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stiff bolt operation on mosin rifles

calamitywood
do all the mosin rifles have such difficult bolts to operate? I own two and they both work fine except they are hard to raise the handle on. One has the standard straight bolt and one has an aftermarket bent bolt, both are quite heavy. Is there anything i can do to make them easier to lift and close?
Sherwin
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9 comments

Date Votes
  • TWalker
    Make sure the chamber is spotlessly clean. You might try steel wool wrapped around a brass or bronze bore brush on a cleaning rod chucked in an electric drill. If that doesn't help, try different ammo. Try some new commercial brass cased ammo. If all else fails, try a different bolt. Ocasionally that has worked for me. This is a common problem with Mosin Nagant rifles. Good luck with yours.

    "Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away." Thoreau
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  • rufe-snow
    I had the same problem with my Mosin, ( Finish Model 27 ). This was specially noticable when shooting the Czech steel case ammo with lacquer finish.

    I wrapped Scotch Brite around a old bore brush so that it was a tight fit in the chamber. I chucked the cleaning rod in a electric drill, and went at it.

    It was about a 90% improvement in ease of operation of the bolt after firing the Czch ammo. No problem now with bolt operation or extracting/ejecting fire cases.

    luger_4.jpg
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  • PA Shootist
    Ditto on the chamber cleaning advice. There's little more to say, except that the bolt handle on the Mosin rifle is relatively short for a minimum mechanical advantage; the action cocks upon opening, so that job is added to primary extraction effort; and indeed the steel-cased Czech ammo (which is usually excellent in accuracy and quality) will identify the slick, clean chambers, and those that are not. I have about a dozen of various versions of the Mosin rifle, my favorite might be a 1942 Finn VKT M-39, which shoots more accurately than a mil-surp rifle has a right to, shaming many far more expensive and sophisticated rifles in my collection.
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  • jbw1776
    I think I know exactly what your talking about. I don't have the problem chambering or extracting. The problem is actually pulling the bolt in the up position (cocking in a mosin). And it only sticks chambering the first round, after the first round everything is smooth. I cant pull it up, I have to "hit" it up with the palm of my hand. If this is the same problem you are having, is there something were doing wrong, or is it just the way mosins work?

    James Willis
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  • jonk
    Well, I just hit mine.... it's a crudely made weapon meant to operate in any conditions, and not be babied. I would clean the chamber, but that doesn't matter on bolt lift; though it COULD be a chamber with tight headspace or a thick extractor, I think it is probably just the mosin's design that is at fault. I have 5 of them and like them a lot, but they aren't Krags or Springfields.

    "...hit your enemy in the belly, and kick him when he is down, and boil his prisoners in oil- if you take any- and torture his women and children. Then people will keep clear of you..." -Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher, speaking at the Hague Peace Conf
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  • calamitywood
    Just got in from work and read these responses. thanks to everyone.
    Sherwin
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  • dcloco
    Better be careful about using any abrasive in the chamber...you can have a case come apart on you.

    I use a liberal amount of Hoppes #9 and a 20 gauge shotgun brush on chambers.
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  • 1KYDSTR
    Are these arsenal refurbished guns? If so, and they have a new barrel, it could be that the reciever was minutely bent (twisted) when they removed the old barrel. I still feel the observation that the Moisin cock on opening is likely the issue, but you cannot dicount the possibility of the bent reciever theorum.

    "When I cease learning...I'm dead"(Me)
    "When I was 14 I used to marvel at how ignorant my old man was...by the time I was 21 I was truelly amazed at how much the old bugger had learned in the intervening 7 years!" Samuel Clemens
    "History is written by winners"(Patton)
    "You get a lot farther with a kind word and a gun than you do with a kind word alone!"(Al Capone)
    "There is nothing lower than the human race...except the French" (Samuel Clemens)
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  • rufe-snow
    quote:Originally posted by jbw1776
    And it only sticks chambering the first round, after the first round everything is smooth. If this is the same problem you are having, is there something were doing wrong, or is it just the way mosins work?

    James Willis


    If your having problems with just the "first round" only, when "chambering". I would have to say it's not the same problem we have been having, extracting the Czech steel case ammo after firing.

    My 2? is that the internal mechanism of the magazine is at fault. Lots of the imported Mosin-Nagants were Arsenal reworked/refurbished, without checking for proper function.

    The M-N magazine has a internal part called a " Feed Interrupter", if this hasn't been tensioned properly ( tweaked ) along with a stiff magazine spring? In my opinion, it MIGHT? cause problems when feeding the first round from a fully loaded magazine.

    luger_4.jpg
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