"Refurbished" Mosins - cosmolined or not?

[greyhound]

So fiddling with a cosmo soaked SKS made me rethink my "refurbished" (box with diaganol on stock) Mosin-

The Mosin is laquered or shellaced, and only had little bits of dried up (I assume) cosmo to be gotten out of the actions , so I never fiddled with the stock.

I have heard that they were refurbished in the 70's - were they ever "re-cosmilined" (is that a word?)?

Compared to my new SKS, there's no grease on this rifle, and what little there is is all dried up like its very old and was missed in a hurried re-doing in the 70's.

The Mosin is a 1943 Ishevek(sp), sold as "excellent" by CAI. From my research, this is probably the most "dime a dozen" of the 91/30s, so I don't think I have anything special, but dang, that MN was much easier to clean up than the SKS....

 

[George S.]

My 1931 Izzy 91/30 was pretty much coated with cosmoline on the metal parts and it dried to the point where it chipped off. Took nearly a full can of brake parts cleaner to get the stuff off. I'm still trying to get the chamber cleaned up so the bolt won't stick between rounds. Accuracy is about 6-8" groups at 100 yards with the Czech silvertip milsurp stuff.

The stock on mine had some sort of coating over the shellac finish. I used a small rag dipped in Hoppes #9 to clean the stock up. Didn't take any of the shellac off but it's no longer sticky from whatever preservative it was.

The stock finish is a reddish shellac not a lacquer. I found a lot of good information at http://www.7.62x54r.net/ and the M-N Forum at
http://www.russian-mosin-nagant.com/phpBB2/index.php

 

[greyhound]

Thanks, George, it definately doesn't feel like cosmo but there IS something over top the shellac....

I'll try some Hoppe's, you can't go wrong with that!

 

[444]

Try mineral spirits.

http://p077.ezboard.com/fparallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforumsfrm34

 

[DMK]

dang, that MN was much easier to clean up than the SKS....

Oh heck yea. They don't get much simpler to disassemble than the Mosin Nagant.

I agree with 444. Mineral Spirits is the way to go when cleaning up cosmo. It's nice and cheap too. I brush it on the big parts with a cheap, stiff paint brush and soak all the small parts in a glass bowl. Warming up the parts in the direct sunlight helps too.

 

[pbhome71]

My refinished/refurbished/rearsenal Mosin M38 had almost no cosmoline when I got it from AIM. The only I did after disassemble it was to oil the bolt and swab the bore.

Most fun gun I have...

-Pat

 

[Kalos]

None've my Russian mosins had any significant amount of cosmoline. There was a reddish/brownish oil of some sort on most of the parts, which came off easily with a spray of gunscrubber. On the other hand, my Finn M39 had some--not too terribly much, though. The only milsurp I've ever had with a fiendish amount of cosmo was my Yugo SKS...

 

[Cosmoline]

Tito must have been fixated on the stuff. All the Yugo surplus seems to have been drowned in it. My 91/30's have been pretty cleaned. I had a reconditioned Aztec 91/30 that had no cosmo but that same oily surface. It came off with a wet rag on the stock.

 

[armoredman]

My M38 was almost totally clean, except for the chamber, which will take time. I LOVE that litle old rifle - what a blast! I get about 4 inches at 100 yards with Wolf 148 bi-metal, haven't tried the Czech silver tip yet.
Gotta get a 91/30 from Aztec soon.....and an M44......