Picked up my first Mosin, newb startup and safety questions

[Bluesman]

I picked up a 1935 octagonal mosin "in the box" with bayonet and accessories in good to very good condition I would say.

I have a few questions.

I have been doing a bit of reading online and it looks like cleaning the chamber with a 20 gauge brush in my drill with some solvent is job number one.

Second thing I am wondering about is how to gauge the safety of this 80 year old rifle. Do I need to do a headspace check or some other safety checks to be sure it is safe? Do the importers have to put the rifles through any such quality control checks??

I need to find a cheap supply decent ammo and maybe some workable stripper clips.

Should I be worried about using old milsurp ammo and issues like "hangfires" and things like that?

Any other words of wisdom??

 

[flintoid]

I wouldn't worry about head spacing if your rifle is a matching serial# rifle... but then again I could be wrong.

As far as the stripper clips go, I've heard that US made ones are terrible and that the only reliable ones that are decently accessible are the ones found in Bulgarian spam cans of milsurp ammo. I haven't found any (yet) in my cans, so maybe I'll luck out down the road.

I wouldn't worry a bit about using milsurp ammo. The rifle was meant to gobble it up. Just be sure to clean it right after shooting as milsurp ammo tends to be corrosive. And it goes bang most every time (except when shot through my PSL, sometimes I have light primer strikes, but very rarely).

and congrats on the rifle! They are addictive.... be sure to check out 7.62x54r.net. There you can find more answers to future questions you might have down the road. Very informative site!

 

[55_grain]

1. Take the bolt fully apart and make sure there's no dried-up cosmo in it.
2. The teardrop-shaped tool that came in your kit is for measuring the firing pin protrusion - it should be bigger than the "75" opening, and smaller than the "95" opening.

Get a couple flavors of com-block surplus ammo, and find what your gun likes. Heavy ball (~180gr) will shoot closer to point of aim; light ball (~150gr) will shoot higher.
I dunno your location, but there were lots of 440-count spam cans at this weekend's show in Marlborough MA, so there's still plenty out there. All the mil-surp is corrosive, even when the gun-store guy says it's not.

+1 on 7.62x54.net

55_grain

 

[mac1911]

I am a newbie also just got mine a while back........7.62x54r.net can cause very late nights reading
+1 on the strip down of the bolt and the entire gun for that matter, ny gun was pretty darn clean...until I read on 7.62x54r.net what my cleaning kit and tool can do. My bolt had some crusty gunk in side the fire pin area.
My barrel looked really good when I got it. Then I cleaned it.....my god, the copper fouling in this thing was un real. I used sweets 7.62 cleaner. It is what they had on hand locally..barrel still looks nice
My trigger area and the area up and around the disconect??? was all gumed up with what looked like a combo of shelac and hardened dried up white lube.

After ruining a yugo sks with corrosive ammo, I clean all my guns I run surplus ammo through like it is corrosive, even my garand with the greek ammo!
Also the clips I managed to find dont work well at all. The time I load them on the clip then struggle to get it to work, I would have them loaded by hand already.

good luck, I got mine out for the first time sunday @ 100yrds with romanian spam can ammo I was aiming @ 6 Oclock on the black ring of my target and hitting on average 6" high, I did seem to get a larger drift L and R could have been just me. I was just shooting off my range bag and it was also cold out. My eyes also had a bit of trouble with the sights.

 

[USMA-82]

Also the clips I managed to find dont work well at all. The time I load them on the clip then struggle to get it to work, I would have them loaded by hand already.

One question - did you overlap the rims inside the clip? Realize these are rimmed cartridges, and can easily get hung up on each other unless you load them in the clip correctly.

 

[Bluesman]

I checked the fireing pin and all OK., and will give it a good cleaning tomorrow especially the bore and chamber. The bot is really clean.

Does anyone have some headspace gauges that would work for my gun in the boston area? I would like to be able to check it out before I shoot it.

It is a 1932 M 91/30 Soviet IZHEVSK with matching numbers imported by CAI

 

[mac1911]

USMA-82 My problem lies in the fact that the rounds just wont start into the mag, I can load the clip and with no effort at all push them right through. install loaded clip into clip quide and nogo.

 

[martin08]

Again, the likelihood of needing to check headspace on a matching bolt Mosin is nearly negligble.

All other checks that you have made sound like you have covered the bases, with the exception of cleanining out the bolt. This is a very easy process. With the bolt out of the rifle, pull the rear knob back and turn counter clockwise. It will disassemble in your hand. Clean up and reassemble.

These military legends were meant to take some punishment, they are overdesigned even for the pressures of the X54 cartridge. Many, many of these century old (plus!) rifles can be fired daily without incident. And I suspect for a few more lifetimes to come. So, if the bolt locks down onto a round in the chamber, aim carefully in a safe directon, secure tightly to your shoulder..... enjoy the thunderous blast. KABRRRAAHHOOOOOOMMMMmmmmm......... (echo, echo)

 

[flintoid]

Does anyone have some headspace gauges that would work for my gun in the boston area? I would like to be able to check it out before I shoot it.

if you are that worried, http://yankeeengineers.com/ and pay $32

 

[lupis42]

USMA-82 My problem lies in the fact that the rounds just wont start into the mag, I can load the clip and with no effort at all push them right through. install loaded clip into clip quide and nogo.

My '53 M44 is fairly awkward to load from strippers too. I'm assuming that there's just a knack to it.

 

[vicpinto]

When I got my mosin the barrel was copper fould bad. After pulling out 20 plus patches I gave up. Take it for what it is - a 60 plus year old rifle. Take it to the range. Shoot it. Have fun.

 

[Bluesman]

I ordered a field gauge or ebay for 20 bucks. Hoping to get it this week so I can shoot this weekend!! I cleaned the crap out of it this weekend and I was suprized how clean it was, almost zero cosmo. I did get some crap out of the bore but I only used Hoppes, I would like to find some copper cleaner like you used MACK so I can really get the crap out of the bore.

 

[GLOCK.Perfection]

Does anyone have some headspace gauges that would work for my gun in the boston area? I would like to be able to check it out before I shoot it.

for the first shot just close your eyes, turn your head, bench rest, and shoot with your non dominant hand.

 

[Bluesman]

LOL, I was thinking the same thing!

 

[George D]

I have the Brownells go/no go gauges in metrowest.

 

[Bluesman]

Thanks George for the offer I really appreciate it, but I was able to get one and checked out the Rifle and all is good, I hope to shoot this weekend. I guess I need to figure out how to clean it after shooting next! I am thinking some windex on a patch at the range, but I am not sure how to do a deep cleaning later, I have heard that I should use boilg water?

 

[SKS Ray]

Thanks George for the offer I really appreciate it, but I was able to get one and checked out the Rifle and all is good, I hope to shoot this weekend. I guess I need to figure out how to clean it after shooting next! I am thinking some windex on a patch at the range, but I am not sure how to do a deep cleaning later, I have heard that I should use boilg water?

I use really hot water because it heats up the metal and makes it easier to dry before cleaning with standard cleaners.

There are lots of different ways people clean after shooting corrosive ammo and you'll read many different methods here: http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/showthread.php/6140-Corrosive-ammo-clean-up-tools

 

[Bluesman]

Took the gun to the range and it was a blast to shoot, my son really enjoyed it as well. Now I need to go back with some alone time and really sight it in