Recently I bought a mosin at my local gunshop, I couldn't resist getting one seeing as they had an entire box of them all for $135. I picked the one that I thought had the smoothest bolt and decent wood. The employee who sold it to me also informed me that it had never been issued, which is a bonus. Anyways, after thoroughly cleaning off the massive amounts of cosmoline, I decided to go test it out in my back yard range. I noticed that ONLY when I feed a round into the chamber, I have a hard time closing the bolt on the round. If there is no round in the chamber, the bolt is as smooth as butter... That's the only problem really, I have no problems with opening the bolt and extracting the round. I know when you close the bolt on a round though, the extractor claw grabs onto the rim of the round, so maybe it's a problem with that? Im not sure. Any ideas on what might be causing this and how I can fix it?
Mosin Nagant bolt problem
- Thread starter SC4006
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Polish Space Marine
Inactive
3rd on the dried up cosmoline. What type of Nagant was it? If they were selling M91/30s for $135 that's a bit overpriced, but if it was a M44 then you got a good price.
tahunua001
New member
what type of ammo are you using? some rifles have tight chambers and the bulgarian surplus ammo does not do well in some of them. as stated you may also still have some dried cosmoline in your chamber. when I bought my mosins I threw them both in the bath tub with the hottest water that my heater could muster, after about 5 minutes in there I ran dry patches down the barrel and used a 45 cal brush on the chamber, I don't have that problem with either of mine.
also I hate to break it to you but there is no paper trail for mosin nagants so there is no way of knowing which rifles were issued and which ones weren't. many of these rifles were crude at best but they are robust enough that it doesn't really matter if they were issued or not. they pretty much all age the same.
also I hate to break it to you but there is no paper trail for mosin nagants so there is no way of knowing which rifles were issued and which ones weren't. many of these rifles were crude at best but they are robust enough that it doesn't really matter if they were issued or not. they pretty much all age the same.
actually $135-150 is about average. there were 3 91/30s at the last gun show I went to, they were all priced at $190+ the age of $80 mosins is well and truly over, I'm sorry to say.
Polish Space Marine
Inactive
Really? Aimsurplus sells them for $100, and ones with hex receivers for I $120. Most people are still able to get them for under $130 from what I hear.
tahunua001
New member
add $25 for shipping and handling and an additional $25 for FFL Transfer fees for the 99% of us that do not have a C&R license.
now it's a $150 dollar rifle.
you can try to rationalize it anyway you want but at the end of the day your wallet has still barfed up the same amount of cash whether it's $150 out the door at the LGS or $100+25+25 from an online dealer.
now it's a $150 dollar rifle.
you can try to rationalize it anyway you want but at the end of the day your wallet has still barfed up the same amount of cash whether it's $150 out the door at the LGS or $100+25+25 from an online dealer.
Polish Space Marine
Inactive
From the forums I've browsed most of the people got Mosin-Nagants recently for under $150. Most of the people say that if you purchase it for more than $130 and it's not a Hex-receiver M91/30 then you're getting ripped off.
Thanks for the replies. I should have mentioned that it is indeed a 91/30, from 1939 (Don't know if the year affects anything). The ammo I am currently using is definitely surplus, not sure where it is from exactly though... I think it is russian milsurp ammo. As for the cosmoline, i disassembled the entire thing, and soaked all the small parts in mineral spirits for a day, and sprayed brake degreaser all over the inside and outside and wiped everything down pretty good. Maybe I should do it again?
Polish Space Marine
Inactive
See if you can cycle the bolt, if not then repeat what you did.
tahunua001
New member
the year really does not matter all that much with 91/30s. the main differentiation are hexagonal receivers and round receivers, HEX are more sought after but there is nothing wrong with the round receivers, just more of them around I guess. if you bathed it in mineral spirits then a second time will probably yield very little. I would recommend buying a box of modern production ammo, wolf isn't too much more expensive than surplus anymore so it would be a nice control group. if it works fine then the ammo is just oversized, if it is still a tight fit then you either have poor head spacing or still gunk in the chamber, either way you know it's a problem with the gun or ammo.
GreaseMonkey4Hire
Inactive
I have 4 mosins in total and all 4 respond in a similar fashion to a loaded chamber. I beleive this to be normal. All 4 of mine have the correct head spacing but are still a bit hard to close.
I feel that MNs have their own personalities. My Dads bolt is really easy to open but mine is hard. I have spend a lot of time cleaning that chamber and still no difference. I'm gonna have to do some buffing to get it to smooth out.
Regarding the price you paid. Don't let anyone bother you, they are going up in cost. I think it mainly has to do with everyone wanting one because they are so cheap. Price goes up with demand. I did see though that Big 5 had them for $110 on Black Friday. May still be at that price..??
Anyway when I bought mine bout 2.5 years ago I think it was around $90 at Big 5.
May try sticking the receiver in a pot of boiling water to get all the cosmoline out.
Regarding the price you paid. Don't let anyone bother you, they are going up in cost. I think it mainly has to do with everyone wanting one because they are so cheap. Price goes up with demand. I did see though that Big 5 had them for $110 on Black Friday. May still be at that price..??
Anyway when I bought mine bout 2.5 years ago I think it was around $90 at Big 5.
May try sticking the receiver in a pot of boiling water to get all the cosmoline out.
Polish Space Marine
Inactive
I like to believe that Mosin-Nagants are powered by tiny Soviets who still don't know that the motherland is fallen and that the rifle is being used against the "fascist pigs".
Pre-war production will generally have better "fit and finish" than WWII era .... mine is a '43 Izzy.... amd looks as if the the reciever was chiseled out of a block of Stalin with a spoon .... It shoots OK......
I paid 99dollars for mine..... If you paid 300, you got a steal, as they are not making any more Mosins.... and they are burning up the presses printing more dollars...... hell, they don't even bother printing them up anymore, mostly: they add them to the money supply electronicly, millions and billions at a time, and call it "Quantatative Easing III", yet deny that they are monetizing the ntional debt. You won't even be able to paper your walls or wipe your behind with those electronic fictions in ten years. You'll still have that Mosin, and it will still go bang, if you can feed it.
I paid 99dollars for mine..... If you paid 300, you got a steal, as they are not making any more Mosins.... and they are burning up the presses printing more dollars...... hell, they don't even bother printing them up anymore, mostly: they add them to the money supply electronicly, millions and billions at a time, and call it "Quantatative Easing III", yet deny that they are monetizing the ntional debt. You won't even be able to paper your walls or wipe your behind with those electronic fictions in ten years. You'll still have that Mosin, and it will still go bang, if you can feed it.
Yeah I guess I shouldn't expect my mosin to function as smoothly as a modern day bolt action.. I did try cleaning the chamber out again though and it did seem to help a little with closing the bolt, it's not like it took a mallet to close the bolt in the first place though lol, it was just fairly stiff.