A Mosin

[Beekeeper]

It was a toss up wherther to put it here or in gunsmithing and since I am not a gun smith I put it here!
Ever have a gun you wish you had never bought?
I did!!
I bought a 91/30 Mosin from a man sight unseen and wound up with a junker.
The Barrel makes a sewer pile look clean
The wood was clian and I sold it to brass magnet here on the forum.
The intention was to rebarrel it and make a fancy caliber rifle out of it

Anyway after having it hanging on the wall for more than a year I gave up and started to fiddle with it.

All work was done by hand!! The only power tools allowed were a saber saw ( to cut out the stock blank) and a battery operated drill.
The idea being to take as much time as possible ( My wife has Dementia and I needed something to take my frustrations out on).

The barrel was shortened by 6 inches , filed square and crowned using a carriage bolt and valve lapping compound in the battery drill.
The stock started out as a 2x6 piece of bannister grade maple. All stock work was done using homemade chisels and a rasp.
The finish is linsead oil and shellac, ( a finish my Father and Grand Father used to refinish furniture.

All in all I have about 6 months of work in it at maybe one hour at a time between taking care of thing around the house!!

So all of you Mosin oficinados and collectors have a ball cutting me up. I couldn't care less and only wanted to show off some of my hobby

Sorry I forgot to add I now have an almost new barrel complements of Noblade and will get the old one off and the new one one as soon as I can find someone to do it.
In the mean time firelapping 101 complements of 303 guy has it shootable and I am going to see what it will do.
Had it to 400 yards last week but the accuracy wasn't there.
Have completely bedded the barrel to see if it helps.
My old 1955 gunsmithing book by Bish says all military barrels used in sporters should be bedded.
we will see!!

[slim1836]

Very nice woodwork, wish I had your talent.

Slim

[swheeler]

Bk makes a nice sporter, good job.

[wellfedirishman]

Very nicely done, it is something to be proud of.

[TNsailorman]

Very nicely done. Coyotes howl too but it don't hurt nothin, its just noise.

[dnepr]

Nicely done , just goes to show it is the man behind the tools not the tools that make it happen

[richhodg66]

Very nice.

I like Mosins. I have sitting around gathering dust one of Remington manufacture which was sporterized at some point but just has the cut down military stock and really needs something better to be shot. The bore is excellent and someone did a pretty fair trigger job on it at some point. Wish I could put together a stock like that, I hate the black plastic things they're selling for Mosins.

[CLAYPOOL]

All of the barrels I have seen so far look like sewer pipes..tell me where the shiny ones are for cheap...!

[littlejack]

Dang Bee, that is outstanding. I have a model 44 carbine that I bought a few years back. It had never been issued. All matching numbers, and the bore was pristine.
I put one of the Boyds walnut stocks on it. I glassed the rear tang, the recoil lug, and forward under the barrel about 2". The rest of the barrel is floated. The Boyds stock was 95% inlayed, so I didn't have to do the amount of work you put into yours. I mounted a Leupold Rifleman 2 x 7 scope. It shoots jacketed great. It will hit a ping pong ball all day at 100 yards if I do my part.
I load the 150 grain Hornadays with a stout charge of IMR 4064, and out of the 20" barrel, I clocked 2800 fps.
Dont sell your rifle too short. When you get the new barrel on it, you may be very well pleased.
Jack

[Infidel]

Very nice! You have given me hope for mine. I have several. I seem to have become a mosin magnet. They find me. And I have 2 44's. One was a $45 one and is actually quite nice under the flat black spraypaint. The other one was $60 and needs some cosmetic tlc. Both will cut the center out of a pistol target at 75( ya put a range in where you can). I may have to make a trip to the sawmill. The full length 91's will have to wait.

[nicholst55]

Impressive work! Especially with the tools you worked with, I am quite impressed. Wish I could work wood like that.

