Oiling a rifle with a wooden stock?

Dissasemble the rifle, degrease, and lightly oil moving parts with some gun oil. I will typically use the last oil patch that went down the barrel to wipe the exterior of the bolt and whatnot. The metal shouldn't be dripping. The wood on the Mosin is likely shellacked.

Oh and btw the wood is likely already inpregnated with grease and oil from when the rifle was put into storage.

Arent M-N's generally soaked in Cosmoline?

I don't have a Mosin, but speaking generally if you don't leave the thing drenched in oil, this is a non-issue. Clean it up, lube it, wipe off excess, and re-assemble.

You could use something waxy on the parts covered by the stock, I suppose.

And don't feel bad if you foul anything up. A first Mosin is a great learning experience!

I use R.I.G. (Rust Inhibitor Grease).

http://www.brownells.com/gun-cleani...g-universal-gun-grease-prod31842.aspx?ttver=2

http://www.brownells.com/gun-cleani...87_a_7c7313_a_7c167300024_d_167300024_d_10195

It stays exactly where you put it.
And just a thin film protects against rust for a very long time.

rc

I use Ballistol for both wood and metal

I have some extra stock sets if you screw it up!~

You could apply paste wax to the barreled action while it's separate from the stock, then oil the exposed bits after putting it back together. It works for me.

oiling

My Daddy taught me to put on a little gun oil, spread it all over with your fingers, ( I like the smell), then try to wipe it all off. An old t-shirt works really well.

The linseed oil will flood the wood pores and prevent the gun oil on the metal from soaking in to any great extent. You may get little spots of gun oil marking in the action and barrel channels but it won't wick it all away and leave the metal rust prone. The BLO is already taking up and filling the porosity of the wood which would have produced that effect.

And as mentioned removing the action and lightly re-oiling or using some other rust inhibitor now and then does the trick.

I find it amazing that your stock wasn't slathered in cosmoline. You must have gotten one that they missed. The rest of us have had to sweat out the cosmo by putting the stocks out on a hot sunny day or otherwise warming up the wood to thin the cosmo into "sweating out" and wiping it away frequently. In the end it never does ALL come out.

Like you I found that the shellac had lost it's bond to the wood. I assumed that it was due to the years of being packed with cosmoline and it getting between the wood and shellac as both of my Mosins saw the shellac flake away during cleaning the wood down with some solvent to remove the cosmo.

Remove the stock and use linseed oil on the stock to bring out the grain on the wood. When it dries, apply a coat of wipe on poly or two or three till you get the stock to the shine and finish that you want, be sure it completely dries first. Then reassenble the rifle and oil away, the oil will not stain the stock or get through the poly finish.

You will have yourself one heck of a beautiful rifle then.

Just my 2 cents.
Jim

Put a little oil on a clean patch and wipe down the metal with it. I like to wipe off the excess. Unless you pour a gallon of oil on the gun and let it soak for a week, it will not damage the wood.