old coat

S

salvadore

Moderator
My newly acquired yugo mauser's stock and metal have a light coating of preservative (cosmoline?) and I would like to know how to remove it in a timely and efficient manner. Thank you.
 
Oh, boy, you'll hear every which way to remove the cosmoline, from a simple mineral spirits wipe-down to baking in home-made ovens to power-washing it at the local car wash. It really depends on a couple of factors - how much cosmoline is sill on the rifle in question (the importers/resellers often remove most of it), how deeply it has soaked into the wood, and how much do you want to remove in case you want to re-work the finish. I'm a big believer in using only enough solvent/horsepower to get the job done, so I tend towards mineral spirits. Disassemble the rifle and bolt, and soak them in the spirits. Chances are the cosmoline will have soaked into the wood somewhat, and what you don't get out will re-appear on hot days. Some people will put them in black trash bags and sit them in the sun, wiping them down periodically.

My 24/47 had little cosmoline on it overall and very little soaked in. I cleaned everything extensively with spirits, and did a boiled linseed oil scrub on the stock, and it's clean enough for me.
 
I usually boil the metal parts in water to melt off the cosmoline and then oil them thoroughly afterwards.For stocks Ill either use mineral spirts or hang them near my wood stove for a few hours to weep the cosmoline out of the wood.
 
If you know someone who has a solvent tank, you can take the metal parts out and scrub them clean in the solvent. The wood is a different story. I have used mineral spirits or paint stripper to remove the gunge from the wood, then refinish.
 
I agree mineral spirits works well on wood and doesn't dry it out. If the wood is still dark I put it in a black plastic bag in my trunk on hot summer days and the heat bakes the oil out of the stock. It can take several days - if you have a really understanding wife you can use her stove
 
Thanks gang, the bag in the sun/trunk thingy was not practical due to current weather conditions (cold) and didn't want my small sauna to smell like mauser so used the oven cleaner method and worked as advertised. will sand and oil before reassembly. looks like the mineral spirits will clean up the metal although i did boil the bolt. Is this a great forum, or what?
 
where i live you just stick the stock outside for a few hours in a black bag in the summer, wipe it off, and its pretty much clean...
 
to the OP, the search function is your friend.

also, I use the bag in the sun with oven cleaner method (even in the cold weather a black bag in direct sunlight can get nice and warm).

otherwise I used to put my stripped down guns in the dishwasher ( am married now and wife would kill me if I did this) and they got nice and clean and lots of the dings were gone as well (it will remove cartouches also, so don't do this to a stock that is in somewhat decent shape).

another option is a kerosene or diesel bath and then the power washing method to rinse them clean.
 
mauser.jpg


Hey, everything cleaned up alright and I took it out today and ran a few rounds of czeck ammo through it. Offhand I was hitting a 3lb coffee can at 70 paces everytime. Pretty good considering how much trouble I was having seeing the sights (due to geezerdom). Has anyone here put a lyman or williams reciever sight on one of these...how do you remove the original rear sight?
 
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