Is my Mosin Nagant barrel shot out?

BullpupSS

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I just recently bought a 1932 Hex receiver Mosin Nagant for $180. I have a standard Mosin Nagant also that I used to compare. But when I take an empty shell of the 7.62x54R and put the tip in the end of the barrel, it goes all the way in up to the neck of the shell and even has some wiggle room. On my 1938 round receiver Mosin, it doesn't even come close to getting inside the barrel. Let alone have wiggle room. I'm just wondering if they made the barrels open up towards the end on earlier models or something. I really hope the barrel isn't done for.
 
There's a chance that the barrel on your Mosin has been counter-bored. Most of the Mosins were worked over backed in the day by the Russian arsenals before they were packed away. Also, a lot of them had screwed up crowns on the muzzle from improper cleaning in the field.

The easiest way to fix a screwed up crown is to drill into the barrel down an inch or so until you get to good undamaged rifling.

If you look into the muzzle of your gun (after you safety check it), you should be able to see if the rifling goes all the way to the muzzle. If it doesn't, then your rifle has been counter-bored. If it does go all the way to the muzzle, then you might have problems.
 
If your rifle has been properly counterbored have no worries as it will shoot better than one with crown problems that has never been counterbored.
 
If it was counter bored you would see it.

Further check would be to take a bullet and gently drop it down the bore and see how far it goes. Measure the depth to the back of the bullet (I suspect its going to go a bit deeper than the neck distance.

The other check is on the back end and that would be to use an empty shell with a light neck tension and see how long the combo is before the bullet contact the lands.

If there is decent throat then you can decide to cut off or see if you can counter bore that far.

No idea if you really can counter bore down that far, but its likely if its that shot out the throat is gone and you have a wall hanger.
 
Just got a chance to shine a light down the barrel. The barrel looks completely fine. It's the last 3 or 4 inches of the barrel that is opened up a bit. Is that what counter boring looks like?
 
If it's 3-4", that could mean it's been counterbored multiple times. In that case I would say yes, your barrel is shot out.
 
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