Mosin m-44 lockup, primer blown out??? help please

Status
Not open for further replies.
E

EricTheBarbarian

Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2006
Messages
751
Location
various
Well, there I was at the range today, giving my old m44 a workout. The barrel was getting warm, but wasn't too hot. Last round out of a set of 5, felt a little different and sounded a bit different. I went to cycle the bolt and it was locked solid. After trying to get it to budge and beating on the handle with a hammer I finally gave up.

So when i got home, about 10 minutes of a 2x4 and hammer i finally got the bolt open. I used a cleaning rod to get out the spent casing, and what I found was a mangled base on the casing and the primer was blown out of it.:confused:

Ive shot close to 1000 rounds out of this gun with not even as much as a misfire, then this. What kind of a problem do I have here, rifle or ammo? I hope this isn't some of that booby trapped ammo I read about in the other thread, but I don't know, so I figured Id ask the experts at THR.

ammo: 1952 bulgarian heavy ball
rifle: 1944 mosin nagant m44

any help would be appreciated, thanks.
 
I have blown primers out of some of my reloads by loading them "too hot". Too much powder that is...... If these are reloads I would back off of my powder by a grain, or maybe just a half grain if I had been shooting this load for a long time and this is the only occurence. If it is a factory round then I would guess that the factory loaded it hot somehow or that the primer pocket on that piece of brass was enlarged. It's not a rifle problem.
 
Could also be that the rifle isn't headspaced properly, and it took a weak case to bring that to light. But it does sound like an over-pressure issue,which is rare for bulg. milsurp stuff.
 
rare on bulgarian surplus, since this is my third case of it and only 1 problem. Maybe they did load one too hot.

How would I check the headspace on an m44?

Thanks for all the responses, i appreciate it.
 
Don't worry about the possibility of booby trapped ammo. If you'd have shot a Project Eldest Son round, you're M44 would be shattered. Besides, that only concerned Chi-Com ammo.
 
Not to hijack as this is along the same lines. Even if the rifle is 50+ years old, if all of the numbers are matching, why would there be a problem with headspace.
 
Throat erosion, for one. These puppies are old. And some of them(I have lots of Mosins) are hardly used, others look like they singlehandedly fought the battle of Stalingrad. It all depends on how much they were used.
 
This one has the re-arnsel mark, where it was re-arsenaled in the Ukraine. It looked new when I got it, but I haven't measured throat erosion either. The bore looks good, but its hard to say what kind of shape it was in before it was rearsenaled. It has been counter bored. I hope this gun isn't junk, its got a nice crisp trigger and is more accurate than my 91/30 or k98.

A headspace gauge has been ordered from brownells
 
I found was a mangled base on the casing and the primer was blown out of it.
Click to expand...

Can you post a pic? If the split was in a certain location it's a sure sign of bad headspace. Mosins will tolerate this better than most rifles because the shoulder acts as a backup to the rim and the round stretches. But sometimes it stretches too far and KABOOM.

Either that or it was just a defective round with hidden damage. Check yr. headspace.

Edit--sounds like you did good. Must have just been a one off but even so I'd get some moderate brass case loadings and shoot those. You can then inspect the brass carefully for incipient separation marks or odd bulging. Steel case won't let you do that.
 
I checked the head space today when i got the gauge and it was good, I also checked the firing pin protrusion with that goofy looking tool that came with it and it was also fine.

I can't find the cable to hook up my computer to the camera for any pics, but one side of the rim was bent up about sheared off and the other side had a notch taken out. I did have to beat on this with a hammer and 2x4 to get the bolt to open though.


I'll see how it does this weekend at the range.
 
I too have a 1944 M44 and had the same problem with one and only one round. It was surplus of course. I shot many rounds and no problem. All of the sudden, I had a locked-up bolt. I too had to take a hammer to open it. One reason is the short bolt...not much leverage to open it. I think my(and your) problem lies in the ammo. I have shot many reloads in it with no problems. Most of those were close to max also. I think you were probably shooting surplus ammo like me when I had my problem, am I right? Nothing wrong with surplus, but I guess they don't have the quality control that we do. I think that is your problem, surely not the gun. Just chalk it up to bad luck and keep on shootin'.
 
well, after putting 300 rounds through it today, i think the guns fine. Apparently one of the gnomes at the ammo factory put one too many scoops of powder in that round, or not enough HE in that booby trapped round:)
 
Like Deer Hunter, I caught a split case in a container of Bulgarian heavy ball. I found the round during ammo inspection/putting them in stripper clips time.
 
I know I know!!!!!!!!



I bet the extractor didn't seat over the rim like it was supposed to, it got batteried with that 1mm space, the round went off, smashed into the bolt face and then the extractor, shoving it against the chamber walls, thus jamming the bolt. when you can post a couple pics of the casing, the bolt face and the extractor.... It's just a guess for here, but I've seen it happen. If the bolt was a little harder to close before the round went off that might be a sign. hmmm
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

O
  • Locked
New Mosin!
Replies
11
Views
881
ArchAngelCD
ArchAngelCD
S
  • Locked
Help! My Mosin is Blowing Primers!
2
Replies
29
Views
2K
SGW42
S
Y
  • Locked
Mosin Overpressure?
Replies
9
Views
691
Sunray
S
A
  • Locked
Failure to Fire Mosin Nagant
Replies
6
Views
504
LJ-MosinFreak-Buck
L
B
  • Locked
Blown primers on two new guns.
Replies
11
Views
2K
Slamfire
Slamfire
Back
Top