Cosmoline everywhere

[herrwalther]

Picked up my Mosin Nagant 91/30 today. Walked by it in the LGS and could not put it down. The markings indicate it came from Izhevsk arsenal in 1943. Matching parts include the receiver, magazine floorplate, and bolt. The bayonet came from a different rifle. Crown and bore are in amazing shape as far as I can tell. Came with sling, oil can, ammo pouches as seen below. How well did I do for less than $160 out the door? Also any hints for cleaning the Cosmoline? I was told mineral spirits will do the job but wanted to see if there was something better.

 

[wally]

Boiling water is cheapest and fastest way!

Clean and lube normally after it cools enough to handle.

 

[Panzerschwein]

There are many many places on google that will help you without anyone here having to type out something Nice pick up though, looks good!

 

[bainter1212]

Nice gun. I also have a very nice 43 Izzy.

The best way to clean cosmoline off, IMO, is to boil some water. After boiling, mix it with a cup of concentrated Simple Green and soak all the metal parts in the pan with the water/SG mixture. After a few minutes you will see some of the cosmo collect at the top of the water. Scrub everything with a soft brush (like a toothbrush) and rinse with more boiling water.

Don't bother to dry it. Just douse it in your favorite gun oil. I like Birchwood Casey's Rust Barricade, because it comes in a large enough aerosol can to douse many, many guns. The oil will displace the water.

Don't do any of this to the wood. Clean that with a slightly damp rag. That should do it.

 

[jstein650]

How about Purple Power? That stuff seems to get grease off of everything! I only discovered it after I'd tried everything, including an alcohol/chalk paste left on in the baking sun for days on my Enfield. It only weeps oil occasionally now if left in basking in the sunlight.

 

[Gunnerboy]

Patience

 

[funnelcake]

Take the stock off and spray the barreled action through and through with a couple cans of Brake Kleen. $6 bucks, ten minutes you're done. I've never used anything better/ faster. Even the crusty crap in the chamber will melt away fast.

Funnel

 

[Bhi curamach]

2nd the brake cleaner.
ive owned several variations of this rifle and a scattering of other c&r firearms.
Used this on all.
mineral spirits works well on wood. Heating in the sun in a black plastic bag to sweat it out between soaks is tiresome but effective.
I'm partial to the laminate stocks so I always scraped
the shellac off with a piece of plastic so check first on your wood.
none of mine were ever affected by mineral spirits(its not at all a thinning agent of shellac) but given the unknown somewhat random refinishing by Russia... if your collecting id test first.
for the record after gently scraping off the shellac I only apply linseed oil.

 

[280shooter]

I always used mineral spirits, I buy a Gallon of it. I use a 5 gal. bucket, and stiff paint brush,take your rifle apart. soak the bolt and all small pieces in the bucket,, mineral sprits melt the cos, just keep running the mineral sprits down the muzzle.use the stiff brush over the out sides, I always let the sprits sit over nite, and drain the bucket into another bucket. the heavier cosmoline settles to the bottom,, scrape it out into the trash, and do it all over again, you'll see how it cleans that stuff off,, I had hand guns and rifles that were filled with cosmoline, and the sprits just melts it all away,,

 

[GI_Jared]

Cosmoline melts around 120 degrees. The easiest way I have found is to field strip the rifle and then heat up all the parts with a hair dryer or heat gun. The cosmoline simply melts off and you wipe off the excess. Takes 1 to 1 1/2 hours to do a whole gun.

 

[jstein650]

If I ever get another cosmo' soaked gun, I now have PLENTY of good options! I'm not the OP, but thanks all.

 

[carbine85]

Take it apart, pour boiling hot water with simple green over everything, then spray the metal parts with break cleaner and you should be good to go.

 

[herrwalther]

Thank you for all the suggestions. Went ahead and picked up a bottle of "Klean Strip Green" mineral spirits (120 oz bottle) from the local store for about 8 bucks and a bottle of brake cleaner for another 3. Went through almost the whole bottle of mineral spirits taking just under 3 hours. The brake cleaner worked great for cleaning out the bore but didn't work as well on the other metal parts.

 

[rcmodel]

Should have took it to the .50 cent car wash in the middle of the night after the old retiree attendant guy is home in bed!!

The hot soap car wash nozzle will make very short work of the most stubborn old Russian cosmoline.

rc

 

[rondog]

Be careful what you put on the wood, many of these suggestions will damage or remove the finish, like Purple Power will strip it for sure. Which is fine if you want to get the cosmo out of the stock, strip it and refinish it. PP is perfect for that. But if you don't, then take the rifle apart before you attack the cosmo on the metal parts. You can always refinish the stock later on.

Mosins are known for having gummy chambers from the cosmo, so scrub it out good. Many recommend a 20ga. brass bore brush on a section of cleaning rod chucked in a drill. You may also want to YouTube how to take the bolt apart to get all the goo out of the internals too.

Price-wise, you did fine, especially for a local purchase. If you had a C&R license and shopped online you might have got one cheaper, but inspecting one in-hand first is always good, and you got all the goodies, so you paid a very average price. Five years ago that would have been too high, but they've been going up. My '38 Tula w/kit was $69.95 at the local Big 5, but they haven't been near that low for years.

 

[Cryogaijin]

I also recently just picked up a 91/30, $135 out the door.

I spent a good couple hours decosmoing the thing. My CAT has cosmoline on it. (seems he likes the smell and has taken to sleeping on my hobby table.)

 

[fpgt72]

The best way is a steamer. If you are going to be getting into this you may want to invest in one....a positive would be you can tell your wife you got it for her to take the wrinkles out of her clothes.

The metal parts mineral spirits.

 

[VVelox]

I found it comes off easily with a bit of WD40.

 

[herrwalther]

I did not do a thorough cleaning of the wood intentionally. I wanted to leave some Cosmoline on the wood until I could seal and refinish it with linseed oil and a little bit of wax, easily my favorite combinations of wood finishes.

 

[xxjumbojimboxx]

I find brake cleaner works really good on the metal parts... sweat the stock by leaving it out in the sun and wiping periodically... if its cold where you live use a heat gun or blow dryer

 

[fpgt72]

Heat gun and blow dryer will dry the wood out quite a bet....give it some love after you finish.

 

[lemaymiami]

I've been repairing fishing reels for a lot of years (and some of them are in really, really poor condition with salt related corrosion) and have always used mineral spirits (also labeled paint thinner) for all of the metal parts. As each work order is dis-assembled the small parts are dropped into a tub of the stuff. After a 30 minute soak the parts are removed and scrubbed off with a toothbrush while still wet, rinsed off in mineral spirits again, then placed on paper and allowed to dry. I'd have pretty high confidence that cosmoline coated metal parts wouldn't pose the slightest problem if they're on the small side.... Not sure how I'd deal with parts that weren't so small (barrel, complete action, etc.) but I'm pretty sure a brush wet with spirits would do just about everything needed except the bore.

Did appreciate learning various techniques for the wood end of things since I'd like the stock on any old military piece to be kept as original as possible.