What to do with 7.62X54

[redbear705]

Well I have worked on my rusted barrel and have detirmined that I need to either make it a wall hanger or try to find someone to rebarrel the beast or trash it.

Mosin nagant 91/30 was a great shooter till I made a mistake and cleaned and degreased it and did not re-oil it before storing for 2 years...:( bad bad bad! Barrels is ruined!

If I decide to rebarrel it are there other calibers I could put on this action? Something larger?

This gun would be used for cast only as I dont have one dedicated to cast yet.

And can someone suggest a smith that can do this kind of work?

Thanks for any help with this as I dont want to trash this weapon if I dont have to....JR

[RU shooter]

Money wise you are far better off just to buy another ,they are still rather inexpensive and you could by two or more or a real nice Finn Mosin for what a smith would install a barrel for not even considering the price of a new barrel.

[Freightman]

Economy not to be counted sometimes you just want to do it! There is a man here in Amarillo that put a 444 on a Moisin. He blacksmithed the mag. and it would feed three rounds. It was a great deer rifle but he sold it to a man in N.C. and the last I heard from him it was his favorite brush rifle.
He also put what he called a short .50 on one, took a 458 case cut it back some and belled it to .50 cal and loaded a 500+ g boolit in it. The recoil was quite stiff and I wouldn't want to shoot often.
This man is almost 80 and still does some very srange things to firearms.

[S.R.Custom]

Indeed... Could be re-barrelled/rechambered in .348 Winchester, but you'll have to turn down the rims of the cases a bit. No biggie, but keep in mind anything that can be built in .348 Winchester can be built in 50-110... :twisted:

Personally, I'd take a steel brush to the bore, fire lap it a bit, and see what you get. Rust always looks worse than it is.

[Three44s]

.........................

Personally, I'd take a steel brush to the bore, fire lap it a bit, and see what you get. Rust always looks worse than it is.

ME TOO!

Don't rush into this rebarreling of a Mosin!

Slow down and breath deeply.

And shoot what you have .......... after you take Super Mags advice.

Three 44s

[redbear705]

Well guys I appreciate your input but the barrel is so bad that I cant even get a reflection on the walls from a bore light!

I wont shoot it because the lead would build up so fast!

.Hmmmmmmmmmm...maybe thats a good thing!? NOT!

I would not mind having a bigger .30 or something that starts with .4 cal :)

I was just wondering what is possible and if its too cost prohibitive I wont do it but I wont know unless I ask! :)


444....is that close to a 45/70?

JR

[Ricochet]

Even dark, pitted bores often shoot well. Don't quit on it without trying. All of these rifles are reconditioned war rifles. Probably it's not the first time that bore's been rusty.

[Blammer]

I have a MN that I wanted to rebarrel, couldn't find anybody who did it.

I'd be careful on what you rebarrel to. I'd not pick anything that has a higher pressure than the original chambering.

[Blammer]

I'd hit the barrel with some wipeout, some brass brushes and anti rust stuff, then shoot about 10 FMJ through it an clean it again and see what ya got.

Many a dark bores still shoot good.

[Maven]

redbear705, Before you invest money in a new rifle or rebarrelling, why not try to polish the bore? A friend, who shoots high $$$ muzzleloaders, told me to use a Scotchbrite pad on a cleaning jag to clean the bbl. of a recently purchased flintlock with a filthy bore. (It worked!) Try the green pad with Hoppe's #9 (or equivalent) first, and then look for the gray (#000 steel wool) or white (#0000 s.w., but hard to find) in the paint section of Lowes or Home Depot, et al. If necessary coat the pad with a mild abrasive like toothpaste, Bon Ami cleanser & oil, white auto body compound, etc. This should help. If not, embed no more than 12 - 15 CB's with a fine lapping compound and fire them over ~3 - 4gr. Bullseye or its equivalent,* fire them and thoroughly clean the bbl. You may find that the bbl. is quite usable. Hope this helps!


*Be careful as this load will easily carry to 100yds.

[Biathlon]

If the barrel is too bad, have it relined. There is a guy in Montana that re-lined barrels:

John King
P.O. Box 368
Kila, MT 59920

Give him a try.

