Hello all,
So I picked up a pretty decent Mosin Nagant M44 a few days ago at my LGS. It didn't really have any cosmoline on it, but I thoroughly cleaned it anyways. Today I took it out to fire it for the first time, and had some problems with it. The first is that it is kind of hard to close the bolt on a round. It closes fine without a round in the chamber, but with one you have to apply a good bit of pressure to get it to close. The biggest issue is unlocking the bolt and extracting after firing. I guess it has a pretty bad case of sticky bolt syndrome, as I've heard some people call it. For a couple of rounds I had to hit the bolt handle against my shooting table just to get it unlocked.
Now I know it isn't a cosmoline problem. As I said it didn't really come with any anyways, but I dumped boiling water down the barrel before firing as a precaution. I have an idea as to what it is though. Every fired case has the same exact mark on them near the rim, and I'm thinking there is a metal bur on the mouth of the chamber that is shaving metal off the cases, and making them difficult to extract. I also tried just dropping a round in the chamber, but it didn't just drop right in, I had to push it with my finger to get it to chamber all the way, so there is definitely some resistance.
Now, I'm no stranger to mosins, I've had a 91/30 for a few years. It's just that the 91/30 came right out of the crate with an awesome action, so I didn't have to touch it at all. Since I didn't have to work on that one, I am not quite sure what the best methods are for fixing the problems I am having with this one. If it is fact a bur in the chamber, whats the best way to fix that? Also, if you guys have any general advice on how to make the action a little smoother, that would be great as well.
So I picked up a pretty decent Mosin Nagant M44 a few days ago at my LGS. It didn't really have any cosmoline on it, but I thoroughly cleaned it anyways. Today I took it out to fire it for the first time, and had some problems with it. The first is that it is kind of hard to close the bolt on a round. It closes fine without a round in the chamber, but with one you have to apply a good bit of pressure to get it to close. The biggest issue is unlocking the bolt and extracting after firing. I guess it has a pretty bad case of sticky bolt syndrome, as I've heard some people call it. For a couple of rounds I had to hit the bolt handle against my shooting table just to get it unlocked.
Now I know it isn't a cosmoline problem. As I said it didn't really come with any anyways, but I dumped boiling water down the barrel before firing as a precaution. I have an idea as to what it is though. Every fired case has the same exact mark on them near the rim, and I'm thinking there is a metal bur on the mouth of the chamber that is shaving metal off the cases, and making them difficult to extract. I also tried just dropping a round in the chamber, but it didn't just drop right in, I had to push it with my finger to get it to chamber all the way, so there is definitely some resistance.
Now, I'm no stranger to mosins, I've had a 91/30 for a few years. It's just that the 91/30 came right out of the crate with an awesome action, so I didn't have to touch it at all. Since I didn't have to work on that one, I am not quite sure what the best methods are for fixing the problems I am having with this one. If it is fact a bur in the chamber, whats the best way to fix that? Also, if you guys have any general advice on how to make the action a little smoother, that would be great as well.