I think Briansmithwins is referring to a condition in MoisnNagants known as 'Sticky Bolt" which is the result of a dirty/rusty chamber and especially with laquer'd cased ammo.
The rim of the cartridge is where the cartridge headspaces, and its up against the barrel with the extractor gripping it. While you are lifting the bolt the extractor is gripping the case rim and rotating in in form of primary extraction, loosening from the chamber. When you have the case stuck there, the extractor is dragging along the rim, with the last few degrees especially hard as the firing pin spring is comming to full compression.
The extractor in a Mauser dosent rotate with the bolt, and there is no drag in an odd angle for the hand, and when the same condition happens in a Mauser, a straight jerk to extract is physiclly easier, than the hinder'd upward lift motion of the Mosin.
Often, when shot with corrosive ammo, a person dosent wash out the primers salts that are sucking water from the air as they lay against the steel of the bore and chamber. Just overnight it is rusty. It was the same for most all Militarys till the 50-60's when most Western nations were using non corrosive priming.
Insted of a hammer/screwdriver, carry and use a cleaning kit.
Clean your bolt, and reciver, keep 'em both lightly lubed. I keep mine near polish'd and they were issued "bright" and were intended to be kept that clean. They found that blueing was a friction multiplier...
I pour boiling water down my barrel after every use. If Im in camp, I scrub and use soap if I have it, but boiling water to flush, the rod with muzzle cap, brush and more boiling hot water (Boiling so it drys itself in seconds) I may leave carbon if I only use water, but getting it dry is easy, and water totally dissolves and flushes all the rust making salts away.
I pay the chamber its own attention though witha serious scrub to eliminate all build up.
When I get home, I do a very thorough cleaning with brushes, patches, solvents and oils on metal and wood.
When I first buy a Mosin, I take brake cleaning fluid and scrub the chamber with a 20 gauge shotgun bore brush, some use gasoiline and a 20 gauge brush chuk'd onto a cordless drill, after removing the action from the stock.This gets rid of all those years of cosmo drying out, which can remain, nice and shiney, to glue your cases into the chamber after a couple preheating shots. Left over cosmo and laquer are some serious glues under pressures, and both only need to be a film in thickness. Clean bores will not allow anything to stick in the first place.
The Arsenal sent 'em out working, sighted and preserved for WW3, and they arrived here ready to shoot, after a REALLY GOOD CLEANING. Most survived a war or two, and the barrels were taken care of till they got to these shores.
Anyway, 7.62X54r is still being issed in armys everywhere, the milsurp is redily available an dthe guns are growing in value.
A couple hints; To work the safty, put the butt to the inner crook of your right elbow and then using your fingers , pull and twist easily enough.
Dont buy the bright steel "Triangle with a T", as they are Chinese fakes of Tikka made strippers, Chinese Army rejects, then stamped and sold here.
Get Russian, Finn, Bulgarian strippers , or the blued Chinese ones that their Mosin ammo is on. I use Bulgarian ones again and again as speed loaders.I keep 'em clean and lightly oiled.
