So I bought a Mosin...

[Tarvis]

for $125 which included 300 rounds so it seemed like the price was where it should be. Seemed to shoot ok, besides the fact that it kicks the crap out of me. I get to cleaning the bore and find a most wonderful surprise: has to be the worst condition I have ever seen in a rifle. The grooves were so dark I couldn't pick out any pits and the lands were covered with pitting and odd marks.

Are all of these rifles like this? I was under the impression these were moderately well taken care of, not thrown into storage with corrosive fouling still in the barrel.

 

[Soldiersurfs]

My 1943 91/30 bore is shiney You might want to try pluging it and filling the bore with some cleaner and let it sit for a while.

 

[Tarvis]

I gave it a good scrubbing with sweet's 7.62 nose burner. Maybe I'll soak it in butch's bore shine.

 

[Soldiersurfs]

It sounds like a bad idea , but believe it or not Windex does wonders for the Mosin. Water based products work best for removing the corrosive salts and the amonia helps with the copper fouling

 

[Matt-J2]

The trouble with Mosins is that some of them are just like that. Might just need to be cleaned, but most likely, it's a bad(or just 'not good') bore. If it shoots accurate enough for ya, then no big deal. If not...well, you could get another and use this one for spare parts, I suppose.

 

[NCsmitty]

Mosins are like that sometimes, it's a crap shoot if it cannot be inspected beforehand. Quite often the barrels look crappy but still shoot well. Go figure. You just clean the barrel and shoot it, and clean it again. The fun never stops.
I bought a Century M44 1945 Izzy that looked like new in and out except for a few stock dents. I then bought a laminated stock M44 that looked great outside but the bore was a little rough. That's just the way it goes. I've got some surplus to try and some Privi Partizan FMJ and softpoints to try, and some Lee dies for later.

NCsmitty

 

[Franco2shoot]

cleaning the bore

My 91/30 was pretty dark, but the rifling looked OK. I alternated between shooting and cleaning always looking for accuracy at 100 yards. I made the break through with the electronic cleaner. A search will, I'm sure turn up threads that describe this. The use of the cleaner really loosened up stuff, but it was the two J&B polishing compounds on a jag and a 1/4 inch drill that got me to 1 moa. Here's a picture of the barrel mid way....

You can see where bright spots are starting to appear. If I could get the identical lighting I would post the final picture where there's more shiney than black, but its a hard shot to get.

At any rate, I went on to place thin sliver's of cork (two under the barrel about 45 degrees from each other) and a third over top. Next trip to the range I was tearing out the bull from 100 yards, and afraid to do anything more than a usual cleaning (Brass scrub brush 5 or 6 times with Hoppes #9 and then patches till no residue, with a final bore snake). It is so accurate now that I dare not go for total shiney. Best 99 bucks for a rifle I ever spent. Lots of fun at our range.

KKKKFL

 

[RecoilRob]

And...remember that when they re-arsenelled them, they seem to have reparked the whole barrel....inside and out. You might just be seeing the parkerizing.

 

[RenardSubtil]

for $125 which included 300 rounds so it seemed like the price was where it should be. Seemed to shoot ok, besides the fact that it kicks the crap out of me. I get to cleaning the bore and find a most wonderful surprise: has to be the worst condition I have ever seen in a rifle. The grooves were so dark I couldn't pick out any pits and the lands were covered with pitting and odd marks.

Are all of these rifles like this? I was under the impression these were moderately well taken care of, not thrown into storage with corrosive fouling still in the barrel.

Wait...you actually shot it first without cleaning and checking the barrel? uh, okay, you may want to be a lil more careful next time. With any old mil surplus rifle, you may want to check this and chamber first to be sure they're very clean....

That being said, try pouring hot water down the barrel ( especially for cosmoline deposits) and then following up with the usual Hoppes Solvent, Bore cleaner, CLP, pick your poison cleaner....

The barrel alone on my M-39 took me the better part of an evening to clean due to the cosmoline and other gunk in there.

 

[ColinthePilot]

Lesson learned. I always inspect the bore of a Mosin before I buy, for this reason. I was lucky that a friend bought one over a year before me so I knew what to look for when I went shopping for my first one. Both mine looked like new when I checked them. Best $200 I've spent yet.

 

[alemonkey]

I would absolutely make a DIY electric bore cleaner. I used the directions here:

http://www.surplusrifle.com/reviews/copperout/index.asp

But mine is much simpler. I just plugged the chamber with a rubber stopper and stuck a steel rod down the barrel with a little black tape towards the end to keep it from contacting metal. The I taped 2 C cell batteries in series, with one wire attached to the front sight and one to the steel rod.

I really should have taken a picture of all the crap that came out of my Mosin barrel. It looked like road tar bubbling out of it. I thought the rifling was shot, too, until I did this.

 

[The Deer Hunter]

Are all of these rifles like this?

Yes. But for some reason like everyone on THR has that one "exception" that can shoot something like 1" groups at a couple hundred yards.

 

[elmerfudd]

Are all of these rifles like this?

Some are, some aren't. The bore on my M44 looks like new. The bores on my M39 and one of my 91/30's are dark, but still shoot well. Then I have two 91/30's with rotten old bores. One still shoots tolerably well and the other is only fit for use as a wall hanger or maybe for conversion to a floor lamp.