Mosin woes

[mosin warrior]

I recently purchased a mosin nagant. The bolt will not close when trying to load, so assuming it is head space, how do i fix this issue. Gunsmith's in this area wont even touch it cause it is 60+ yrs old which i find rediculous.

 

[MichigammeDave]

It's a common problem with Mosin Nagant, usually due to incomplete cleaning of the bolt. If you don't feel right about disassembling the bolt for cleaning, get one of the deep cleaning products on the market and soak it good, clean it up and work the action some with no cartridge in the chamber. If it feels better, try it with a cartridge.
It's normal for these bolts to close hard when they're dirty - don't lose faith.

 

[The Teacher]

You can always replace the bolt head as well. They're pretty plentiful on some of the parts sites and ebay.

 

[Scooter22]

Wait a minute. Will the bolt close and cycle properly when it's empty? Will the FP drop on a empty chamber if the trigger is pulled? Does a round get picked up from the magazine or are you feeding it into the chamber and trying to close the bolt?

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

Have you cleaned all of the cosmoline from the chamber and shoulders? Be sure the bolt is assembled properly also although I doubt it would even come close to closing if it wasn't.

 

[MikeJackmin]

Wait a minute. Will the bolt close and cycle properly when it's empty? Will the FP drop on a empty chamber if the trigger is pulled? Does a round get picked up from the magazine or are you feeding it into the chamber and trying to close the bolt?

Yep. Just what I came by to say.

One more thing to consider is that you may have gunk (or a piece of old shell casing) in the chamber, preventing the new cartridge from going all the way in.

There is no reason a qualified gunsmith should not look at your rifle for you, my advice would be to find somewhere else to take it.

 

[MountainBear]

Throw it away and buy a new one? Mosins are like Marlin 60's. When they go bad, I just strip the parts and get a new one...

Yeah, give it a good cleaning. I would make sure all the cosmoline was out of the bolt recesses. I do know that several gunsmiths are hesitant to work on cheap guns like this. I have seen several times when people pitch a fit because their $100 gun cost $50 to $75 to fix.

 

[Casefull]

Just take an angle grinder to it...that is the precision they are constructed with. Something Henry Ford got going a 100 years ago.

 

[Tolkachi Robotnik]

I would not grind on it.

Get a bronze type brush and run through bore. Get a chamber brush and clean up chamber and throat. There is sometimes a lot of cosmoline in Mosin rifles. Take bolt out and look down through it, is it clear? The bolt comes out backwards with just the trigger pulled as you ease it back out the receiver.

Take a micrometer and measure your cartridges compared to data in a reloading manual or two. If reloads some might not chamber if they were shot in another Mosin rifle and only neck sized. This is unlikely to be the problem.

The bolts come apart easy after you know how they work. They do not intuitively go back together, so either know what you are doing or read a manual for that action should you do it. I would start with it not cocked. Pull trigger and pull bolt out backwards. The front part just turns and it comes apart. They have robust parts and could have cosmoline inside them and still work, maybe for quite awhile. They are not known for firing pin breakage, my impression was it looked more like a center punch. The bolts are interesting if you previously only considered Mauser family bolts.

 

[ObsidianOne]

Taking the bolt apart is easy, figuring out how it goes back together can be a task until you do it a few times. It just doesn't make logical sense. Once you throw logic out the window, you'll figure it out. Do a search on YouTube, tons of videos of dissassembly of the bolt there

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[9w1911]

there are bolt disassembly videos online, I got a clean one and when I took the bolt apart it was full of gunk From my understanding and I am new to the Mosin, I have a 1939 91/30 Izzy, is that they were all refurbished after the war and put away.

 

[MaterDei]

Have you tried a 2 X 4?

 

[hang fire]

The cleaning of the accumulated junk from the chamber (and bore) before firing and baking the crap in place, is the one thing that creates problems. Forget solvents (although they help) it takes wire brushes and elbow grease to accomplish the task.

 

[ObsidianOne]

The cleaning of the accumulated junk from the chamber (and bore) before firing and baking the crap in place, is the one thing that creates problems. Forget solvents (although they help) it takes wire brushes and elbow grease to accomplish the task.

I hear kerosene works well too. Haven't done it myself though.

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[Fleetman]

Check what MikeJackmin suggests.....there have been more than several thousand case separations that have occured in Mosins over the years.

 

[TenDriver]

The cleaning of the accumulated junk from the chamber (and bore) before firing and baking the crap in place, is the one thing that creates problems. Forget solvents (although they help) it takes wire brushes and elbow grease to accomplish the task.

I'd try this first. A 20 ga brush on a power drill with some #9 or other solvent works well.

 

[ball3006]

Are you dropping the round in the chamber, then attempting to close the bolt? If your extractor is stuck, it will not ride over the rim preventing closing the bolt. These rifles are designed to load the round from the magazine where the rim slips under the extractor when moving from the magazine to the chamber. As others have said, check your chamber to see if there is anything in there, dirt, broken shell case, etc.....chris3

 

[Cosmoline]

OP--can you provide some more detail? Are you having this problem with rounds or dry? Both? At what exact point does the bolt stop? Is it refusing to close or refusing to feed at all? How much pressure are you applying?

As with most of these troubles try a thorough cleaning as others have suggested. Tear down the bolt too. Then see how it all works in dry firing. If you're going to cycle rounds through outside of a range you should make up some unprimed dummies on the press.

These rifles are designed to load the round from the magazine where the rim slips under the extractor when moving from the magazine to the chamber.

Nope. You can absolutely load a Mosin singly. It's not like an old Mauser. It's an early type of push-feed design and does not need to feed from the magazine. In fact the interrupter/ejector blocks all but one round which sits on top and can be fed in any way needed.

 

[Certaindeaf]

mosin warrior, look at the bright side.. at least it came with a bayonet.

 

[macadore]

I once had a Mosin with a severely damaged extractor that wouldn't chamber. I replaced the extractor and it worked fine. Might check that.

 

[morcey2]

Where is the OP? Pics of the bolt head/extractor would help.

I once had a Mosin with a severely damaged extractor that wouldn't chamber. I replaced the extractor and it worked fine. Might check that.

That's a definite possibility. Replacing the bolt-head (complete) would be much easier than replacing the extractor. One of my co-workers had a 91/30 that wouldn't chamber. It had a slightly bent extractor that wouldn't flex at all to snap over the rim. Theoretically, they're replaceable, but it didn't work out too well. He ordered a replacement head complete with extractor from libertytreecollectors.com and it worked great after that.

If the bolt will close all the way, but won't rotate down, that's probably a headspace or dirty chamber issue. If the bolt stops about 1/8" short of being able to engage the locking lugs, it's probably a sticky/bent extractor issue. Or a nightmarishly dirty chamber or broken case. Broken case will probably stop much earlier than 1/8" short.

Matt

 

[mgkdrgn]

someone took the bolt apart and didn't put it back together right. dis-assemble and re-assemble yourself. Lots of youtube video on how to do this.

 

[mookiie]

I had a problem getting the bolt closed on one of my Mosins last year. Turned out the bolt head must have hit the floor and bent the rim that closes around the casing. I replaced the bolt head and checked headspace and it is just fine now. Took me a long time to figure it out though.

 

[Sav .250]

As cheap as I see then selling for at Gun shows, chuck it. Get one that works.

 

[Scooter22]

Why chuck a gun that may only need a thorough cleaning or a cheap part adjusted or replaced? I have over 20 various Mosin models and they all shoot and work fine. They are easy to fix and head space issues are very rare.