Well That Didn't Work, Mosin Shooting Light Cast

[Eddie2002]

I've been looking for a cast plinker load to use with my Mosin 90/31 and it seems I'm not having much success. Been trying a light 115 grain .312 cast boolit over 6 grains of Bullseye which is my go to load for 7.7x58 Jap. I can get a hand sized grouping all day long at 50 yds with the Arisaka and it also works for 30-06. The same load in the Mosin is lucky to hit the backboard of the target at 50yds, shot 20 plinkers yesterday and only hit paper once with the Mosin. Well at least I know what doesn't work, now I need to figure out what does.
I've slugged the bore and it came out at .311 but the bore is rough. I'm thinking that a heavier boolit in the 180 grain range .314 in diameter might be the ticket. Not sure what to do about the rough bore, it can't be doing the boolit any good getting shredded when fired.
The rifle shoots condom bullets just fine so there might be hope for it yet. Any thoughts on how to get the old girl shooting cast?
Thanks

[Bookworm]

What do you mean by "rough bore" ?

I have a 91/30 Mosin, the bore is dark and pitted. When I decided to shoot cast, I cleaned the bore for about a week.
Ed's Red, brush, patch. Ed's Red, soak, repeat. Then Hoppes #9, same thing; soak, brush, patch, repeat. Then copper cleaner; soak, brush, patch..... well, you get the idea.

Eventually I stopped getting sewage out of the bore. It's still dark and pitted, perhaps not as dark as it was, but it shoots cast fine. Even the Lee TL314-90-SWC with light loads.

[redhawk0]

I have an old Lee 312-185-RN (single cavity...#90371) that shoots pretty good out of my Mosin. I don't size mine and can't remember off the top of my head what the mic to...but I'd guess they are in that .313-.314" range. I have an earlier Mosin dated 1895 from the russian arsenals....The bore is not real rough...but could be smoother, I admit. It shoots this bullet pretty good. Mine drop at 188gr. It might be worth trying.

I think the twist rate of the mosin is more suited to the heavier bullets.

redhawk

[Eddie2002]

I've scrubbed and treated the bore till the patches came out with no signs of copper, it has rifling but not real smooth or pretty. It couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with jacketed when I first got it but has gotten a lot more accurate with all the cleaning I've done. Can't see why it won't shoot cast with a little more work. Think my main problem is trying to shoot a light undersized boolit. Any suggestions for something over 150 grains and .314 or larger?

[GhostHawk]

Mine slugged at .312.

I got into a routine of shooting, come home and clean at least twice.

I had better luck lifting old **** from the grooves using ATF (Dextron II or III was what was in my garage)

Good luck with both the Lee .312 185 gc leemented out to .315 and run through a Lee .314 sizer.

As well as the little .314 90 gr truncated cone. Both over mild to moderate loads of Red Dot.

Go low and ladder up. Note where accuracy starts falling away.

Tightest groups I got were actually with the little 90 gr and 4-6 grains of Red Dot.
Although the 185 over 10 grains was not bad either.

BLL for lube. 3 light coats is my normal.

[arlon]

First. I'd move up to at least 25 yards to get the thing on paper. Maybe you shot 19 into a 1" group off the paper and the only flier hit the target. Well, it's possible.

Russian Mosins are all individuals in a big way. Bores are all over the place in diameter and condition. Crown my need to be reworked a little. Stocks can be a problem. There's a reason the Finns rebuilt almost every one they captured. Finn capture/rebuilds are almost always pretty decent shooters unless someone abused the bore here after they were imported.

Few bad bores I've had I used stainless brushes on them. You aren't going to hurt a ruined bore.

[303Guy]

This is a rusted bore!


It shoots 140 gr paper patched boolits sub-minute of beer can at 40 yds. No idea what it will do with plain cast but they do go through without leading or stripping.

Here's a recovered plain cast.


Here's another one I cleaned up. It too fires plain cast with no leading or stripping but at low velocity. I haven't even fitted sights to it so no idea how it will shoot.


It does need another inch or two taken off.


The rifling does become more defined a bit further back but you can see that the boolit actually followed the rifling to the muzzle.

[Bookworm]

I've scrubbed and treated the bore till the patches came out with no signs of copper, it has rifling but not real smooth or pretty. It couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with jacketed when I first got it but has gotten a lot more accurate with all the cleaning I've done. Can't see why it won't shoot cast with a little more work. Think my main problem is trying to shoot a light undersized boolit. Any suggestions for something over 150 grains and .314 or larger?

The bore on my 1930 Izzy slugged at .315". Dark bore, lightly pitted, Scrubbed clean, and then not touched. I haven't cleaned to bore in over 400 rounds. This is a nothing-special hex, just as it came off the rack at the surplus seller.

I'm shooting a NOE 316-203-RN, which is his version of the 314299 for a larger bore. Mine drops at .316-.317 from straight CWW, and ~212 grains. I shoot them air-cooled, checked and sized to .316. Just under 1800 fps.

