Need advice about Mosin Nagant 91/30 (1937 Tula) chamber cleaning

[southwest1]

Just bought my 2nd 91/30. It is a 1937 Tula. Really clean stock, shiny barrel, very firm action, just a few refurb stamps on the action, almost no markings on the stock except a circle with a B in the middle, which I believe means Budapest arsenal. Virtually no cosmoline to been seen. All serial numbers match. Imported by Century Arms, bought at Big 5.

I want to leave this gun as pure as a I can..

I cleaned the bore with Hoppes number 9, lightly oiled the action. Dry fire (which I hear is ok for centerfire) is smooth.


So the last thing I do before driving all the way to the range is I insert a spent cartridge into the chamber to test how the action reacts. I realize the spent cartridge has expanded at bit..

I just can't close the bolt, I don't want to force it. I believe there is crud a the end of the chamber that is causing the problem.

On my other Mosin I solved sticky bolt with a 20 gauge steel brush and a drill. Given how clean this gun is and my goal to keep it pure any other ideas out there ?

 

[Maverick223]

Do the same as the former MN, but swap the brush for a bronze one. It should clean just as good, without scratching the chamber.

 

[Blue Brick]

Soak in gasoline.

 

[panrobercik]

your spent cartridge was fired in a rifle with a looser chamber. If the unfired rounds chamber fine than you are good to go. Polishing chamber is only needed if you have sticky bolt. That usually happens on lacquer coated ammo. Brush mounted on a drill soaked in acetone should be all you need

 

[Nicodemus38]

your rifle isnt meant to load empty casings. not even ones fired in it. the best explanation ive been given is that the design of the rifle is for the bullet to guide the cartridge in, and the extremely light weight of the fired casing doesnt behave as designed leading to issues. Ive seen burrs develop on the chamber from trying to load empty cases in.

 

[tribbles]

Some surplus ammo (the Czech silvertip comes to mind) is hard to extract after firing. It's not at all surprising that you wouldn't be able to chamber one of these. Don't worry about it and like the others said, don't chamber empties.

 

[Cosmoline]

37 Tula should be a fine shooter.

Spent rounds from another rifle typically won't feed into the chamber until they're resized. With Mosins even from the same rifle they really need to be full length resized.

For chamber cleaning I use a short handled flexible pistol brush with bronze bristles. You can find them at surplus stores. Scrape off any dried crudola, clean with CLP and then wipe the chamber and bore dry. Should be fine.

Some more tips:

--Make sure your action screws are hand-tight. These are often quite loose.
--You can shim the receiver/barrel contact points under the front bolt and at the tang bolt in Finn style with little strips of brass with a hole punched in them for the bolt. Mix and match to change the pressure on the barrel and maximize accuracy.

--Most Mosins have weight preferences for bullets. Some are best with the light ball in the 140 grain range, others prefer the 200 grain slugs. Soviet prewar 91/30's seem to fall in the second camp more often than not. So shoot a mix of ammo to see what it likes. The difference can be quite considerable.