Bolt hitting the reciver when cycling

[AZ Mosin]

I bought my 1943 Mosin ex-sniper about a month ago. I cleaned it till it was in perfect condition but noticed that when you shoot or dry-fire and cycle the bolt, the bolt body is pushed forward enough to rub the reciver when it is about 1/2 of the way up. It isn't a slight rubbing either, I have to put the rifle down and really strain to open it. This is dry-fired or shot but when it is normaly cycled it is smooth as butter. Pulling the cocking knob lets some of the pressure off and makes it easier which leads me to belive it's the spring being to stiff but I don't know enough to be 100% sure. Let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks!

[Simo]

order a new spring and hack off 4 coils

grab a dremel and some 240 grit heads and polish all mating surfaces on your bolt

take your bolt out and flip it upside down, you see that long groove full of machining marks? grind them down.

welcome to having a mosin that cycles like a 700!

this in no way alters the rifle from current status either, it just makes your wartime mosin into a pre war mosin or a reworked fin.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Do I have to???? Grind ? The machine marks are a part of that rifles wartime history, it is not a prewar rifle, it's supposed to have tool marks in the metal. Dremel tools, sandpaper, files, none of these are preservation tools, these are alteration tools.
From what I am understanding here you pull the trigger ( I am doing so right now with a refurb 91/30) Then you start to raise the bolt and the front of the bolt body is rubbing the receiver once the bolt handle is half way up, ( it is on my rifle also, this is normal) These refurb rifles tend to be a bit rough right out of the box, the parts are all from other rifles, they have been individually refurbished and used to build this rifle. Lots of rough edges, and parts that need to get used to each other. Oil up the bolt, put something good on the TV and sit there and work that bolt as many times as it takes to work in. These rifles can be like a new pair of shoes, they need breaking in.

[TopperT]

For sure these rifles can be 'tweeked" but that does alter' the rifle. Honestly? I got both. This is the place I don't talk about that rifle .

Ok: JYD has a good suggestion, I wonder if some JB Bore Paste would help as well, its a tiny bit abrasive, we use it in bore to no ill effect, so it might help the bolt settle in. Just MHO.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Might work

[mosinjunkie]

The friction is not from the bolt rubbing the receiver. It's from the cocking ramp on the bolt. Take the bolt apart and make sure the ramp area between the bolt and the cocking piece is mating good. Put some grease on it.

[mogunner]

1943? Any indication that it was ever actually used to any extent? I've used some Mother's or Simichrome polish on the bolt head but never needed to remove spring coils, or machining marks on any 42-up Mosin's, just shoot them like they were intended and stop babying them...

[azpilot]

Mine rides that area really good all the way up till I'm vertical with the bolt handle. In fact all of mine do that, the ex-sniper rubs a bit more and is a bit harder since I shoot that one least. The other ones are not so bad, I think this is normal and the more you use it the better it gets

[Longcolt44]

STAY AWAY FROM THE DREMEL...Shoot another 100 rounds as is, then see. These rifles were meant to shoot in rough conditions and will never feel like an $800.00 hunting rifle.

[Simo]

STAY AWAY FROM THE DREMEL...Shoot another 100 rounds as is, then see. These rifles were meant to shoot in rough conditions and will never feel like an $800.00 hunting rifle.

my 43 does

[Junk Yard Dog]

and it's not supposed to unless it was field used for a year or two, wartime rifles are supposed to show the tool marks and other signs of hurried production. Grinding and sanding these marks are not preservation, they are alteration . Our mission is to preserve history, and sometimes that means the rough bits also.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I hope nobody, I damn sure wouldn't, these are antique milsurps, if it was a commercial sporter that would be a different matter, in that case you are paying for that smooth function. With a milsurp you are getting a chance to experiance the weapon as the last soldier to be issued it did, of as the Soviet conscript would have. Yesterday you were baking bread, or hammering nails, now, only hours later this rifle has been shoved in your hands, you have been sent of the face the oncoming American army and told to hold them up to the death. This is the tool you have to work with, once that history has been destroyed it can't be gotten back. If you want a baby smooth rifle Winchester, Remington, Sako, and many other fine commercial manufacturers make such tools . I take preservation very seriously or I wouldn't be here doing this, my rifles do not get altered, most do not get shot, the most I do to the bulk of them is wipe them down with oils to keep rust at bay. Dremels, sandpaper, files, the thought of any of that shit near my collection gives me the heeby jeebies, sometimes I feel as if I have been trying to teach preservation but nobody is listening.