[trooperdan]

Economy not to be counted sometimes you just want to do it! There is a man here in Amarillo that put a 444 on a Moisin. He blacksmithed the mag. and it would feed three rounds. It was a great deer rifle but he sold it to a man in N.C. and the last I heard from him it was his favorite brush rifle.
....
This man is almost 80 and still does some very srange things to firearms.

Freightman, I was the guy that bought the .444 Moisin! :) It is a fun gun, for sure! And that guy was one heck of an interesting guy to talk to! I bought that re-barrelled MN for less than a 'smith would change to change a barrel i think! Does he have any other interesting projects he is done with and wants to move on?

[hornetguy]

I have an M91 that the bore looks like the proverbial sewer pipe on... it was given to me by my uncle.
I tried brushing it out, but still looked like, well, a rusty pipe.

I tried shooting some mil-surp ammo in it, and was surprised at the accuracy still obtainable with it. I believe it was on the order of a couple inches at 50 yds with the open sights... I was amazed.

I'm not sure how it would respond to lead boolits, though. I have my pristine M44 for that.

[Blammer]

I wonder if you could rebore it to 35 cal for cheap....

[Bullshop Junior]

Try boolits with speed green after a good cleaning. I have heard that half and half of water/molassis will get the rust out of barrels.
Daniel/BS Jr.

[waksupi]

If the barrel is too bad, have it relined. There is a guy in Montana that re-lined barrels:

John King
P.O. Box 368
Kila, MT 59920

Give him a try.]

I don't believe John does the relining himself. I believe the guy he jobs it out to, is in N.D. May be Norm Johnson.

[Ricochet]

I have heard that half and half of water/molassis will get the rust out of barrels.Water and molasses is a great general rust remover. But to work, it needs to be left in an open container outside in warm weather until it ferments, then leave the rusty steel submerged in it for days, maybe up to a week or two. It gets nasty looking, foamy and foul smelling. I think it's organic acids from the fermentation doing the job. Whatever, it can clean very rusty steel and iron right up! Doesn't have to be mixed as strong as half and half, but the proportions are noncritical. Maybe 1:8 or 1:10 will work. The cheap powdered molasses from the feed stores will reportedly work well. I've got some cankered old sorghum that I keep for rust removal purposes.

[kycrawler]

drive an unsized 30 cal cast bullet in the muzzle with a hammer piont the barrel down and pour it full of coke (the kind you drink ) let it sit over night do this for about 2 days then knock the slug out and clean the bore with a brush and jag wont remove the pitting but the rust will be gone and with a few trips through with some bore paste it will probably shoot cast pretty well and have some shine back to it

[redbear705]

After doing some surfing and I found a set up that removes rust by electrolysys(sp). I will try it out as a last resort.

However I am up for trying the molasses or coke treatment first!

I have been using wipeout and brushing and scrubbing not sure its working tho....:)

Thanks for the help.......maybe by this summer It will be in shape enough so I can try it out!


:)

JR

[Three44s]

With a rifle that costs under a hundred bucks ..... pretty is as pretty does.

And just like fish in a pond ..... plenty more where that came from.

Clean it as you desire ....... but I would periodically shoot it to check progress ...... maybe you should just shoot it (and enjoy it) sooner than you might expect.

Three 44s

[wonderwolf]

After doing some surfing and I found a set up that removes rust by electrolysys(sp). I will try it out as a last resort.

However I am up for trying the molasses or coke treatment first!

I have been using wipeout and brushing and scrubbing not sure its working tho....:)

Thanks for the help.......maybe by this summer It will be in shape enough so I can try it out!


:)

JR

The electrolysis process you speak of works wonders....it will remove all the rust and everything else leaving the markings (and blemishes) all intact. The problem is finding a stainless container to use.

[andremajic]

Hey guys.

I was watching a gunsmithing video on cleaning bores, put out by AGI. (American gunsmithing Institute), and they have a pretty neat rig you can build with a minimum of money/supplies.

