I have been slowly collecting mil-surp firearms for a few years now and my collection has gone from pitiful to semi-pitiful. This is by far the cheapest pick up I have made. I can't believe I did not do this sooner. I may just have to pick up another. My father and brother want one each for them as well. We are also going to possibly pick one up for my six year old nephew and put it back for him until he is 12 or so and let it pick up some value and make it a hunting rifle one day.
Anyways...
I picked up a MN 91/30 from AIM surplus (they rock) as well as 880 rounds of ammo. It is as filthy as can be. Anyone want to volunteer to clean it up? I snapped some photos of top of the receiver and the ammo. I now look towards the experts here to help me identify it.
It was hard to get a good shot of the markings on the rifle since they are so shallow and so dark
Here are some shots of the rifle with the receiver and as a bonus a beauty of a pistol that I purchased and picked up today.
If I could get some help identifying the arsenal that made the rifle as well as the date I would appreciate that.
I do see that it says 1942 so I am taking that as the year of manufacturer. I can't tell if it is electro stenciled or not but I am going to take that as the true year of manufacturer.
I was hoping for one from the 1930s but I will take this one too. And with these prices I may order 1-2 more and see if I can nab a 30's one.
I know that after the summer of 41 that they began to cut corners on the rifles to get them out the door faster and into the hands of new conscripts.
Location: washington in a van down by the skagit river
Posts: 1,930
Welcome go the club jhenry. A good web site for you to look up is 7.62x54r.net lots of good info. Half the fun of these guns are finding out about them. You have been warned, you have now been exposed to a condition called mosinitis. It is uncurable and there is no help fighting it. Ha ha Good luck.
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I got two guns one for the each of ya
I got a '43 Izhevsk from AIM about three weeks ago. Keep an eye out to see when they get more hex recievers in. I got one from AIM a couple of years ago and got a nice 1934 Tula.
Don't think of it as filthy. Keep telling yourself that cosmoline is your friend. It is what gave you a nice WWII vintage firearm instead of a rusted sewer pipe!
I got a '43 Izhevsk from AIM about three weeks ago. Keep an eye out to see when they get more hex recievers in. I got one from AIM a couple of years ago and got a nice 1934 Tula.
Don't think of it as filthy. Keep telling yourself that cosmoline is your friend. It is what gave you a nice WWII vintage firearm instead of a rusted sewer pipe!
Oh I have no problem with cosmoline. I have tangled with it on several occasions now and have it down to an art form.
I dunk all of the metal parts in an aluminum pan of mineral spirits for 12 hours or so and then scrub them with Simple Green to 10 parts water with cotton pads.
The stocks get taken to my parents house and get a quick wipe down with Murpheys Wood Soap and then placed in their indoor sauna at 150 F and taken out every 20 minutes to wipe down the cosmoline. The dry heat bleeds the gunk right out of the wood.
Then I take them out and give them another Wood Soap wipe down followed by a liberal application of lemon oil.
The stocks usually come out a few shades lighter when all is said and down.
The final step is wiping down the metal pieces with a light oil and the un-blued pieces get a rub down and polish with some Brasso until they shine.
Then it is time for reassmbly and the bolts get Mil Comm grease and the triggers get oil.
All in all it takes about 12 hours over the course of two days but has been really successful so far.
One question though. On my new rifle their appears to be some pieces that look like copper? There is one near the front sight and another is front of the first band around the barrel. Both look like exposed copper that has tarnished. I am not sure how to go about cleaning those parts. Will the mineral spirits hurt copper?
Good SKS price. I have not found any recently for below $400. I just might have to pick one of those up.
I was way too young to have gotten one in the 90s when they were below $100
Another question, why are Tula MN more desirable? In all of my reading there has been nothing to indicate that they are any less well made.
Welcome to the Mosin Men, jhenry. Please note there is a sticky at the top of the Mosin Nagant Forum here that tells you how to get cosmoline off a military surplus rifle.
You can also do it with nothing more than boiling water, as witness this thread:
Welcome. I'm a newbie to Mosins as well. These guys will fill you in on all you need to know. The only thing they can't do is cure Mosinitus. In fact, I'm pretty sure they make it worse!
Hello again guys and girls. I have been doing some thinking today and I looked over my rifle again more closely. I have decided since this is a 42 model that I am going to purchase another one soon and hope for a pre-war rifle. As such I am going to clean this one up tomorrow and may do some very light modifications. I am going to ask a question and hope I don't take any grief over it if it is a terrible idea.
My idea is taking all of the metal parts and stripping the bluing from them so that they look close to the same color/shine as the bolt.
I am by no means a firearms expert or anywhere close. But I do know that most mil-surp firearms used fairly cheap carbon steel and then coated it with the bluing. I know that the bluing is used on carbon steel to prevent rust.
