Can you strip a Mosin Nagant M91/30 bolt

In theory, yes.
Remove bolt. Decock. And the front bits all slide off the firing pin.

However...

Mine and another that I've been 'intimate with' have the striker / firing pin peened in place on the cocking piece.
So disassembling the back half of the bolt (bolt body, cocking piece, firing pin, and firing pin spring), or making a firing pin adjustment, are not happening without some mechanical assistance. (Pliers, vise, etc.)
 
Yes, they were. If you watch that video to the end he shows you how to check the firing pin distance with the tool that was issued with the rifle.
 
That Iraqi Veteran video was interesting, and I am impressed that his result could be obtained from such a simple mechanism.

4v50 Gary said:
Would anyone know if the average Soviet soldier was taught this?
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I think you'd need to narrow that down by period. In the pre-revolutionary era, an era during which ammunition could be scarce, bolt stripping seems like something a soldier would pick up even if it weren't part of formal instruction. Ditto for the 20s when the reds were liquidating internal opposition and consolidating power. During parts of WWII, I doubt that there was any formal training of many of the lads pressed into a very short service.

I've known a couple of fellows who served as armorers in US service. Their philosophy seems to be that the people to whom they issue weapons aren't smart enough to do anything but cleaning, and they view with a gimlet eye any user improvement or fiddling. It's hard to imagine that someone born in the 1920s living under soviet government and whose formative experience being escape from starvation would enjoy greater trust from their armourers.
 
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I disassembled mine the same way the Slymin video does it, except when getting close to finishing unscrewing the firing pin, I'd have the FP in contact with a table so it wouldn't go flying off when unscrewed.
 
I've known a couple of fellows who served as armorers in US service. Their philosophy seems to be that the people to whom they issue weapons aren't smart enough to do anything but cleaning, and they view with a gimlet eye any user improvement or fiddling.
Click to expand...

And, with good reason. Because we're the guys who have to fix things when "user improvements" break them, or otherwise render them unserviceable.

If "the lads" are allowed to tinker, things that would otherwise be working get bent, broken and often LOST, rendering a formerly serviceable piece of equipment unusable, and in extreme cases only useful for some spare parts.

There are valid reasons why "users" are only allowed to disassemble items to certain points, AND NO FURTHER. I understand, getting things clean enough to satisfy one's superiors can be a real PITA without being able to take certain things apart. Been there, done that, etc.

BUT, lose one little pin (say the one that holds the extractor..) and your rifle is now useful only for holding the bayonet on the end. Don't put that lower group (that you weren't authorized to take apart anyway) back together CORRECTLY, and you could have anything from one that goes full auto when it feels like it, to one that is non-functional or both, in that order.

Got any idea how many M1 Carbines wound up needing repair because of the BS barracks rumor that, to improve the rifle, "all you need to do to get full auto is file the shear pin"??? (just one example, among many)

The scene in Enemy at the Gates where the raw conscripts (recruits isn't the right word) were given rifles to every other guy and the odd guy got only a clip of ammo weren't the norm, but they did happen. Those guys almost certainly didn't get trained on proper bolt take down and maint, until after the battle, if they survived..

The Soviet system wasn't big on teaching anything that wasn't needed to get the immediate job done, and when in emergency mode, more than a bit less so...

Some troops got full training, other's ...not so much...
 
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