Get a steel or aluminum cleaning rod that extends the length of your barrel. At about 4 inch intervals, wrap a little electric tape around the rod. This will prevent it from ever coming in contact with your barrel. Next, get some speaker wire, split it down the middle, and tape one of the wires to the end of your cleaning rod.
(This will be connected to the negative end of your battery.)

Next get some household ammonia. You can pick it up at the dollar store for about 1 gal. (It's a diluted mix of water and ammonia. I think about 25%)

Make a plug to fill the end of your barrel. You can put whatever you need to keep it from leaking. I used a spent cartridge, with tape wrapped around the end to prevent it from falling out and to make it watertight.

Insert the cleaning rod into the bore, and fill the remainder up with ammonia. (I use a eye dropper to be precise.) Careful with the ammonia, it will start bubbling when you hook the battery up to it. You might need to top it off every couple of minutes.

Finally, you'll need 1 "D" cell battery. Connect the positive side of the battery to the other speaker wire and tape that wire to a metal part of your reciever or maybe even a sight. Tape the NEGATIVE side of the battery to the wire running to the taped up cleaning rod.

Wait about 15-30 minutes, and disconnect the battery and take the rod out. You will notice rust and/or brass fouling on the rod. You can wipe it off with steel wool/patches , and if the bore is still rusty/fouled, you can reinsert the rod and refill with ammonia.

Make sure to wear eye-pro and gloves when handling ammonia, and do this in a ventilated area, or outdoors. I've found that in heavily fouled barrels with a lot of rusting/pitting, it can take a couple treatments. The diluted ammonia doesn't hurt your bore either. Just make sure to re-oil your bore and rinse with hot hot water and clean with clean patches to dry up any water.

When you oil a barrel, you really need to slather a lot of oil on your rifleing. Even in a soaked patch, it won't fully cover your bore, and that's how the original rusting starts. When a barrel is put away in storage, and it's not fully coated on the inside with oil.

P.S. If you like spending money, there's something put our by brownells that is basically the exact rig I wrote about, but it costs about 145.00. LOL. I'll stick to my D cell and cleaning rod though....

[EMC45]

Have the bore blown out to 45 cal. I have seen, in a book, a Finn Mosin that was bored out to 45 and that was one mean looking round! It was in a Gun Digest article they had all diferent kinds of Finn Mosins that were necked up and down. Really interesting!

[waksupi]

You don't need a stainless container. Plastic works fine. If necessary for larger pieces, a trough can be built up, of wood frame work, with a visquine covering.



The electrolysis process you speak of works wonders....it will remove all the rust and everything else leaving the markings (and blemishes) all intact. The problem is finding a stainless container to use.

[wonderwolf]

You don't need a stainless container. Plastic works fine. If necessary for larger pieces, a trough can be built up, of wood frame work, with a visquine covering.


Very true...I had forgotten about that...Its been a while since I've seen it done but I was impressed with the results.

[American]

.....Personally, I'd take a steel brush to the bore, fire lap it a bit, and see what you get. Rust always looks worse than it is.

What SuperMag said! It probably looks much worse than it is.

Decades ago, I accidentally neglected a Mossberg pump shotgun by leaving it in a closet for a couple years in a shack in the woods in NC - very hot and humid! I was sad to see it all brown and crusty looking, but glad to see how easily it cleaned up with OOO steel wool and oil.

Iron oxide (rust) is about fourteen times more voluminous than the iron it takes to make it. That's why when you knock off a piece of rust it only leaves a relatively small pit where the iron came from that made it.

Like the man said - steel bore brush. And you might try brushing bore with soapy water (to remove oil-based products), rinse in hot water, dry, then letting some rust dissolver like Navel Jelly or similar stand on it for 15 minutes (use a .22 cal bore mop to apply thick layer of jelly), hot water rinse, bore brush with soapy water, rinse, dry, and repeat several times.

Then one of the compound lapping processes described above should restore the bore shine - small, shallow pitting probably isn’t much of a big deal.

Note that bluing is an iron oxide process and so rust remover will remove bluing.

[pcmacd]

Isn't Norm Johnson in Wisconsin? The author of so many firearms related articles?