I just picked up a '36 Tula hex Mosin Nagant at the local Big 5, the finish of the metal and wood was almost perfect, with no signs of real wear, and I thought I did my part by swabbing the barrel and checking the rifling, which looked a little dark but perfect condition. When I got home I disassembled, cleaned everything, then soaked the barreled action in a 2" PVC tube filled with mineral spirits for a few days to loosen up the cosmoline. When I removed it I found that the entire thing was coated with what looked like black paint, and I don't mean hardened cosmoline, but what looked like a Duracoat-like finish coming off. Once I cleaned that all off The metal looked a little less perfect. Then I focused on the bore, it too had this "paint" in it, what looked smooth and near-perfect in-store, once cleaned, revealed a pitted bore. The lands still look good and the crown is ok but the groves are badly pitted and I am unsure if it will cause too much friction when firing and cause a round to get stuck in the barrel. I then used compressed air to remove any lingering gunk and I cleaned up and reblued the one small rust spot that was hidden under the barrel, then soaked the entire thing in gun oil for a few days. After removing from it's "oil bath", the metal looked good again with just a few minor imperfection the "paint" was covering, but that bore looks like crap. The last 6-8" of rifling groves are REALLY pitted. Is there a way to restore this or is it still shootable?

Oil up a patch and run it through. If you can get a tight patch to move through the barrel fairly evenly then just shoot it.

That "pitted bore" is rumored by many M-N owners to be just "Factory Finish".

If you have a M-N with a smooth, shiny, bore, it's probably a "Counterfeit"



Seriously, don't sweat a bullet getting stuck in the bore. If you've bore-brushed it out, run a couple of patches through, then all that will happen with the bullet is to leave some lead/copper behind. Shoot it enough and who knows, maybe the pits will get filled up

BrettH8sU . . . damn dude, you gave that thing some serious TLC!

As long as the lands look good, then I wouldn't sweat some pitting in the grooves as long as you don't have any serious potholes in there. Many milsurp rifles have pitted bores, and it's all good . . . nothing to worry about, except that the pits will give the fouling more areas to "hide," so you'll need to take bore cleaning a little more seriously. This is especially true if you're shooting corrosive ammo, which you probably will be. Just make sure you a bore brush along with patches when you clean.

Here's a pitted bore from a rifle I just sold; I'd shoot this one all day long. How does yours look, in comparison?

Damn, my bore isn't quite that bad. I'm just going to shoot it, all I'm looking for is 4-6" groups at 100 yards and I'll be happy.
Now I just have to slick up the action, this thing is REALLY hard to cycle the action smoothly. All of the normal wear points on the bolt and receiver still have heavy machine marks, it doesn't appear to have ever been used (no polished wear marks).

Aw hell ... that one's not even really that bad! Yup, it sounds like yours just needs a range trip!

Remember these guns are old and were made cheaply out of necessity. Don't compare them to modern rifles, because they're not even in the same league.

If you haven't already done so, I would also disassemble the bolt and clean up the pieces of it. Check firing pin protrusion after you reassemble it with the Mosin tool that you probably received with the rifle. YouTube is your friend, but post up if you have any questions.

Polished most of the metal-to-metal contact points on the bolt and started on the front of the ejection port, just need to put some more metal polish on it and cycle it about 1000 times. Got everything nice and smooth except for lifting the bolt to cock after pulling the trigger, I had to end up trimming 2 coils off the firing pin spring (I could barely pull the cocking piece and I lift a lot of weights, lol). Now the action cycles adequately without being loose and sloppy, cocks without the need for a cheater bar, and the firing pin still hits hard; it should brake in nicely. I also carefully polished the sear with 400 grit on a piece of glass, then used metal polish. I now have a smooth trigger with somewhat OK break. I wonder if those spring-and-washer trigger kits work well.

I had a Hungarian M44 that I never should have gotten rid of; mint bore, perfect wood, good trigger and buttery smooth action. I just thought they were all like that, guess I had a real gem because I wasn't expecting a fixer.

Wow man . . . sounds like you've done a lot of work on that rifle.

I have heard, but never tried it myself, the NEVER DULL, a metal polish in a sliver can with black lettering (Walmart) will polish it up nicely. Never Dull comes in patches. Run it (same patch) through a clean degreased barrel 5-6 times, the run two clean patches through. Do this a few times and the barrel will "reputedly" be looking great. If you PM me with an email address, I'll send the pdf article I have in my files.

PM sent. After I see how it shoots I may polish the bore a little.

I put a bunch of naval jelly down the bore of mine to clean it up.

Finally shot it. It shot very well, better than I expected, well within 4" (used factory ammo, not surplus). The bore looks smoother after I cleaned it than before I fired it (20 patches later and still coming out dirty though). I'm gonna try some Naval Jelly and also lightly polish with the Never Dull.

Sounds like it did really well . . . that's good to hear.

I see you added some pics to the earlier posts. That's a nice-looking rifle.

Sweet, glad to hear it. Enjoy that Mosin. We love shooting ours. it's a '41.

Jack