new to me 91/30

[legend]

i bought a 91/30 at our local gun show.
What boolit seems to work best for you?



It has a lacquer finish,what would be a good stripper to use?

[Calamity Jake]

Lyman 314299 if it casts big enough you will need to slug your throat/bore to see what size it is you'll need a boolit .002-.003 over bore size.
The group buy for NOE 316299 would also be a good one.

[legend]

Thanks,i have yet to slug it.

[Smoke-um if you got-um]

These rifles can have two different bore/groove diameters. Just in front of the chamber often is quite large and then tapers down to anywhere from .308 to .312 at the muzzle. With the cast it seems to be necessary to use the size just in front of the chamber plus one or two thou. to get any accuracy. My rifle has a .317 bore/groove at that point. I paper patch a .308 or .309 200gr Lee to as close to .318/.319 as I can get. I have not found any molds that throw them that large yet so the paper would not necessary. Also, these guns seem to like the longer, heavier bullets. The Lee 200's end up being approx. 210 grains after the gas check and paper is applied. These with 45 grains of H4350(and with that metal butt plate) let you know something is going on when you squeeze the trigger.
Good luck.

Mike

[3006guns]

Stripper? On a 91/30? Good grief man, just wait a year or two.......it'll fall off on it's own!

Actually the "finish" is some sort of cheap red stain and any hardware store paint stripper should take it off.

[truckjohn]

Definitely clean the heck out of it, then slug carefully - and buy the mold that fits... As a few others here have sagely mentioned - barrel internal dimensions are all over the map...

Finish wise.... It's not lacquer - it's shellac... If it is really bugging you, denatured alcohol/Methylated spirits will do the trick.... If you can't get that, I suppose you could sacrifice some 95% Everclear....

No need to buy fancy paint strippers and the like.....

Thanks

[nicholst55]

Definitely clean the heck out of it, then slug carefully - and buy the mold that fits... As a few others here have sagely mentioned - barrel internal dimensions are all over the map...

Finish wise.... It's not lacquer - it's shellac... If it is really bugging you, denatured alcohol/Methylated spirits will do the trick.... If you can't get that, I suppose you could sacrifice some 95% Everclear....

No need to buy fancy paint strippers and the like.....

Thanks

John's dead on there; most anything will strip shellac from denatured alcohol to Goof-off!

A lot of Mosins have a layer of hard cosmoline in the bore that can be tough to remove. I'd get an aluminum funnel (if such a thing still exists) and pour a gallon of boiling water through the bore, then clean it aggressively with JB Bore Paste and Kroil.

Once you've got it clean, then slug it. In case you need an unusually large boolit to fit the groove diameter, there is a group buy on an NOE 202 grain boolit available in .311, .314, and .316" here.

[legend]

Hot soapy water was first,then a patch.wow that was the dirtyest patch i think i ever saw! mear boiling water with soap has made the water nasty,lots more scrubbing with brass brush did not clean it yet......this will be an education.

[wallenba]

Got three variants. All have different bore dimensions. My M38's groove diameter is .315 at the muzzle, .314 at the chamber end. Still, it shoots a .315 boolit inside of 4'' at 100 yards.

[7 Ring]

I bought a Mosin Nagant 91/30 with a Hex receiver recently. I shoot the Mauser Match at my local club with the rifle and it shoots really well with Russian 149g ball ammunition.

[legend]

Yesterday i shot it for the first time !

load was 13 gr unique ,311284,cci 200,bullshops LOTAK,the group was close to

1 3/4 inches at 25 yards for 12 shots. so i think thats ok for the first time.

WOW what a bad trigger !

I still am working on cleaning up the bbl...i just could not wait to shoot it,and the yard needed mowing...so i went shooting.

[madsenshooter]

If it won't clean out, try blasting it out! I think I've done that a few times. There is a group buy running for 311299 that casts larger, for these things. I bought one of the large spitzers, 316365 and the bands cast .317 on it. If that isn't big enough I'll go to 8mm. Got to find some brass before I do anything with mine. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...=107545&page=7

[legend]

I have about 24 s&b boxer cases,i just bought a hyd de-capper off ebay.this guy is selling new ones in the 20.00 range in the reloading section.
so i guess i will try all the steps and use the copper washed junk i find around,it sounds like a LOT of steps to use this kind of brass.but i kinda like a challange and i have lots of time and little money.so thats my plan,it ought to work by november...

[MOSIN NAGANT]

I use the Lyman 314299 for my Mosin. Shoots very well in mine. 200 gr is a good weight for the mosin since it started out with a 220 gr boolit. Hope this helps.

