and polished the bolt KNOB smooth. It looked to have been chiseled by an angry beaver.
2. I stoned the trigger and clipped a half coil from spring. BIG IMPROVEMENT!
3. I cleaned the bore, then I went and shot it!

After drifting the sight correctly, and lightly stoning the top of the sight pin to clean it up, I touch-up blued it, and smoked it.

Initially, it shot 6-8” groups at 100yds. After zeroing it to hit where it looked (~3.5” above front sight at lowest setting-centered on NRA SR-1 bullseye (6-o’clock hold).

I took it to the range several times. At first shooting some Russian steel case ball. Later some PPU soft point to establish accuracy potential (PPU shot 5”).
After about 300rds fired, I started noticing that it seemed to be hitting closer to where I was aiming. I loaded some Lee 180gr .312” RNGC cast over a load of 24.0gr of #2400. I took 50 to the range, set the rear sight to 350m and proceeded to shoot out the center of a SR1 target. I was elated.

Then I got a wild idea. I’d bought some Grafs/Hornady .312” 174gr BTHP Match bullets. I loaded them up in some PPU brass, Fed 210 primers over some H4895.
Wow, first group ran 1.75”. Second 1.6” as I was a little more careful and shot slower. (Benched on sand bags). The old Mosin barrel just needed shooting-in...

It hasn’t been out of the gun room in a couple of years now. It’ll never win a beauty contest or shooting match, but I don’t have to be ashamed of it...!

Shooting 5 shot strings of mil-surp steel case ball really helped smooth out the feeding, polishing the feed rails.
It’s an interesting range-toy, but “it ain’t no SMLE #4 Mk1”, or 03A3 or even P17 Eddystone!!!

Oh, It’s a 1943 Izvesk.

I noticed something the other day. I was concentrating on my trigger pull when shooting. It will make a slight click and the bolt moves a little. Before the trigger travels back and lets the firing pin strike. Kinda a pre-stage. I used this to my advantage. Tightened up my groups.

Does "putting lipstick on a pig" come to mind?

I'm currently reading Tapio Saarelainen's book The White Sniper about Simo Hayha. Pages 109-123 provide a history of the Mosin in Finnish service, including their improvement of the feed system in 1934 to prevent rimjams. Good reading, but no photographic detail showing the internal alteration.

BTW, here is a potentially interesting video interview with Max Popenker on the subject of Cold War Russian DMR/sniping doctrine. Very little on the Mosin, but considerable discussion about accuracy problems with Soviet ammunition:

To win, you must have a Finn. My 1928 M27 by Tikka sits in a three piece war time stock, matching bolt and an [SA] and T stamped sling. The receiver still has the imperial Czar's crest. The bore is almost mint. This rifle most certainly didn't see winter or continuation war service at the front due to the condition of the rifle. I believe it was held in reserve for future use.

Bill

Bill

A turd is still a turd no matter how much you polish it...

American_Fusilier said:

A turd is still a turd no matter how much you polish it...

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Very true, but this reminds me of the Mythbusters' segment where they did manage to make one surprisingly shiny.



Sorry, off-topic -- I just miss this show...BTW, I got to see Adam and Jamie give a talk at my local university back in 2008. During the Q&A a young teenager asked them what their favorite gun was; I think Adam voted for the ".50 caliber Barrett" (maybe the M107) and Jamie preferred the Minigun (M134D, I think).

http://www.fresnostatenews.com/2008/01/14/hosts-of-mythbusters-to-speak-at-fresno-state/

i have reduced my mosin collection to a few now at the high prices they are bringing, only keeping my finn reworks and few normal 44,s-91,s. these 44,s are fine shooters, i load my 7.62x54,s to 30-30 win. specks and they are a joy to shoot then.

The post war Mosin Nagants can have nice polished appearances and function. Soviet M-44 1946-48. Polish, Hungarian and Romanian M-44's. Finn m-91 and 91-30's with Tikka barrels etc etc. I don't waste time trying to accurize one just to make small gains. Move on to the next one. Some of my best shooting ones look and feel like they have been drug out of a lake.

The Exile said:

I was scoping around youtube and I found some guy who had put out a tutorial on how to rip apart a Mosin and touch up a bit of the rougher machining; I've heard that Mosins tend to be pretty rough regardless of external quality (unless they're a Finnish or something) with lots of people even referring to them as "garbage rods" but I like working on a gun as much as shooting them so would this be something that would pay off? Could I grind the bolt to be smoother and then take it to the range and get that blissful shooting experience of a more well made bolt gun with the satisfaction of knowing I made that better, or would it be rubbing shoe polish on used dog food?

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Mine actually was very very smooth…of course it was also rearsenaled for the East Germans. I’d say just shoot it and it’ll smooth out over time.

I would not file or grind anything on a Mosin. They are a minimalist weapon, in essence, there isn't anything "extra" on the internal working parts. So any metal you remove will become detrimental to the function of the rifle.

OTOH, they come to you schlopped down, with coagulated preservative, primer corrosion, or both. Careful and thorough cleaning is needed, at which point a Mosin will cycle smoothly. A good cleaning and polishing of the chamber is definitely in order. YMMV, but IME, the cold shot is insanely accurate, even with crap ammo, but, after the barrel starts to heat up, on following shots, not so much.

you can't polish a turd.

This is how I polished mine...

The original stock really lasted a long time in the fireplace, really surprised me.

Paul R Zartman said:

This is how I polished mine...
View attachment 1006234
The original stock really lasted a long time in the fireplace, really surprised me.

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Before you get burned at the stake.
That looks really nice for a Mosin. How does it shoot?

greyling22 said:

you can't polish a turd.

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Oh yes, yes you can. Is it worth the effort….?

on my mosins i do a basic cleaning and lubing, the chambers get the most attension, if not cleaned right the crap get ironed in with more fireings. i do not shoot the steel cased ammo, only brass cases with out any coatings. i reload as i got a good deal on several thousands of reloadable non corrosive soft point ammo. . the finns turned the 91,s into what the russians should have done, they had plenty of time between the world wars to do it and better training for the russian soldiers, the russian soldiers took a hell of a beating from the finns in both wars they had with the finns. stalin killed most of his expearenced soldiers in his purges of the army leaders after ww-1 up to and including ww-2. i think patton was right about the russians.

you can polish a turd, but all you get is a shinny turd.

Bfh_auto said:

Before you get burned at the stake.
That looks really nice for a Mosin. How does it shoot?

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Pretty darn straight considering I'm behind the glass, and boy does it draw attention from the rest of the benches...you can kill one deer and the rest runs for miles because of the noise

I have a Mosin. And I love it. But it is what it is.

I would love a Finnish one.

The Finnish made Mosins had barrels made by Sako. These barrels are way better quality than the Russian versions.

OP: When I first read your question,

the many positive comments about Polish Mosins came to mind, their MN 44s.