Mosin Nagants, Part 1
This is gonna take some ‘splainin’ for the non-gun/non-Mosin crowd.
If you know people who shoot, you will eventually run into folks who own, and love, the Mosin Nagant Rifle. They’re fucking everywhere, cheap as a sneeze, and incredibly durable shoulder-cannons. We have two in our house, both purchased for $100. (Mine’s a 1938 Tula, for the Mosin folks, in damned good condition – the other is an Izhevsk.) We also picked up a can of Ukranian milsurp back when we bought them, and that 440 rounds is going to take YEARS to burn off.
I’ll talk more about these in the next few days.
Here’s a query for the shooters: What’s your cleaning solvent/lube of choice? I was a Hoppe’s dude for ages, and still use it from time to time. Then I discovered Rusty Duck for my shotguns, and Break Free CLP not long after that (tip o’the hat to my Uncle). All three work well and have various pros and cons – I honestly like CLP’s ability to pretty much dissolve caked-on crud with minimal effort. What do you use, and why?
This dude is a madman.
If you’re firing the bulk surplus ammo through the Mosin (or any rifle, for that matter) be aware that it’s called corrosive because the primers leave behind potassium chloride in the chamber and barrel (and anywhere else they can blow crap into). If left uncleaned, this residue will attract and hold moisture, causing rust pitting of the metal.
But the good news is there’s a simple process to clean all of this residue away safely. Own a mop that fits your 7.62mm barrel. Bring some soapy water, some clean water, and some WD-40 to the range with you. When you’re finished shooting the corrosive ammo through any particular weapon, dunk the mop in the soapy water, swab the gun all sloppy. Repeat with clean water. Now grab some rags and run some WD-40 (the WD stands for “water displacer”) through that gun.
Clean it properly when you get home, without having to worry about rust pitting in the wherever-you-live humidity, especially if you just can’t get to that rifle until the next day for whatever reason. This is a tried-and-true, very safe method of maintaining these guns. Better living through an understanding of chemistry, if you will.
And yes, I own multiple Mosins, Mausers, etc, etc, etc. Gotta love ’em.
I’m religious about cleaning my weapons. Although I refuse to do so at a range, I make sure to take care of ALL fired weapons within 48 hours.
Now here’s the thing: Having fired a bunch of the corrosive out of my rifle one day, then forgetting to swab the barrel for 72 hours due to drama in real life, I feared the worst. When I cleaned the Tula… nope. No rust at all.
Now, keep in mind that I am not recommending that people ignore their weapons. Clean your damn guns! But I started checking around, and discovered that, according to various tests and webpages… corrosive ammo really isn’t anywhere near as corrosive as it’s made out to be. The salts in the primers of 54r really aren’t much at all, per bullet. Yes, if you neglect your rifle for a long time and hundreds of rounds, it’s going to get fucked up. But these rifles were built to last. Firing 25 rounds out of it and then letting it lay overnight isn’t going to make the rifle melt into grains of rusty sand.
Corrosive or not, people need to keep their weapons clean.
Truth. People see the word “corrosive” and start thinking “Alien Blood” or some such. My solution is for high humidity environments where someone is going to be putting hundreds of rounds through one barrel in a single day, *and* they’re paranoid about the word corrosive. And hey, it works. 🙂
As a person knowing nothing about guns, all I know about the Mosin comes from here
I have a huge bottle of Break Free clp. It really is great stuff and I use it on the guns that are prone to rusting. Things like the Mosin, the Remington 1100, and once I get one the AK. Though lately I’ve been looking into the new non-toxic stuff. My AR is lubed up with Slip 2000 EWL and that has been a hell of a thing.
I use the blood of my enemies.
Throw away the solvents: the Soviet-era cosmoline laughs at them. And for gawd’s sake, don’t boil ’em in gasoline! The hot ticket is STEAM. Buy yourself a Steam Bullet from Wally*Mart. The steam melts the Commieline and it just flows off. Metal/ wood, it doesn’t matter: everything comes out damn near pristine. A CLR wipedown and you’re GTG. I’ve cleaned two Mosins this way: a 91/30 and a 44. Quick and Easy.
yessss, steam FTW.
WD-40 is the ticket for cosmoline, although in theory any penetrating oil would do it. I also use it for regular lubrication, although low viscosity means frequent reapplication. What I would really like to try is Balistol, anyone know how well that works in practice as opposed to theory?
As another person knowing nothing about guns, all I know about the Mosin comes from here
Although I do love firing my Mosin, I cannot even comprehend how Hayha was able to rack up such a high kill count using it. Dude was sick with it.
I have to admit, throwing a slip-on Limbsaver on my Mosin really helped the fireability. Not for the recoil, though. It was the butt length. That extra inch or so made a HUGE difference for me.
1933 Tula in damn good condition. $130 in my hands… in ILLINOIS. If I can get one that cheap in this state in that nice a shape, no one else anywhere has an excuse not to own one. …unless you have some sort of complaint about “not wanting a dislocated shoulder”, you wimps.
And I’m a Hoppes man. Windex at the range to get rid of the nasty, Hoppes and a Bore Snake at the house to make her pretty once more. Honestly, I like the smell of Hoppes.
Awhile back the local Cabela’s had a big sale on Mosins, seventy-five each or some such, and we saw people carting multiple boxes downstairs to the checkout.
We also saw an employee act surprised that a purchaser wanted to open said box and LOOK at the rifle before buying. Jeez, I don’t buy ANYTHING sight unseen, why would a Mosin be any different?
On topic, I carry a can of rem-oil in my range bag as well as a bore snake and a bottle of Hoppes. I may not clean them often, but I am not quite insane enough to leave them fouled if there is any visible debris / residue. But one wipe of a bore snake is the most they usually get.
The only rifles I own that I am religious about cleaning are my .50 muzzle loading Thompson Center, and my reproduction .38 black powder navy colt revolver.
After some issues with rifles I bought years ago, I usually now put 250+ rounds through them between real cleanings (this is usually about 9 months to a year for me). They are not vintage or antiques, and I don’t know that any are older than say 20 years barring a 1911 my great uncle carried in the service. Each and every one has a perfectly clean and smooth bore, and the scoped rifles still shoot less than 1″ moa consistently. .. that is a 1/2 grouping of 3 shots at 100 yards out of a classic winchester 30-30 lever action, and a .17 HMR. I get 1/2″ moa on a RRA .308 w/ a 22″ barrel. … despite only getting a real cleaning once a year.
We use Strike-Hold
JM That’s the best gun cleaning kit you have there.
Bottom line, it’s a matter of personal choice and how much you are willing to spend. I discovered the Bore Snake a years ago and boy it makes the chore of cleaning much easier.
Oh god yes. I have a .223 bore snake, and it does a phenomenal job on all calibers up to 7.62. Cuts down your brush scrubbing time by at least half, and your swabbing time by 90%.