At a no progress point cleaning my buddy's mosin.

[BigAlofPa.]

Im not getting any more results cleaning this mosin. Im working with hoppes 9 and elite and bore tech elimator for solvents. Using copper wool wrapper around a nylon brush. Also using mothers mag polish. That is showing black grime on the patches. Im afraid if i keep going with the mothers i'll take away more metal. I sluged the bore. It's .311 on the lands. The slug did not touch the groves. I used a .313 cast bullet to slug it. The bore has high spots like mine did. I got mine out through. His their not going anywhere. I been at this over a week now.

I tried to get a pic up. No luck.

[Bloodman14]

Get an old butter tub or similar, put some rags or paper towels in the bottom, remove the wood from the rifle and take a foam-type earplug and roll it down and squish it into the muzzle. Turn the gun muzzle down in the tub and pour some Hoppe's copper solvent down the bore up to the chamber. Let it sit for 24 hours. You will not believe the gunk that will come out! You may need to repeat until no more green comes out. Pour in some Ed's Red solvent (search forum) and that will take care of the rest. If necessary, follow up with more Hoppe's. Had to do this with an old Enfield I picked up.

[Tokarev]

Do not waste expensive Hoppes.
First, remove the wood and use a small funnel in the chamber, to pour a couple quarts of boiling water through the bore. Do not worry about the water: it will quickly evaporate from the hot metal. Run a dry patch through the bore. It will be somewhat dirty.
Now, you can plug the bore and pour cheap pure acetone in it. Leave it for a while, pour out and clean with Hoppes #9.
Run a few patches. If they come out black, then repeat the acetone treatment until they come out clean.
Next, run a patch soaked with janitor grade ammonia through the bore. If it comes out blue, then you still have copper. Keep doing it until no more blue.
Run a patch with a drop of oil on it, and you are done.

[Remiel]

I've seen some, and own one that the bore is 309×314, it's an older M91. Still shoots good, and the cleaning on that one took a while, a mix of hoppes, Ed's red and a foaming bore cleaner helped. It still took a lot of elbow grease to get it "clean" .

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[Tazman1602]

Wow, never had a bore that a few wraps of chore boy copper threads wrapped around a brush would not get out but you’ve got some good advice here. Plugging the barrel end and pouring boiling hoppes into it and letting it sit overnight is a method I remember from the 70’s the “old boys” would use to get leading out…never figured on being one of the old boys…

Art

[BigAlofPa.]

Awesome thanks guys. I have Ed's red on hand too. And the other items too. Im determined to get this rifle nice for him.

[Bloodman14]

'Boiling Hoppe's'?! Chemical burns! Stick with room temp Hoppe's and boiling water, instead. Sorry, Taz.

[gpidaho]

Al: I scrubbed on my old Mosin for three days and when I got to the bottom of all the copper and powder fouling and finally was just getting gray patches the bore was a total sewer pipe anyway. Luckily, I only paid a friend a hundred bucks for the "39" carbine and sold it to a pawn shop for two fifty so I paid for the cleaning supplies and made minimum wage. Gp

[ShooterAZ]

I have a Mosin that the bore looked like a sewer pipe when first I got it. You just have to keep working at it. I found that shooting some jacketed bullets through it and then swabbing the bore with Hoppes while the barrel was still hot really helped. Likewise overnight soaks with Hoppes then vigorously scrubbing with a bore brush with a patch wrapped it. Putting a couple of dabs of JB Bore on the patch really helped too. Scrub, scrub, scrub! When I finally got mine clean, it's shoots cast like a champ! BTW, I only paid a whopping $69 for mine back in the day.

[Stewbaby]

^this. Shoot some fmj and then clean while hot.

[zarrinvz24]

Look up electrolysis cleaner. Back in the golden days of C&R firearms, this was the way to go. I rescued many a $44 M44 Mosin’s using a homemade one.

[BigAlofPa.]

I soaked the bore with Bore tech while we did some shopping. When i poured it out. It was blue/green. I got 8 dirty patches then. Im going to let it sit now with hoppes 9 in it over night.

294061

[Bloodman14]

Dontcha just love corrosive ammo?[smilie=b:

[GhostHawk]

I had good luck shooting my Mosin and following it with cleaning sessions. Towards the end I had a lot better success with ATF (Dextron III) and as I had a quart in my garage it cost me nothing. But I was fast emptying my bottle of Hoppes.

Same is also true for my SKS that I leaded up.

Wet patch of ATF, let it sit for an hour, couple of dry patch's, tight ones. Then a wet one and let it sit.

Eventually it went from dark grooves to a nice mirror bore.

