Should you send your Milsurp rifle to a gunsmith?

[darkknight]

I am thinking about sending my rifle to a gunsmith right away after getting it. I am thinking my m91/30 should just be sent immediately to a gunsmith for cleaning and disassembly to make sure all of the packing grease and dirt in the barrel and chamber will be cleaned along with any rust that i didnt see. how much should this cost and how long should it take plus im thinking of having it boresighted to making scoping it easier. how much am i looking at i plan on calling but i want to get yalls opinion to make sure im getting a decent price. thanky you.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Don't bother spending all that money on a $95 gun. Just take a look at this site, do what they tell you and have fun shooting your new toy!! http://www.russian-mosin-nagant.com/cleaning.htm

After that go to this site and ID your gun, find out about ammo and a lot of other good stuff!! http://7.62x54r.net/

 

[rangerruck]

I wouldnt spedn that money ,either. taking it all apart and jacking with it, is one of the better features of the milsurp. you are doing it to a rather inexpensive gun, usually they are so simple, you can't screw em up, and by the time you are done, you should be intimately familiar with them. just soak, and scrub, and brush, and hose, and scrub the bore, and clean and lube, should be fine. http://7.62x54r.net/
http://www.surplusfirearms.com/
a couple of fine sites to visit.

 

[270Win]

Agreed, skip the smith. If you're REALLY paranoid, buy some go/no-go gauges for 7.62x54R ... but that's about the extent of it. Otherwise the others are right - tinkering with these things is half the fun!

 

[Ohen Cepel]

I'm with the other guys. Don't spend the money for a smith. Also, you might not find one that wants to do it since it's more of a cleaning job than gunsmithing. Add to it that it might take him weeks to get to it and it's really not worth it!

Paying a guestimate of $100 and being without your rifle for a month maybe more just doesn't make sense. I hate cosmoline also, but not that much

 

[dstorm1911]

DITTO ABOVE, also ya don't just "scope" a 91/30 if ya are wanting one with a scope then ya better just buy a sniper version from the git go for around $339 from AIM to begin with as these are not something ya are gonna be wanting to just put a modern scope on etc...

The mounts alone for one will set ya back a couple hundred bucks,

 

[Mr White]

If anything, just have the smith check headspace. Ask him what he'll charge for that first. If its more than the cost of a set of gauges, tell him to go to hell and get the gauges and do it yourself.

The gun isn't really yours til you've torn it down to the individual gun molecules, cleaned off all the cosmo and rust and reassembled it with no spare parts left over.

Don't be shy about asking questions. There's lots of us here who know Mosin Nagants like the backs of our hands.

 

[armoredman]

Check headspace. If you want, just take it to a local gunsmith for a safety inspection. That shouldn't cost more than $10 or so. I just tore my Mosins down, cleaned the snot out of them, checked headspace with some guages I borrowed from a gent at Russian Mosin Nagant Page and Forum, and went shooting!

 

[Swede]

Part of the fun of buying these is taking them apart to inspect and clean up. This way you can see how they work and so on.

 

[Essex County]

I have cleaned and inspected all of my M-G's and haven't invested in headspace gauges. The cleanining, bolt disaasembly, etc you should do yourself. How else would you be prepared for your first Turk? Get the gauges if it makes you feel warmer and fuzzier..........Essex

 

[ArchAngelCD]

No need to take it to a smith to check headspace either. Almost all Mosin's come with a kit which incudes the tool to check headspace. It doubles as a screwdriver too!! LOL

 

[swingset]

No need to take it to a smith to check headspace either. Almost all Mosin's come with a kit which incudes the tool to check headspace. It doubles as a screwdriver too!! LOL

That tool measures firing pin protrusion, not headspace.

 

[Hoppy590]

! yes, that tool if for the firing pin, NOT HEADSPACE!. though its true MOST rifles shipping from a surplus house will be headspaced, id still be cautions, especialy on mis matched bolts

 

[JTW Jr.]

if you arent worry about being correct , you can mount a scope on a 91/30 with one of the kits which cost about $40-$60 for the mount and bolt handle , ( they require you to modify the bolt handle ) , plus from where they mount the scope looks like it needs a long eye relief as well.

You could always tie it to a chair at the range and pull the trigger with a string from way back if you are extremely worried about it not being safe.

 

[Niner]

Common sense is the first step

! yes, that tool if for the firing pin, NOT HEADSPACE!. though its true MOST rifles shipping from a surplus house will be headspaced, id still be cautions, especialy on mis matched bolts

The probability of a supplier headspacing your rifle is actually close to none. And, as in the quote, the tool mentioned won't supply headspace measurements.

Headspace is a concern. But what you would need is a field gauge. I've only had one Mosin that didn't pass the field gauge test and I had shot it before I found out that it didn't pass. Not meaning that you shouldn't use a field gauge on your rifle to find out, although it is hard to find a 7.62x54r field gauge anymore.

You have to decide for yourself what you want to do to decide what is safe or not. Mismatched bolts on Mosins are pretty standard with forced matched being fairly normal.