[WILCO]

Thought I was looking at a fancy piece of art. I saw the turned down bolt and realized it was really a masterpiece.

[Combat Diver]

Very nice rifle! Well done indeed.

CD

[HighHook]

Very nice work bk...

[TheGrimReaper]

Very, Very nice indeed!!!

[Hang Fire]

You did first rate workmanship on the rifle and it turned out great.

I have four MN, three Finn M39 rifles and one pre-bubbaed 1937 Tula carbine. Two of the Finn's are pristine 1968 no names and the other one is definitely a well used 1942 Sako Continuation War veteran, while in my possession, they will remain untouched . May be purist sacrilegious, but my favorite shooter is the Tula bubbarized truck gun.

I am a member over at the GB MN Collector’s Forum. This is where the uber purist’s lie in wait to scream bubba, release the dogs of Chicken Little and pounce on any deviation from originality, even for the crudely reblued and counter bored refurbs.

[Multigunner]

Beauty of a stock. The Mosin Nagant has great possibilities as a sporting rifle, and this proves it.

[texassako]

Nice rifle, and I like how the fore end looks. Plus it is always nice to see someone reuse shellac(even mixed) on a Mosin without dunking the stock in a barrel of it.

[Nobade]

That does look very nice, and I fully understand your needing to have something to do to keep your mind off the situation. When you go to pull that barrel make sure the 'smith has a heck for stout barrel vise. To pull that one off I sent you had me and my 185lb. hanging off a cheater at about 6 feet before it finally let go. Once broken loose it just spun off. Evidently Ivan is a very stout fellow! If you can't get it unscrewed you could cut it just in front of the receiver ring and release the torque.

Cheers!
-Nobade

[1Shirt]

Like Molly used to say, "ain't bad McGee!".
1Shirt!

[Beekeeper]

Ok here is a range update!!

Had it at the range this morning.
With Milsurp ammo it will hold a 3 inch circle at 100 and a 6 inch circle at 200.
Not bad for the messed up barrel.
With cast I am ashamed to say "not so good"
Double the figures and you will have about what I got.

I think the problem with my cast boolits is I throw the charge instead of weighing them!
Plus I need to find a dscent boolit for it also but I am working on that now..
The glass bedding of the barrel did not seem to make any diference from last time out so I am going to grind it back out and try again to free float the barrel

Load I used was
IMR 3031 30 gr
Tuft of dacron
170 grain P/P boolit
COAL was 2.585
CCI LR primer
Privi brass.

Going to try some diferent loads next week.


beekeeper

[Beekeeper]

Texassako,
My Grand Father refinished antique furniture and my Dad did it as a part time ( hobby).
They both used the linseed oil/ shellac finish as it was the original finish on most antique furniture.
It takes a long time to do one but the result is often more beautiful than you thought it would be.
The Mosin stock has 4 slather saturation coats of linseed oil, is allowed to dry (or soak in) between coats and then given a rub down with copper (bronze) wool. Once you have cleaned it good by rubbing with a clean cloth you start putting coats of shellac mixed with linseed oil 60% oil,40% shellac.
Put four coats on ,rub three off, continue until the pores are filled and then gradually reduce the linseed oil until it is 70 % shellac.
Keep the oil there in a small amount as it allows you to rub the shellac until it is smooth.

I do what I call a 2 sock finish.
Cut a couple of socks into small pieces and use a new one each time.
Harder to explain than to do so hope you get something out of it.


beekeeper

[VladViscious]

Pretty, Very Pretty.

TANSTAAFL!

[jonp]

Very nice. I have bought several surplus ones that had a barrel like the one you describe. I rounded up several spam cans of surplus ammo when they were cheap and set to work. Some bore paste from Brownells and lots of scrubbing with Montana Xtreme plus several bags of patches ended up netting me a rifle that shot into about 4 in at 100yrds which I thought was pretty darn good with open sights. Had a blast with it and learned quite a bit about cleaning a bore.