[Tokarev]

For corrosive primer fouling, use boiling water. Works almost instantaneously.
For lead fouling, use a mixture of 70+% acetic acid with 15+% hydrogen peroxide. Takes a looooooong time.
For copper fouling, use janitor grade ammonia. Takes a looong time.
For powder fouling, use acetone. Works pretty quickly.

[GregLaROCHE]

Have you ever considered doing some fire lapping on that bore?

[BigAlofPa.]

I often thought about fire lapping. But i do not know how to do so safely. Can Mothers polish be used as a compound?

I have it soaking in Ed's red for now.

[Adam Helmer]

Guys,

Some barrels are really BOAT ANCHORS! During WWII, the soldiers needed to fire their duty arms. Bore cleaning was a distant second need, if the soldier survived. Parts guns exist for a reason.

Adam

[Larry Gibson]

I have a Mosin that the bore looked like a sewer pipe when first I got it. You just have to keep working at it. I found that shooting some jacketed bullets through it and then swabbing the bore with Hoppes while the barrel was still hot really helped. Likewise overnight soaks with Hoppes then vigorously scrubbing with a bore brush with a patch wrapped it. Putting a couple of dabs of JB Bore on the patch really helped too. Scrub, scrub, scrub! When I finally got mine clean, it's shoots cast like a champ! BTW, I only paid a whopping $69 for mine back in the day.

I "picked up" a Type53 some years back in the SE Asian War games as the previous owner no longer needed it. I found with the 3 rounds left in the magazine it wouldn't hold on C-Rat case cover at 50 paces. Only round that hit was key-holed which is probably why he barely missed me. Bore was the proverbial sewer pipe and when i got home I found it shot no better with Norma 7.62x54R. Some years later I pretty much scrubbed and scrubbed similar to what ShooterAZ described. When I got down to bare pits I tried some .312 Hornadys over 4895 in it and low and behold it would hold 8" +/- at 100 yards. My 314299s did close to the same at around 1800 fps.

Then, a few years back I picked up a group by Lee mould that was supposed to drop .312 - .314 bullets so 311291 style. My mould dropped .316 bullets with COWW + 2% tin. Suits me fine as they are excellent in the othe .314 - .318 rifles I've used them in. If I hold onto the sprue handle (6 cavity mould) while pouring it drops fairly decent .318 bullets. Anyways, the .316 bullets over 4895 w/dacron filler shoot 4 moa or less. That works for me to get the old Type 53 out occasionally. In my MN M91/30 that same load shoots 2 moa+/-.

294092

[LAGS]

I took a bronze cleaning brush , and cast a bore slug in the barrel with JB Weld.
The rifled epoxy slug on the end of a cleaning rod worked to Lap out a lot of the junk using Chrome Polish.
Mother's polish will work , but it is very fine and takes a lot longer.

[todd9.3x57]

Guys,

Some barrels are really BOAT ANCHORS! During WWII, the soldiers needed to fire their duty arms. Bore cleaning was a distant second need, if the soldier survived. Parts guns exist for a reason.

Adam



apparently you have never served. "gun, horse, equipment and finally yourself" said my drill seargent on cleaning.

[Winger Ed.]

I got a really nice looking CMP M1 Garand on the cheap several years ago.
They owner went through the process and got it. Then he fired it "until it lost all its accuracy".

He'd never cleaned the bore!
It looked like a sewer pipe in there. You couldn't hardly see any lands or grooves at all.

Just for a project, I ran a wet flannel patch with Hoppe's #9 down it every day--- no bore brush at all.
The black went away after a couple weeks, and after 73 days, the patches weren't green any more, and the bore looked new.

[zarrinvz24]

I got a really nice looking CMP M1 Garand on the cheap several years ago.
They owner went through the process and got it. Then he fired it "until it lost all its accuracy".

He'd never cleaned the bore!
It looked like a sewer pipe in there. You couldn't hardly see any lands or grooves at all.

Just for a project, I ran a wet flannel patch with Hoppe's #9 down it every day--- no bore brush at all.
The black went away after a couple weeks, and after 73 days, the patches weren't green any more, and the bore looked new.

I bet that was a fun experiment!

[jonp]

JB Borepaste and Montana Xtreme cleaned a Mosin for me with much elbow grease and about 250 patches. Long process but I wasn't busy. Managed 4in or less groups with that old rifle and Yugo Surplus. I was very happy with the results. Bought the rifle for $69 like ShooterAZ out of a big barrel of them at an LGS in NH. Wish I had bought a dozen.

[BigAlofPa.]

I took a look down the bore with my eyes. It looks better than when he 1st bought it over. No more sewer pipe look. I can see the rifling good too. Getting there at least. I just did the boiling water too. Going to do it again. Then back to the chemicals. I'll run some more patches with mothers on too. I feel more confident with it since i can see the rifling is good.

