The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

Just got my de-gooed Mosin back together... I had a couple previously fired surplus casings hangin' around the house... so I put one in the chamber as a 'test'... pulled the trigger and all was fine...

...went to pull back the bolt and it was stuck with the bolt arm aiming roughly at the two o'clock position...

I managed to get the casing out and the bolt works fine... so... the question is...

Am I going to have problems after I test fire this rifle for real (using surplus ammo) or do the surplus ammo casings swell upon firing for the first time thereby wedging itself in the head of the bolt when pulling the trigger on the casing the second time?

Check the chamber for dried goo. IT can hide and be hard to get out. If you clean the chamber good it should shoot fine.

No way of telling until you fire it. Clean the chamber real good with a shotgun brush chucked up in a cordless drill, might make a difference. Take a deadblow hammer with you just in case. One of my Century T53's got "sticky" as we went till the 4th shot the bolt stuck like you said, didn't have my hammer with me so it had to wait until we got home. Cleaned it again but haven't tried it again so don't know for sure.

Fired cases conform to the chamber of the rifle that they were fired from, and one is not the same as every other. Fire the rifle if it passes headspace, and see what it does with it's own fired cases. Clean the chamber anyway.

I guess I wasn't completely correct when I said the bolt stuck...

The bolt would move, but only between the firing position and that two o'clock position... it wasn't 'sticky'... it would move freely between those two positions... and come to an abrupt halt at two o'clock... as though something was out of wack with the bolt...

I'll clean the chamber as described... and what is this head space you speak of? how is it checked?

Click on the OKIE HEADSPACE banner at the top of the page. He explains it very well there.

I found early on that these rifles don't rechamber fired steel cases readily. I would not be too concerned about it. If it will chamber a live round and the headspace is good, it will be safe to shoot. These rifles are real tough.

why a cordless drill i use my plug in drill

Because most people that are in this century have cordless drills and they much easier to use than fighting with a cord while you're trying to do this

Ok... read about the gauges... makes sense... now... do I get all three... The field, go and the no-go to make sure things are safe?

I looked at a YouTube video about "7.62x54R headspace gauge", the poster said "No-go stops the bolt, the gun is safe to fire..." he didn't say anything about using the "go" or "field gauge" on his rifle beforehand...

'course, ya can find anything on the internet... doesn't mean it's correct...

tjtM38 wrote:I found early on that these rifles don't rechamber fired steel cases readily. I would not be too concerned about it. If it will chamber a live round and the headspace is good, it will be safe to shoot. These rifles are real tough.

This and what JYD said. I've tried rechambering fired steel cased ammo, even in the rifle it was fired from and most times it either won't chamber or is very hard too. I've only attemped it a few times trying to help someone figure out a problem. Otherwise I would have never known because I wouldn't normally rechamber a fired round.

Thanks guys... just ordered an Okie no-go gauge...

Should I be shopping for a left-hand, orange polka-dot glove while waiting for the shipment to arrive?