Mosin Nagant :: Chinese Type 53

Let me tell you, If you wind up picking up one of these, It's not going to be rearsenaled.
It's is going to be covered and filled with cosmoline.
The wood is going to be have major dings, dents and divots. Mine even came with about a 2 inch piece of the upper handguard busted off.

It's no mater to me as it's a tinker project. I don't even know if it's going to headspace or not in this receiver (it looks like they beat the bolt out of the receiver with a sledge hammer) so it's questionable.

Just to let you know, this is my first Mosin, and I'm no gunsmith. So Just seeing what i can do with this fugly gun.

After selling all my firearms before Christmas to cover medical expenses, well all except the now crazy uncle joe approved dbl bbl shotgun. I've finally reached a point where i want/need to rearm and can afford to. Unfortuantely, I can not afford to replace the guns I sold due to the craziness in the marketplace right now. No way I can afford a 2k AR that previously was 700. Let along find ammo for it. So what to do.

First off, you need to buy one of these puppies (Any Mosin Flavor). I'd say checkout your local gun store, so you can feel it and check out the bore, and see if the fugly grows on you.

I bet it does, because you can get 440 rounds for under 100 bucks, And you can still find it!! (that was the reason I went with the Mosin.) Heck, the firearm was under 100 dollars too!

And the saga begins....

 

So what does this thing shoot? Well, it shoots a .30 caliber projectile.

the 7.62x54R on the left is the choice of the Mosin-Nagant family
Compare it to the .223 snap cap in the middle
and the dimunitive .22lr on the right.

Bullet weights for the Mosin are available from 145gr ball surplus to 208gr soft point hunting rounds.

 

Visu:
Modernizing and Accessorizing the Mosin Nagant | The Shooter's Log

 

I didn't grab any unboxing picks because it was a freaking mess of cosmoline and cosmo soaked paper.

The first thing i did was wipe off the cosmoline with one of Momma's recent thrift store towel purchases. That was done so i could get at the 2 barrel bands and 2 screws that hold this puppy together.

I pulled off the barrel bands, remove the 2 screws and pulled the bolt, the cosmoline filled trigger guard and internal magazine. I think this was dipped in cosmoline because the entire barrel was bedded in the stuff. Unless that's a Chinese Accuracy Technique

 

I'm getting there. This is going to be a multi post work in progress

 

More tear down pics.



If it ever does run out of ammo, it's got a nice attached bayonet. For roasting Marshmallows of course.

Actually the Bayonet maybe the nicest thing about this gun.

 

Then I tore apart the bolt (which was filled with cosmoline) because I could hardly open and close the bolt and it's like 20 degrees here in the mitten. I'm not going to include any bore pictures because the thing is (i hope) solidly filled with cosmoline, I did run a wire down it so it's not obstructed.

I wiped down the pieces, blasted them with brake cleaner and put them in my parts soaking pan.


and then i poured in about a pint of mineral spirits and let it marinade over night.

 

This evening, I took a toothbrush, tooth picks, qtips, bottle brush and a bunch of rags and went to town on the parts after they marinaded.

Now that the parts from the bolt, trigger, sear and ejector were no longer cosmoline encrusted/filled hunks of metal. I went about wiping them down and looking at the wear surfaces.
They were really easy to spot. Machining looks like someone held a beaver up to spinning chunk of metal and started making chips.

I reassembled the bolt and could feel the bolt binding on cocking and firing. I'd have to do something about that.

So, I tore it back apart and went about removing machining (tool marks) and polishing mating surfaces where i noted contact / burnishing.

Basically I spent about 3 hours with some jewelers rouge, and a dremel and slowly polished the surfaces on the bolt, firing pin, bolt head, locking lugs, carrier, cocking piece, trigger pivot pin, trigger and the sear.

Needless to say, the wife now does not like the smell of cosmoline, brake cleaner nor jewelers rouge.

 

You could tell her, It smells a whole lot better than napalm in the morning with overtones of thatch huts and crispy critters, but, you probably shouldn't.

 

I'm not an expert gunsmith, I'm not going to pretend that I am. So I'm not going to show you the polishing that I did on the trigger, the sear nor the cocking piece. Why, because if you get over zealous here and start rounding edges you have basically ruined your gun and will have to buy another because the pieces themselves cost more than the gun itself.

If you are going to play with the trigger, sear and cocking piece, do you research and understand how these function in the weapon. If you start tinkering here on a semi auto you are going to be in a serious world of hurt.

Anyway, I reassemble the polished bolt, slid it into deadeyes MN. You know what? It is freaking smooth. Smooth as any MN I've played with. The firing pin spring is a freaking monster so it's not the lightest bolt ever. But it's feels better than Deadeye's Numbers matching MN. So it's good enough for me.


So we've got a working bolt.
I still have to check the firing pin height but my gauge does not arrive until next week. Neither does the .30 caliber cleaning kit for the cosmoline filled barrel, so here we are for now.

I'm still not out of the woods yet though. If the Chinese bolt removal technique caused any damage to the receiver this could just wind up being a learning experience. Albeit a rather inexpensive one as guns go. I've still got to get some head spacing guages for this monstrosity . Maybe I'll go and order them right after this post.

 

And you better believe I'm planning on restocking this gun with the ArchAngel stock. That's pretty much why i didn't care that there was a chuck of the cosmoline oops, wood stock missing.

 

You are right @ghrit but right now, try finding a Russian, Polish or a Finn.
You can find 'Snipers' at around 600 and going to the stratosphere.
Locally M-N's are starting around 250 were they were 100 a few months ago.
I went with the cheapest I could get.
I've got feelers out for a Finn or one of the select better models out there. But so far, nada.

So I picked this one up. All i want it to do is print on paper at 150 yards or so. So, I'm hoping i wont be disappointed.

But I am getting my ducks i a row for future purchases of these fire breathing behemouths.
getting guages for Firing pin height, Headspace, .30cal cleaning kit (first .30 cal i've owned), and a method for quickly degreasing and removing cosmoline (well besides using gasoline and a match).

This one may be the first but It's probably not going to be the last.

 

Hey VT, is linked in stock commie gun ammo at $5.50 for a box of 20 or case 880 rds for $242 in shout box today or yesterday.
.
Russian 7.62x54R 147gr. Full Metal Jacket, 20 rds $5.50

 

Sportsmans guide is like 180 for 880 delivered.

 

This short carbine is going to be a mule kicking fire breathing dragon. The rifle at least burns most of the powder before the bullet leaves the barrel. So if i can't hit the deer I should at least be able to blind it and cook it at the same time.

 

I'm still looking to pick one up but not at the prices I have seen. Would be worth a plane ticket to PA if the price The Economist quoted is still valid - well it would be a push price wise and I would get to see some family and scope out my property etc

 

looking forward to the sighting in stage.

ammo

Bulgarian 7.62x54R 147grn FMJ 440rd Can