[Mossy Nugget]

My attempts to slug my 91/30 resulted in several broken dowel sections. 1/8 oz. eagle claw egg sinkers .358 dia. would not start at all. 1/8 oz. water gremlin egg sinkers .305~308 dia. started finger pressure only and falling thru the chamber end; but at the muzzle, they engraved only on the top of the lands, measured .302 I do not know how deep the grooves are, but they must be deeper than .308. So, for noob clarification; Is the "bore" diameter measured between the tops of the lands,(diameter between the highest points)? or is bore diameter measured from the bottom of opposite grooves (diameter between the lowest points)? How do you decide how big a boolit mould you need, And lastly, what do y'all use to slug and get both measurements?

[doubs43]

My attempts to slug my 91/30 resulted in several broken dowel sections. 1/8 oz. eagle claw egg sinkers .358 dia. would not start at all. 1/8 oz. water gremlin egg sinkers .305~308 dia. started finger pressure only and falling thru the chamber end; but at the muzzle, they engraved only on the top of the lands, measured .302 I do not know how deep the grooves are, but they must be deeper than .308. So, for noob clarification; Is the "bore" diameter measured between the tops of the lands,(diameter between the highest points)? or is bore diameter measured from the bottom of opposite grooves (diameter between the lowest points)? How do you decide how big a boolit mould you need, And lastly, what do y'all use to slug and get both measurements?

"Bore" is the diameter formed by a circle touching the tops of the lands. The circle formed when touching the bottoms of the lands is the "groove" diameter.

There are differing opinions regarding the best size for a boolit. Some say .001" ~ .002" over groove diameter is best while others say a boolit should be the diameter of the lead in front of the chamber. Only experimenting will tell you which your rifle prefers as each is a law unto itself. Some rifles shoot better when the boolit is touching the lands when chambered while others may require a few thousands "jump" before engaging the rifling.

A soft pure lead boolit is best to slug a bore and both bore and groove diameters can be measured from it.

[Ajax]

Please do not use wood dowels to slug your gun. Go to home depot and buy some brass rod stock and use it. There is a real chance of breaking a dowel and jamming it in the barrel. Then you really have a problem.


Andy

[Dutch4122]

My attempts to slug my 91/30 resulted in several broken dowel sections. 1/8 oz. eagle claw egg sinkers .358 dia. would not start at all. 1/8 oz. water gremlin egg sinkers .305~308 dia. started finger pressure only and falling thru the chamber end; but at the muzzle, they engraved only on the top of the lands, measured .302 I do not know how deep the grooves are, but they must be deeper than .308. So, for noob clarification; Is the "bore" diameter measured between the tops of the lands,(diameter between the highest points)? or is bore diameter measured from the bottom of opposite grooves (diameter between the lowest points)? How do you decide how big a boolit mould you need, And lastly, what do y'all use to slug and get both measurements?

There is another method for determining what diameter boolits to feed a rifle; and I have found that it works very well with the Mosin Nagants. Take a casing that has been fired in your rifle (not resized yet) and measure the inside diameter of the case neck with the small end of your calipers. Subtract .001" from that measurement and that will be the diameter you size your boolits to. Example, if you measure the inside of the case neck and get a measurement of .315" then you will size your boolits to .314" This is a much easier method than trying to slug these rifles which have bore diameters all over the place from .308" all the way up to .318" Even if your rifle has a tight bore the boolit will just swage down as it enters the bore; and the small amount of extra pressure created as the boolit swages down will not create unsafe pressures. Also, stick with the same brand of cases when using this method as different brands of casings have different neck thickness.

Hope this helps,

[Mossy Nugget]

Now I have a plan. I will buy the Lee 312-165-2R to start, (just ran out to the shed to measure some of my old cases, got .312 on average). The best shooting commercial brand I've shot is Wolf Gold. Jacketed hollow points from those measured .311. That would seem to confirm Dutch's method. The worst was this copper washed steel Russian light ball spam can stuff. There were no two alike, ranging from .306~.314, sometimes different diameters on the same round, depending on where you measure! I also found a way to tweak boolit sizes called "beagling" in this forum. The first boolit I cast will be soft lead, to slug using brass rod. Thanks, everyone for the help!

[adrians]

sage advice from all above ,
i have a m44 sitting in my loading room it,s been there the longest time and i ain,t slugged it yet .
NOW is a great time ,the grandkids are driving me nuts ,bless em.
to the loading room i go ( the little tikes are too young to come in here yet).
have a good holiday.