Mosin Nagant - The truth comes out.

[velocette]

In a previous post I described the new to me Mosin Nagant rifle I just bought.
It appeared to be un-issued with no wear marks etc.

Do y'all remember that girl that looked just fabulous until you got up close and got to know her? - - - - - -

Well this girl appears to be an arsenal refurbished rifle. Refinished, barrel recrowned, new stock installed, still no dings and dents though.
Headspaces well.
The barrel - - - now is clean and just a little dark, no pits that I could see.
I had originally run a couple of patches through the barrel to remove the cosmoline and they came out clean.
Later on, I ran a brush soaked with Hoppes #9 through the barrel. What a load of gunk came out! I spent two days with brushes, Butches copper solvent, Hoppes #9, and Kroil getting all the fouling out. The clean barrel slugs at .312"
Whe I order bullets for reloading, I must buy the 150 grain .312 bullets for Russian rifles.
Now the interesting question. The rifle was arsenal refurbished but all the serial #s match including the (wicked looking) bayonet. The stampings all look similar, like not done separately. How they stayed together is unknown, but nothing appears to be re-stamped.

The rifle is not quite what I thought it was at first, but still for $89.95 I cannot expect too much.
It goes to the range tomorrow to see if it will stay on paper at 100 yds.
Will take photos there.

Roger

 

[caribou]

Your doing FINE!!

Its hell to find cosmoline in the bore and chamber, but its been there for 60+ yaers. Its shiney and looks like dull steel. I bet if you puched a solvent soaked brush through, you would still find Cosmo.
The worst will be in the chamber, and alotta guys use brake cleaner and chuck a chamber brush into a cordless and letter spin for a minute of two while flushing with spray in fluid.
You'll only have to Deal with cosmo once, if you have gotten alll of it out. It looks like reddish brown crud, some squishy, some really dry stuff looks like small brown broken glass, some peels in curls.......
If you go and shoot it with the Cosmo in the chamber, you will have a heck of a time with "Sticky Bolt " syndrome and its well known to Mosinutz. The chamber can look shiney and new, but a quick spin with a brush and solvent will let you know

The Mosin will always let you know when to clean the bolt/chamber, by getting stiff when its getting bad.
Clean it, shoot it, clean it again, and you'll always have a blast.

That Cosmo is there to protect that bore/chamber till you strip it, its a good thang, but a bit of hand work will do you fine. Better lotsa Cosmo , than having had no cosmo.....

Mosins are ugly lookin', fine shoot'n......the beauty is in the accuracy

After the war, all rifles went through refurbishment and storage. Some needed major repair, some just got some new blue, a barrel full of Cosmoline and varnish on the wood, all for protection through deep storage, awaiting WWIII and some more shooting.......Yours sounds VERY desirable.

 

[karlsgunbunker]

Did you remove the stock when cleaning?

If you did not, expect it to leak cosmolene when it gets hot.

Also try "Sweet's 7.62 or another copper solvent, it'll get any copper of lead out of the barrel.
What you have is a Standard Refurb, if it has a Square with a diagonal in it it's a Ukrainian refurb, also standard.

Some rifles were just cleaned and repaired, some had new parts stamped to match, some had lineouts and restamp, and some had numbers buffed off and Electro Penciled.
There are quite a few Numbers matching Mosin's out there, I'm not sure anyone knows what went on when they were refurbished.

I always pay the $10 hand pick fee and get a Numbers Matching rifle, Just for resale value.

Mosin's are addictive and they breed in dark safe's.
Mine are multiplying all the time.
Enjoy!