Firing heavy ball from the rifle poses no problems. 2 Weeks ago, at the range, I saw someone else with a M44 and Bulgarian ammo - his bolt go stuck to the point that we had to slam it with a piece of wood from the bench to get it to open.
I have several cans of Hungarian light ball and it loads/fires/ejects without a single hitch. I got mine from: AIM Hungarian 7.62x54RH 147grn Light Ball Hungarian 7.62x54RH 147grn Light Ball
Give it a shot. It is cleaner than the bulgarian stuff, IMO, but you will still have to clean pretty good afterwards, and don't shoot with a white shirt on. Lot's of oil and cosmo will blow back on you
heheheh I'll refer folks to this post when they laugh at me when they see the 4ft length of 2x4 in the rifle case next to the M44!
First time I bought a spam can of ammo, it took me about 10 minutes to figure out how to open it. When I finally figured it out I had to ask myself "How the heck would you open one of these if you were out of ammo and someone is shooting at you???"
I have heard lots of people complain about the bolt sticking on their Mosins, but I have never had any trouble shooting Wolf or Romanian Ball.
I cut my box open with a angle grinder, couldn't cut it with a chisel.
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Hello to all this is my first post. I have had trouble with copper washed steal case ammo sticking. I have found the rough surface of the washed case sticks in some chambers. I fire ten or so then sticking begins and a quick clean helps. I mostly use Hungarian light ball from the seventies that are laquered steal case no problems ever after 1000+ rnds fired. A gunsmith tells me that a polished chamber will clear up the sticking problem. The Bulgarian Heavy Ball in brass case from AIM looks great and a trip to the range will soon show how well it shoots for me. So far I have only shot mil/surp and have no feedback on factory new ammo. As far as openning the spam cans I use a pair of pliers and twist the pull tab until open. I was lucky with the last can and it had the ring still on the pull strap, although it took a stout pull with a rocking motion.
... If the bolt sticks, as it typically does when using steel (and to a lesser degree brass) cased MilSurp, manually cock it before cycling the spent round. It may still resist a little but will cycle without the proverbial 2 x 4.
Bulgarian brass MilSurp is about .002" larger in diameter at the rim and the neck (before the taper) than Igman, Winchester, and Wolf Gold. (i just measured these today). I also noticed that after about 40 rounds that the Bulgarian started to stick a little, now I know why.
Scrubbing the chamber with a 12 Ga cleaning brush on a drill should help minimize the problem by removing hardened cosmolene in the breech.
Disassemble before cleaning. Then, with the barrell, muzzel down, in a bucket:
Slowly pour boiling water down the breech to get the barrel hot enough to soften up the cosmolene. Then I use a healthy dose of Dawn Power Desolver (available at Wal-Mart) sprayed in the breech and then run the 12 ga brush in breifly just to spread it around. Then let it set for about 15-20 minutes.
Now, run the 12 ga brush up and down in the breech (on a power drill) for about 30 seconds, followed by more boiling water to flush, then repeat the brush and flush a couple more times. Then run some dry patches and then normal bore cleaning/lube (Hoppes or whatever).
You should now have a very clean breech and less sticking problems. If not you may want to check on polishing the breech with a .410 mop and jewelers ruge.
Last edited by Geo M44; 04-16-2007 at 02:02 PM.
Reason: spelling
I figure anyone can retire anytime they wish... it all just depends on how you want to retire. If you want to live comfortably in the middle of the city, then you'll likely not retire until much later in life. But, if you want to retire on a remote piece of land in a house you built yourself in an area you grow/raise your own food, you can likely retire rather soon.
...which means I'll be retiring rather late in life.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Geo M44
A little trick...
... If the bolt sticks, as it typically does when using steel (and to a lesser degree brass) cased MilSurp, manually cock it before cycling the spent round. It may still resist a little but will cycle without the proverbial 2 x 4.
Bulgarian brass MilSurp is about .002" larger in diameter at the rim and the neck (before the taper) than Igman, Winchester, and Wolf Gold. (i just measured these today). I also noticed that after about 40 rounds that the Bulgarian started to stick a little, now I know why.
Scubbing the chamber with a 12 Ga cleaning brush on a drill should help minimize the problem by removing hardened cosmolene in the breech.
Disassemble before cleaning. Then, with the barrell, muzzel down, in a bucket:
Slowly pour boiling water down the breech to get the barrel hot enough to soften up the cosmolene. Then I use a healthy dose of Dawn Power Desolver (available at Wal-Mart) sprayed in the breech and then run the 12 ga brush in breifly just to spread it around. Then let it set for about 15-20 minutes.
Now, run the 12 ga brush up and down in the breech (on a power drill) for about 30 seconds, followed by more boiling water to flush, then repeat the brush and flush a couple more times. Then run some dry patches and then normal bore cleaning/lube (Hoppes or whatever).
You should now have a very clean breech and less sticking problems. If not you may want to check on polishing the breech with a .410 mop and jewelers ruge.
Now, run the 12 ga brush up and down in the breech (on a power drill) for about 30 seconds, followed by more boiling water to flush, then repeat the brush and flush a couple more times. Then run some dry patches and then normal bore cleaning/lube (Hoppes or whatever).
You should now have a very clean breech and less sticking problems. If not you may want to check on polishing the breech with a .410 mop and jewelers ruge.
Please tell us more about how you use the .410 mop and jeweller's rouge and an electric drill to polish the chamber and the breech. I'm particularly interested in how you get the roughe onto the mop from the rougestick I've seen it in before now.
Cheap gun, cheap ammo= a whole lot of fun, and I've never had a Mosin quit on me. The Russians weren't really into making guns that didn't work.
The Finnish Army's modern sniping rifles are still built around Mosin Nagant receivers, some of which are antiques from the 1890's. Show me any other current-issue military weapon where the core mechanism might be over a hundred years old...
As others have noted, the problem isn't with the quality of the gun or the ammo; the problem is fifty years of cosmoline soaking into the chamber combined with the lacquer.
Please tell us more about how you use the .410 mop and jeweller's rouge and an electric drill to polish the chamber and the breech. I'm particularly interested in how you get the roughe onto the mop from the rougestick I've seen it in before now.
For what it's worth, I use the end section of an old steel multisection cleaning rod with a nylon cleaning-patch holder on the tip, and chuck it in an electric drill. Then I put a wad of #0000 steel wool through the slot and carefully run it up and down the chamber while the drill's spinning. After that, I swab the chamber out with acetone (don't get this stuff on the wood!). I've never had any problems with sticking ammo.
heheheh I'll refer folks to this post when they laugh at me when they see the 4ft length of 2x4 in the rifle case next to the M44!
First time I bought a spam can of ammo, it took me about 10 minutes to figure out how to open it. When I finally figured it out I had to ask myself "How the heck would you open one of these if you were out of ammo and someone is shooting at you???"
Maybe that's why the Russian guns all had bayonets.
I've heard tales of the lacquer burning up and leaving a residue that builds up in your chamber, causing sticky extraction after a few rounds fired. Since I'm new at the Mosin game and haven't fired any of the Czech silvertip I got, I can't confirm this yet.
Last edited by gandog56; 02-13-2008 at 12:01 PM.
Reason: Automerged Doublepost
