Brass on the Mosin Nagant

[TheOtherOne]

There's was a little area in front of the rear sight on my Mosin Nagant 91/30 that had some brass showing through it and I basically touched it with my fingernail and the black started flaking off. I wasn't sure if it was paint or just corrosion, but I took it all off very easily but now there is alot of green corrosion on it. Does anyone know how you clean that off, or this whole thing suppose to be painted black? It definitely doesn't look to hot the way I have it right now.

 

[TheOtherOne]

Here's a picture of what I'm talking about. Also, I noticed at the other end of the stock there is another part where the brass is showing through the same way. I'm sure if I touched it much the black would flake right off, but I'm going to leave it until I figure this one out.

 

[Dionysusigma]

If your Mosin came with black paint on it, DO NOT REMOVE THE PAINT!!!

Somewhere, I heard that Mosins with black paint on the stock are some of the oldest/rarest/most historical of the lot, due to their involvement during some war... *arg* I've forgotten. Pre-WW1 though, IIRC. These Mosins were originally finished in a pretty decent varnish; unfortunately, varnish is shiny and (as such) reflects light. Not good for night ops. The Russian infantrymen painted them black for lower visibility. Quite possibly the first EBRs ever, and looooong before black paint on something meant "Tactical."

DO NOT remove the paint as this is definately the rifle's history.

It definitely doesn't look too hot the way I have it right now.

Since when have Mosins ever looked all that amazing?

Leave the paint on.

 

[TheOtherOne]

DO NOT remove the paint as this is definately the rifle's history.

Oops. Too late now. Alot of it was already flaking off though before I went and screwed it up worse by speeding the process up with my fingernail.

The rifle definitely isn't pre-WWI though. It's dated 1941.