If I do indeed go this route with the weapon I will need to treat the steel somehow (if that is even possible)
How would I go about doing this?
Hello again guys and girls. I have been doing some thinking today and I looked over my rifle again more closely. I have decided since this is a 42 model that I am going to purchase another one soon and hope for a pre-war rifle. As such I am going to clean this one up tomorrow and may do some very light modifications. I am going to ask a question and hope I don't take any grief over it if it is a terrible idea.
My idea is taking all of the metal parts and stripping the bluing from them so that they look close to the same color/shine as the bolt.
I am by no means a firearms expert or anywhere close. But I do know that most mil-surp firearms used fairly cheap carbon steel and then coated it with the bluing. I know that the bluing is used on carbon steel to prevent rust.
If I do indeed go this route with the weapon I will need to treat the steel somehow (if that is even possible)
How would I go about doing this?
Or is this an all around terrible idea?
I'm a stickler for what's yours is yours, do with it what pleases you. I've seen a few rifles stripped of the blue and sanded and polished to look like stainless. They looked awesome. Can't remember the site but it was a mosin. The guy had treated it with something but I'm not sure what. I would like to have one to tinker with this way. His looked like a brand new old rifle. It had a boyds thumbhole laminate stock and a nice silver scope. It was sweet. If you're using a 91/30 I don't see the problem. I'll probably hear different from someone but that's my opinion. Once my collection reaches the plan I have for it, I want a few sporterized mosins as well and one of em i'd like to have polished and slipped into a new stock from Boyds. As far as the scope... idk, i kinda like the mosin without one. I want to see pics if you do this!
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Gun Clerk: "So which Mosins you buyin' today?
Me: "Hmmm.... I like them all!"
Success! I got it completely apart besides those tricky leaf springs and gave it a very very through cleaning. The sauna worked very very well. I baked the stock and top handguard piece for 5 hours at 150 F and that seemed to bleed out a good bit of the cosmoline. Each time I gave it a paper towel wipe down their seemed to be less and less cosmoline on the towels.
I imagine that all of the cosmoline will never come off. That is just a fact of a mil-surp shooters life.
Putting it back together was a bit of a challenge. I am not the least bit mechanically inclined. My family makes fun of me for it all the time. Getting it apart was not too bad. But after a few hours and lots and lot of internet searching I managed to get it back together. The bolt was the hardest part as I was terrified of getting the firing pin the least bit off.
My brother came over about 6 and wanted to shoot his new pistol and my new pistol and wanted to shoot the MN. We finished assembling the last bits of the rifle and it was past 7 when we got it together.
Common sense should have told us that it was past dark and we should have waited until Sunday. But after all that work I just had to see if it would even fire.
So we ditched the pistols for Sunday daylight and grabbed the rifle and filled an ammo pouch with 10 rounds.
About 7:30 we made it outside and I loaded in the first round. I figured we would do it one round at a time in case of mishap.
I loaded it up, said clear and found a target down range. I did not even really care if I hit it or not. I just wanted to make sure it was going to fire.
I pulled the trigger and sure enough. A satisfying loud thunder crack and a nice flash of flame from the barrel. I also received a nice solid kick to my collar bone.
I have heard stories of the MNs legendary recoil. Everything from throwing your shoulder out of socket to being described as not that bad.
I am of average size. 5'11 and 175 lbs. I would label it in the middle of the two extremes. It is enough of a kick to where you know you have shot a high powers full length cartridge rifle. You feel it for a few minutes afterwards. But is certainly not enough to cause serious pain.
I am by no means an experienced shooter but do have some decent experience with a variety of calibers. I have shot a .338 Lapua Magnum bullpup rifle and I would label that experience in the shoulder dislocation category.
My brother then put three rounds through the rifle and I put another single shot through it.
Tomorrow we are going to take the pistols with us and also the rifle and hopefully put a lot more rounds through it and actually see if we can get what we are aiming at.
I do feel very proud of myself though. I managed to take down and clean a 80 year old rifle and then put it back together and successfully and safely fire it.
I love my new $70 investment.
I am already wanting another one. Maybe a carbine? And my brother is going to order one this upcoming week. Maybe we can have a family cosmoline cleaning party.
Put 60 rounds though it today at 50 yards. I don't have a terribly good place to shoot a rifle so we had to do the best we could. A lot of fun to shoot. Recoil is very manageable. Accuracy was pretty good using standard iron sights. Definitely worth the investment. Things should get more fun once I find a good rifle range locally. East TN has a lot of pistol ranges but not as many good rifle ranges.
MAN, He is totally infected pluse he infected his family. jhenry88, the only thing you MUST NEVER, NEVER do is call it a Nagant. this will bring down the wrath of GANNIE on you
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I snapped some photos of top of the receiver and the ammo. I now look towards the experts here to help me identify it. 
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