When I'm holding my mouth right, I can shoot sub 3" 10-shot groups at 100 yds. 2Jun18, at the club military bolt match. Iron sights, rested. This is a 2.75" group.
[IMG][/IMG]

[Jniedbalski]

I would try a fatter bullet. My axis in 308 can chamber a .311 diameter bullet. I have tried .312,but there a little snug going in and .311 fits with slight resensents

[ShooterAZ]

If you'd like a fun light load in the Mosin, I suggest you try the Lee TL314-90 SWC. I use 3.2 gr of Bullseye for 950 fps and excellent accuracy. I lightly lube with LLA and size to .314. 7 gr of Trailboss also works very well. It's a hoot to shoot!

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/11...semi-wadcutter

[jugulater]

I think Boolit size is your issue. take a case fired with a standard load and see what will fit in it, that will tell you the maximum boolit size you can stuff in the gun.

I have a 1936 Hex Receiver Tula Ex-Sniper that barely has rifling left and has severe throat erosion, and it Requires a .316 Boolit otherwise it wont hit anything. The Poor thing probably served 10 years of combat duty.

[Outpost75]

Accurate 31-215B has a large diameter with tapered nose to fit worn or oversized throats in the 7.62 Russian and .303 British. Available either GC as 31-215B or as bevel base shown in photo 31-215BB:

Attachment 225729Attachment 225730Attachment 225731Attachment 225953

[Larry Gibson]

If you'd like a fun light load in the Mosin, I suggest you try the Lee TL314-90 SWC. I use 3.2 gr of Bullseye for 950 fps and excellent accuracy. I lightly lube with LLA and size to .314. 7 gr of Trailboss also works very well. It's a hoot to shoot!

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/11...semi-wadcutter

Agree with the use of the 90 gr SWC. However, your 115 gr cast should also work. Suggest you try 3, 3.5, 4 and 4.5 gr Bullseye with it.

[Eddie2002]

Thanks for all the replies, lots of good ideas there. I'm thinking I need to go for a larger diameter boolit to start with and maybe drop the powder charge down a little. Actually the bore looks a lot better than some of the pictures posted so I'm not going to worry about it for now. The muzzle has been set back or recessed like most of the low priced refurbished Mosins that hit the market a few years ago. I'll need to check to see if the crown is done properly, something as simple as that could cause a lot of the problems I'm seeing. So far none of the light boolits in the .311 and .312 range has worked so I'll probably go for a larger diameter and heavier projectile.
I'll try dropping the charge on the lighter boolits first but I'm not very hopeful that it will help.
303guy, that bore looks like something you would find with a neglected black powder rifle, yikes.

[303Guy]

Cordite with corrosive primers and heaps of neglect. Or just heaps of neglect. It is a 1905 (I think - the one with the charger guide on the bolt head) SMLE - the original prototype - so it's pretty old.

That top one was also bent from having the foresight hammered on after cutting the barrel back. I had to straighten it without the benefit of reflective surfaces. It ended up being larger and rough but shootable with paper patch. With some boolits and loads even accurate!



So, sewer pipe bores can be made to shoot.

[starnbar]

You know you don't need crisp lands and grooves for these old warhorses boolit fitment is 90% and charge weight is the other 10% I shoot mine with and without gc and now that I am pushing 70 light boolits and light loads are my standard.

[gpidaho]

I also have a M/N with a real rough bore. It's had the week long scrub a couple of times. The bullets that work the best for me are the Noe 314-202- RN and the Lee C312-185-1R powder coated to bump the size up. Gp

[Eddie2002]

I'm not going to be able to get out to the range for a good month or better so I'll load up some lighter charges with the light boolits just to see what happens and have something ready. Thanks for all the tips.

[tomme boy]

Accurate 31-215B has a large diameter with tapered nose to fit worn or oversized throats in the 7.62 Russian and .303 British. Available either GC as 31-215B or as bevel base shown in photo 31-215BB:

Attachment 225729Attachment 225730Attachment 225731

WRONG! That was made to fit a 91/30 Sniper that I had. I can not remember the year anymore. but it was a all matching Ishvz(spelling?). Not a repo. It was a not a worn, shot out gun. It was a rather tight gun that shot really well. You could still see the reamer marks on the lands.

I did several pound casts and came up with this. And it has shot very well in a bunch of different Mosins. It does not like to hot rodded. Larry tried. I sent him the original mold to try in his Finn rifle he has a scope on. I can get this to shoot under an inch at 100yds as long as I keep it around 1800-1900fps

[samari46]

Only have two moisins. First is a 1935 Finn model 27 with cherry bore for that one Lyman's 314299 works great. The other is a 1944 Russian m44 carbine. Nice bore on that one also but haven't tried cast bullets in that one yet. For rough bores you may want to try Dupont auto body rubbing compound (the red stuff) on a tight patch wrapped around a bore brush. Be prepared to get dirty as the compound will turn black from the crud in the barrel. Multiple pass's both ways then use your favorite solvent and patch out the compound and gunk. Patch until they come out reasonable clean. You may have to repeat this multiple times. When clean as it's gonna get try the Dupont auto body polishing compound (the white stuff) again multiple passes. Has worked on some mil surps with less than nice bores. When at the range shoot about 10 shots fast to heat up the barrel and clean with your favorite solvent. Should take out some more crud. Basically cleaning and shooting after that. I have a 1891 Argentine mauser that I did this too. Ran out of my stock of Argentine 1946 ball so had to use some of the Serbian made commercial ammo. The old Argentine stuff I had fit the chamber fine. The newer San Francisco Argentine ball was out of spec and would not even chamber. Frank