Posted on 07/02/2010 11:56:10 AM PDT by JoeProBono
So I splurged and bought a 1939 Russian sniper rifle with sling, bayonet, ammo case, tool kit, etc. for $150 at a local gun shop.
The bolt sticks a bit, but I understand I must clean out the cosmoline, which is my next step. Found all kinds of advice on the subject on the Web. Any FReeper advice?
Stupidest thing I ever did was pass up a crate of 10 SKS’s with all the accessories and the Armorers logs for $500
Talk about hand em out to the neighbors if the **** hits the fan LoL
Everyone should own one LoL
I notice somebody already mentioned http://7.62x54r.net/
http://mosinnagant.net/ is also a good one.
The best way I’ve found to get cosmoline off of milsurp rifles is with plain old boiling water. Take the rifle out of the stock and down strip the bolt. Drop the small parts into a five gallon bucket.
Wipe/scrape as much of the excess grease as possible. Also, push a rod through the bore and get as much out as possible.
You’ll want gloves while your doing the rest of this because it’s HOT. With the small parts in the bucket, squirt some good grease cutting dish washing liquid (Dawn seems to work well) into the bucket. Then while holding the receiver/barrel over the bucket, pour boiling water over it. This pretty much melts the grease into the bucket, and the hot water falling into the bucket degreases the smaller parts as well. Make sure you coat the small parts in dish washing liquid so the melting grease doesn’t re-stick to them!
When you’re through, the rifle and small parts will be “relatively” grease free.
Watch out for a barrel that’s “counter bored”. This is where it was arsenal refurbed, and was determined to be worn, but not worth rebarreling “yet”. So they counter bore a section starting at the muzzle. One that I had was counterbored about an inch. It’s easy to tell if your rifle is counterbored. Just drop a 7.62x54 round into the barrel, pointy end first. IF it drops EASILY over the ogive of the bullet, then yours is counterbored. You’ll probably be able to see it with a light as well, and you can DEFINITELY tell if you’ve got a dial caliper with “inside” calipers.
I don’t understand everybody talking about recoil on the M91/30. I weight 150 lbs soaking wet and mine never bothered me. I had the long version, as well as a carbine, and both were comfortable to shoot. The long one was very, VERY accurate too!
One other “tidbit”... Russian military doctrine dictated that bayonets stayed FIXED on the rifles during use. They were zeroed in with the bayonet fixed as well. Most people discover that the rifle is horribly out of zero when they first fire it. But if you put the bayonet on it, zero will correct. We re-zeroed with the bayonet removed.
Anyway... now you’ve made me miss our M91/30s! :-)
A version of it waa. And you can find regular infantry rifles that have been converted to sniper configuration. I've fired one of those.
I did not find the recoil as fearsome as some here indicate. Nor the bark. Although both were substantial. Of course I was shooting hand loads, and those may have been downloaded some.
If it’s really a 1939, is it possible that it was rebuilt by the Finns? Mine is a 1939 and only the bolt action was used from an old 91/30. The barrel, stock and other parts are all Finnish and it shoots like a dream. The Finns even called it the M39. They took them from dead frozen Russians and accurized them at Sako and Tikka. Then they used them to make more dead frozen Russians.
Excellent! And true, thanks.
I forgot to add... a friend of mine bought a 91/30 and he had the sticking bolt problem. I did some searching around on-line and the word was that it was caused by a build-up in the chamber...which heated into a glue-like mess when a case was fired, thus sticking the case to the chamber and making extraction difficult. The fix was to take a chamber brush, attach it to a drill, and scrub the chamber.
We did this and it FIXED his sticking bolt problem!
interesting ping
I liked the dragoon so much, it had a lot more character than the re-arsenaled 1930-1940 dated Mosins, that I then decided to go with “one from each decade”
So now I have one dated 1899, 1905, 1914, etc. Also, the proper Mosin collection really must have a Remington and a New England Westinghouse. I have bastardized versions of each. Included in those I have several Finn models and an Austrian AZF capture. Not really looking for them, but just came across them. There's tons of information about Mosins, markings and styles, it is a fun little hobby to get into. I also started collecting Soviet propaganda posters that have Mosins in them, you can replicas of those on ebay for about $10-15 each. Search "Soviet posters" and you'll see them.
"If tomarrow war"
Don't have a sniper though. There just seem like there's something wrong about paying more than a hundred or two for a Mosin.
Yah, or a russian army style greatcoat. Don't pad the butt, you might need to crack some fascist boneheads.
There is a slip on jell pad available that works well. The Pachmyer slip on pad (size small) works good also. The bayonet really does work well for shish kabob....Proven technology.
Simple Green is great on cosmoline.......tear the rifle down and scrub in a bucket or tupperware shallow tub with a good brush . You can put the action in a deep bucket of it and run your brush on a rod down the muzzle end (use a bore guide) and the simple green will get pulled up into the chamber, barrel and action really well.......
Albeit inflation added my best cheap buy was a 96 Mauser in 6.5x55 that was cut down / shortened to a carbine length yet was not sporterized if that makes sense. all the hardware was replaced on front end to resemble a mannlicher style rifle. It was very well done by a local hammer monkey for me.
Paid 44 dollars for it then added a tasco 6-18X Cheapie scope that cost me 18$ at a big box store. Added a uncle mikes stock sock spare ammo carrier for 9 extra rounds and a neoprene sling.
The bell on the scope was too big so I had to remove the rear ladder sights and the bell fit perfectly in the recess where said ladder sights were ........
Worked up a load for it after a super cleaning and treatment with militec 1 etc THAT is my deer rifle now !
Old rifles rule !!!
I also own a Krag Carbine in 30 army aka 30-40 Krag that was my grandfathers. The action on it is so smooth it is scary.
There ya go then, LMAO !!
......honestly the simple green will clean out the cosmoline very fast and safe and cheap !
Nite Joe !
Nite Squantos
I own 6 of these bad boys. They’re addicting as hell to collect.
For cosmo, you have some options. I prefer Purple Power (find at your local auto parts store) and some elbow grease. Spray and let it soak for an hour or so, then take an old toothbrush and some scrap cloth and go to work.
I’ve also “baked” it out. Set your oven to ~250-300 degrees, get an old baking sheet and put the stock into the oven. Get permission from the wife first, as this will likely get messy, and keep the heat low to prevent burning the stock or starting a fire.
Finally, denatured alcohol works well, but you need to work quick with it. If it soaks into the stock, you’ll dry out the wood and increase the chance of cracking while at the range. If it’s caked on, this option works to get a few layers off, but I prefer to go denatured alcohol, then purple power, then bake it to get any deep cosmo out.
Get used to it if you’re going to collect. I’ve had it on every milsurp C&R rifle I’ve purchased. Also, do not try to re-lacquer the stock. Collectors value the M91 for the deep red color of the stocks. I had a hex bolt M91 sniper with Tula armory markings that I put on a stock I stripped and re-lacquered with a light maple, and I couldn’t get $100 for it.
Oh, and with the M91, consider looking at poly stocks. There are a lot of options, the poly stock is sturdy, and it makes the rifle look pretty badass. I always get questions at the range when I bring my poly shorty out. Invest in earplugs.
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