[Simo]

and it's not supposed to unless it was field used for a year or two, wartime rifles are supposed to show the tool marks and other signs of hurried production. Grinding and sanding these marks are not preservation, they are alteration . Our mission is to preserve history, and sometimes that means the rough bits also.

its not alteration as you can not visually see anything has been done, as for wartime production rifles having to be problematic, why would you want your rifle to be problematic? is it alteration to clean the bore of its historical fouling or removing the preservation grease? and like Zeebill stated most of these refurbs were taken out of commission and "ALTERED" for better function or just to simply function again, My 43 has not one matching serial which means it was massively altered does this mean I can no longer speak of this particular rifle here? many people own Finnish rifles here and speak about them openly is that blasphemy here? cleaning up a few rough spots is not like throwing on an ATI stock or scope mount.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I do not accept the faking of snipers, or the alteration of any milsurp past simple parts replacment if something has broken, and I keep broken parts with the rifle. The refurbs are Cold War collectables, they are relics of thattime and represent what would have been the weapons in the hands of our enemies had we gone to war with the USSR in 1948. This is what our enemies would have had to deal with against M1 Garands. What most boards do I could care less, on this board I will allow restoration help to bring back a Bubba, I will not allow any talk of tearing down, or altering of otherwise original milsurps, that is not what I, or this board are about. No place on this board will I put up with the drill and tap crap, resnipering shit, or any other Bubba behavior.
This post is not locked because the original poster has a problem he needs help with, he was given a responce that was not in keeping with this boards preservation policys and I was forced to take issue with that. It comes with the Boss title over there under my name, if I didn't soon enough this board would be like the others you talked about, and my time here would have been wasted. Note that I have not mentioned any one name, only pointed out that it was against forum policy to grind and alter things, nobody is being singled out for a beating, and I am trying to teach, it comes from a lifetime of experiance earned from having to deal with the leftover scraps of some milsurp or other after a non preservationist previous owner got done with it. Don't be the guy being damned by future collectors because you have done something that can't be put right.

[Junk Yard Dog]

and it's not supposed to unless it was field used for a year or two, wartime rifles are supposed to show the tool marks and other signs of hurried production. Grinding and sanding these marks are not preservation, they are alteration . Our mission is to preserve history, and sometimes that means the rough bits also.

its not alteration as you can not visually see anything has been done, as for wartime production rifles having to be problematic, why would you want your rifle to be problematic? is it alteration to clean the bore of its historical fouling or removing the preservation grease?

There are some rifles that I do not remove the grease on, I want to be able to experiance the history of that rifle just as the last soldier, or next one would have, and then pass it on to the next generation of collector in the same condition I received it so they to can know a bit of history. I have commercial sporters if I must have a smooth action. If I did such an alteration to one of my rifles I would know it, and that would be more than bad enough.

[Simo]

I do not accept the faking of snipers, or the alteration of any milsurp past simple parts replacment if something has broken, and I keep broken parts with the rifle. The refurbs are Cold War collectables, they are relics of thattime and represent what would have been the weapons in the hands of our enemies had we gone to war with the USSR in 1948. This is what our enemies would have had to deal with against M1 Garands. What most boards do I could care less, on this board I will allow restoration help to bring back a Bubba, I will not allow any talk of tearing down, or altering of otherwise original milsurps, that is not what I, or this board are about. No place on this board will I put up with the drill and tap crap, resnipering shit, or any other Bubba behavior.
This post is not locked because the original poster has a problem he needs help with, he was given a responce that was not in keeping with this boards preservation policys and I was forced to take issue with that. It comes with the Boss title over there under my name, if I didn't soon enough this board would be like the others you talked about, and my time here would have been wasted. Note that I have not mentioned any one name, only pointed out that it was against forum policy to grind and alter things, nobody is being singled out for a beating, and I am trying to teach, it comes from a lifetime of experiance earned from having to deal with the leftover scraps of some milsurp or other after a non preservationist previous owner got done with it. Don't be the guy being damned by future collectors because you have done something that can't be put right.

JYD, it is super obvious that my suggestion is the hot topic here lol no need to tread lightly buddy. what I did to my bolt would have been done naturally through years of use anyways so why not get those same results sooner?

[Simo]

and it's not supposed to unless it was field used for a year or two, wartime rifles are supposed to show the tool marks and other signs of hurried production. Grinding and sanding these marks are not preservation, they are alteration . Our mission is to preserve history, and sometimes that means the rough bits also.

its not alteration as you can not visually see anything has been done, as for wartime production rifles having to be problematic, why would you want your rifle to be problematic? is it alteration to clean the bore of its historical fouling or removing the preservation grease?

There are some rifles that I do not remove the grease on, I want to be able to experiance the history of that rifle just as the last soldier, or next one would have, and then pass it on to the next generation of collector in the same condition I received it so they to can know a bit of history. I have commercial sporters if I must have a smooth action. If I did such an alteration to one of my rifles I would know it, and that would be more than bad enough.

but you are forgetting that the majority here are collector shooters.

[Junk Yard Dog]

The bolt breaking in with use would not have resulted in the vanishing of wartime rough tool marks, only the needed wear edges would have worn in, and the overall look of the bolt would remain the same. Let the parts wear in naturaly over time, nobody is shooting at you, time is one thing we have here that the Soviet soldier did not, and still they would have had to wear them in with use also, the armorers would not have had time to fine tune everyones rifle. More on this later, my customers are walking in.

[Junk Yard Dog]

[Shooters some, but,
Who are on a preservation collector board.

[AZ Mosin]

Junk yard dog- It's a numbers matching gun and doesn't seem like it was used much so it may well need to just be broken in.

Mosinjunkie- The ramp is as clean as it's going to get without using a dremel. I've also greased it.

I don't mind that it is rough at all. The bolt is just so stiff at that point that I have to put the gun down and pull like hell to get the bolt up. I'm not a small guy either and am in know way babying it. I think for now I'll see if I can maybe break it in till it gets smoother. Thanks for the replys