Jammed Mosin 38?

[Moparmike]

I do not know what to do to this thing. I shot a round with it, and now the bolt only travels up 1/2 way, then wont move at all. It seems to be jammed on the empty cartridge, and I would really rather not take it to a gunshop. I am going to try to tap a cleaning rod gently down the barrel to see if I can dislodge anything, other than that I dont know what to do. I have never seen this before in a bolt action...

 

[drannor]

I had this problem with my M38 and ended up kicking open the action with a boot clad foot. Bracing for this was a bit of a gymnastic feat mind you.... Normally I wouldn't abuse a firearm in this fashion but I figure "Pride of Soviet Engineering" can take it, and I don't have much money in the carbine. You've emptied the magazine right?

What ammo are you using? For some reason the S&B ammo jams up my M38 badly, whereas Barnaul, E. German milsurp, and some other brands I've used work fine. With S&B I might get three shots before the action was inoperable. I have NOT seen this issue with my Finnish M39, but they are higher quality pieces.

 

[rangerruck]

will it not move backward or forward now? if it will move backward, try to remove it from the receiver, and make sure you have it put together right, if it wont, then something is out of alignment. or possible something in the trigger assy. try to take rifle apart and remove trigger group , then remove the bolt.

 

[Tyril]

If you cannot open the bolt on a fired cartridge, most likely the casing has swollen inside the chamber.

What happened once to me on my M91/30, was that my chamber was not COMPLETELY clean of storage cosmoline. It was visually clean, but not bore-brush scrubbed.

I fired a Lacquered Steel Case round in the Mosin, and somehow the heat-liquified Lacquer mixed with the cosmoline, and formed some kind of unpleasant glue-like substance.

Most likely the steel case didn't completely expand to fit the chamber (steel being less maleable than brass), which allowed some of the gases to get between the lacquered outer case and the cosmo'd chamber wall, causing the aformentioned problem.


It took three people to open that bolt. I've since stuck to copper-washed steel surplus ammo, with not a single problem. I'm sure I could bore-brush out the chamber (use a 12 ga brush), but I'm lazy, and surplus is cheap and works. =)




-mike

 

[Third_Rail]

Yeah, seriously - kick the bolt open. I've had to do it before, and my MNs still function fine - I just don't use that ammo anymore! I think it was machinegun ammo, delinked, so it was a lot hotter and expanded more.

 

[armoredman]

You most likely culprit is the famous "sticky chamber" phenomena. It is comsoline in the chamber, in the teeny pits left by firing corrosive ammo during WWII, and sporadic cleaning. You can scrub the dickens out of it by normal means, and still have a bit left over, The laquered cases will melt to the cosmo, causing the case to stick in quite well.
The best treatment for this is to get a drill, a cleaning rod, and a 20 gauge bore brush. Then hose the chamber with whatever degunker you like, and drill that puppy out with the chucked bore brush. Then take it to the range, fire a round or 3, and do it again while it's warm. A few repetitions, and no more problems.

 

[ID_shooting]

I had a sticky bolt in my 91/30, not as bad as yours, but still sticky. Mine was caused by dried and caked on cosmo. I chucked a nylon brush into my drill and gave it a good scrubbing with hoppes solvent. Not a stick sence.

 

[ball3006]

You were shooting that green...

steel cased Yugo ammo, weren't you...........Yep, the fired case stuck in the chamber. When I shoot Yugo ammo, I take a leather mallet with me to pound open the bolt. Yes, my chambers are clean and shiney. Has to do with the ammo if it sticks in all 16 of my MN rifles........You won't have this problem if you shoot Hungarian, Polish, Russian, or Chinese ammo........chris3

 

[49hudson]

moparmike,
If you haven't been able to open your bolt by the time you read this, here is an easy fix.
Lower the bolt handle.
Reach back to the cocking piece and cock the weapon.
Open bolt and eject shell case.

As others have stated it may be caused by pertified cosmoline, however; When the Russians rebuilt these rifles they made the headspace very tight.
Since they cock on lifting the bolt you are trying to overcome the cocking of the firing pin spring and the friction caused by the tight headspace at the same time.
After a few hundred[or thousand] rounds the bolt will open easily without cocking the rifle first.
Hope this works for you. It did for me.

 

[Matt Dillon]

When I shoot the Czech silver tip ammo, I take along a deadblow hammer to help open the bolt. I don't have this problem using my reloaded ammo, but I do with the Czech silver tip.

 

[Moparmike]

It was the Czech silver tip stuff. I smacked it open with a shoe yesterday. I have a handy rubber mallet I am going to take next time.

Thanks for all the replies. One would think it heresy to offer "kick it" as a solution, but if it works, it works.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

I haven't tried it yet but supposedly, lacquer thinner on chamber brush spun in a drill will clean up the chamber so that the sticky bolt is no longer an issue.

 

[Sewerman]

I dont think you could hurt a MN if you tried.....

 

[silverlance]

eh

no big deal. i don't lock and unlock my MNs like they do in the movies. there, you grasp the little knob with three fingers, push forward, down... pull up, back..

i just take the meat of my hand and smack that puppy forward, then raise my hand to the left and smack the whole handle down, as if i was smacking a little kid asking for candy too many times.

then smack it up, open handed again, and grab that puppy with your whole hand and yank it back hard so that the case goes flying...

of course, i also took nearly four days cleaning the gun when i first got it. took it down to its itty bitty parts, put em all in the oven except for the barrel, and put THAT outside where the sun took good care of it.

i also shoot czech silvertip. dirty and inaccurate as heck but hey, i'm not at a competition.. i just want to feel the boom of a wwii relic.

i have one 91/30, though, that has an extractor that's FLAT as opposed to slightly curved. that one is a real beauty, but also a real pain to action. probably will order another bolt head from TNGP, even though i've been told that it's not quite a good idea to go about swapping bolt heads... whatever.

USSR made stuff is made to LAST.