[missionary5155]

Your journey to the bottom of the grooves is the joy of recouperating a tomato stake back into a rifle that will serve you well.
My last was a Krag that slugged 1st time through with a .312 groove but shot awful with .314 cast.
Lots of "fun at the bench" and found a .316 groove. It shoots great now with .318 cast at 1900 fps.

[Geezer in NH]

https://www.amazon.com/Sweets-OK-762-7-62-Solvent/dp/B001OPNO44/ref=asc_df_B001OPNO44?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=79920803409785&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583520395356742&psc=1

This is the stuff I used in my gunshop fantastic.

[405grain]

Years ago I had a junker take off barrel from a VZ-24 Mauser that I was sporterizing. This was a throw-away barrel and the bore was so dark that I couldn't even see any rifling. Just to try out the process and see how it would work I tried electrolysis cleaning on this barrel. I shoved your standard foam ear plug up into the neck of the chamber and made up an electrode from a TIG welding rod. I put a wrap of electrical tape on the TIG rod in a couple of places so that the rod wouldn't contact against the inside of the bore. I was able to stick a small plastic funnel into the muzzle tight enough that it wouldn't leak. Standing the barrel up vertically I inserted the TIG rod electrode down into the bore and then filled the barrel up until there was liquid inside the funnel with Windex (it contains ammonia). I took a square 9 volt battery and some wire and attached the positive side (+) to the barrel and the negative side (-) to the end of the TIG rod. Within less than a minute the liquid started to gently fizz. I left the barrel like this all day. That night I removed the battery, poured out the liquid, and pulled out the TIG rod. The rod was coated with more disgusting Gaak than the bottom of a harbor buoy. I ran some patches through the bore until they were no longer covered with blobs of dark goo. Then I cleaned the barrel normally. When I was done the bore was remarkably clean. The inside of that barrel was pitted like the craters of the Moon and was completely useless, but it was super clean. I determined that the electrolysis cleaning process was very effective on even the dirtiest and most heavily fouled bores. Then I threw that barrel into the scrap metal bin.

[Led]

What your seeing in this picture is pitting in the barrel steel caused by rust that was caused by corrosive ammo. Cleaning will not remove pits in the steel.

Later,
Stephen

[Adam Helmer]

todd,

Would you like to see my DD 214? As far as military arms go, while growing up in Chester County, I was blessed to have many WWII veterans as my neighbors. One guy told me during the Battle of the Bulge he did not take his boots off for 17 days. He advised he did not have time to clean his rifle. All the ammo in WWII was corrosive, except for the M1 Carbine ammo.

Which war was your drill sergeant referring to? I mean care for the horse, etc. My neighbors were in WWII. Which was your military time?

Be well.

Adam

[IHuntDragons]

I took a look down the bore with my eyes. It looks better than when he 1st bought it over. No more sewer pipe look. I can see the rifling good too. Getting there at least. I just did the boiling water too. Going to do it again. Then back to the chemicals. I'll run some more patches with mothers on too. I feel more confident with it since i can see the rifling is good.

How did this turn out?

[john.k]

reminds me of when I worked for a tractor dealer.....the younger son (35ish) of the owner was a dreamer ,and bought some liquid from a travelling sales man that "would put the metal back in pitted gears and bearings."

[Scrounge]

I've seen some, and own one that the bore is 309×314, it's an older M91. Still shoots good, and the cleaning on that one took a while, a mix of hoppes, Ed's red and a foaming bore cleaner helped. It still took a lot of elbow grease to get it "clean" .

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

I've got one I bought with a known .316 bore. Factory ammo is useless in it, but it shoot .316 sized boolits very nicely.

Bill

[GunnerAsch]

I have learned the joys and dangers of Stainless Steel bore brushes, working with milsurps. The trick is to get some Kroil into a plugged barrel after a good Hoppes cleaning, and let it soak for day or 3. Then run a proper sized stainless steel brush down the tube a dozen times, slowly and evenly. Then reclean with Hoppes until the patches stop turning green/yuckie. Repeat one moretime with Kroil soak, another dozen slow even strokes with a stainless steel bore brush, repeat with Hoppes and recheck. That will usually remove even the most burned on, nasty crap. You can swap Sweets 7.62 for Hoppes when cleaning out a sewer pipe barrel. You may not like what you wind up with... but it wont get any cleaner. Few milsurps were shooting cast... shrug..and if you find one the previous owner leaded up... its still hard to beat mercury as a lead solvent. All caviats should be followed when dealing with mercury. Ive got the same couple ounces I stared with 50 yrs ago... still disolves lead nicely in badly plugged guns.