"Collectors Forum" - All Mosin Nagant are discussed here. Also the Russian and "Finnish capture" SVT38 and SVT40. This is an excellent place for new Mosin owners to ask questions. We have some of the best experts here looking forward to your questions. If you post a Mosin sniper rifle here, we may or may not move it to the sniper forum.
Preservation forum, please no altered military surplus rifles or discussions on altering in this forum. No sportsters. Please read the rules at the top of each forum
Out on vacation and stopped at a pawn shop in rural Texas just to look. Much to my surprise, found a 1960 T53 (on my wish list) with matching receiver, bolt and magazine. Butt plate was pitted and could not see a number. Stock was matching and in excellent shape. Although the weapon had seen some hard use and looked a little rough, I decided to try and purchase. They were even willing to negotiate a price to where I thought it made sense. Good news, right?
Brought it home and disassembled to clean. Some pitting below the wood line, but nothing worse that I had seen before. Rifling is weak, but still visible. Saw no import marks anywhere. In fact only two noticeable stamps (shown in pictures below).
Bad news - after cleaning and assembly. I checked headspace and it failed on the "N" and "F" spacers. What does this mean? Do I now have an artifact that can't be shot? Looking for more experienced inputs. Thanks!
That is a pretty cool looking Mosin. It's seen a hard life, that is for sure. You might be able to just swap out the bolt head and fix it. Liberty Tree is out of them at the moment, I just checked. You can probably find one on GunBroker or maybe someone on here has an extra to sell. You could try and swap out the bolt for one in another Mosin to see if the head space is good after the swap. Atleast you will know that fixes the issue before buying parts.
"The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants." - Albert Camus
If the bolt handle closes fully on the NO-GO gauge, repeat the test with a FIELD gauge. If the bolt does not close completely with this gauge, the headspace is on the long side, but the rifle can usually still be used with factory ammo, if the cases will not be reloaded and there are no other problems present. Never fire a gun that closes on a FIELD gauge. If it is fired, the chances are extremely high that you will get case ruptures.
Buy another bolt and try it.
Do Not Think Of Winning.
Think,Rather,Of Not Losing
Titanium Hammer wrote:Not a big deal. If you've got other Mosins around just try swapping the bolt head & then re-check the headspace.
What he said. Either swap out with an existing bolt head from your collection or buy a replacement bolt head
Damn, I'll bet that's going to leave a mark! Probably hurt too!
"I think Congressmen should wear uniforms,
you know, like NASCAR drivers, so we could
identify their corporate sponsors."
"When I die, I want to be facing my enemies surrounded by their dead bodies and piles of spent brass"
"Never argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience." - Mark Twain
Lee-online wrote:Cool old relic of the Vietnam war. Most likely a bring back.
+1
Yup lot of recent history in that t53. I've heard a quite a few of these 1960 dated carbines saw action in Southeast Asia. With no import marks one can only imagine the journey it took on it's way to rural Texas.
Nice score Congrats
Retire it to the wall of history. A bolt head swap probably would fix the headspace, but I lack faith in these possible Vietnam bringbacks were it comes to safety.
Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.
Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
Theodore Roosevelt
Lee-online wrote:Cool old relic of the Vietnam war. Most likely a bring back.
Not necessarily as the early import Navy Arms ones were barely marked with a lot of times no way to really tell what you are looking at because they were only partial strikes to begin with. I could send you a bolt head but I could be 20 or 30 before you have one that goes through the head space check so buying new parts could get expensive for you. Work with the bolt heads you have till you find none of them works and them look elsewhere. Buying another bolt is expensive and may not work either and if it does then you will more than likely have a Russian bolt in a Chinese rifle which would turn me off completely but that is just me others may think no foul I guess.
Look real close on the wings of the receiver rear and it may have a partial Navy Arms stamping. That also looks rough enough to have been one of the real early ones from that outfit out west whose name escapes me right now. They are also marked up around the bayonets too. The ones from the west were really used to death so that bore condition you describe makes me wonder if it is one of theirs too. Most of the ones I saw overseas had the bayonets removed as they made noise in the jungle. Neat looking gun for sure! Has tales to tell I bet! Bill
We'll never know a rifles true history but it was my understanding that a 1960's T53 was made for the war because they has stopped making them in the late 50's.
Either way, a really nice rifle with a lot of personality.
It's a War-relic that has been through a lot. Upon seeing the pics it looks as if the stock got a work-over Stateside from our old friend who need not be named.
Go buy a spare bolt head & test again... If it passes then all is well. Then pull the bolt-head & hang it on the wall without one & enjoy it. This one has seen enough action, best to put it to pasture; and now you have TWO spare bolt-heads.
"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it". Mark Twain
Wow, this one has been around. As the other guys said, try a different bolt head. I think I read above that you have several Mosins. You can try the entire bolt from another one of your rifles. If it tests out ok on the NG gauge, then work through the process of elimination, interchanging parts from the bolt that worked to the one that has issues. Most likely a bolt head but you never really know. I wouldn't buy any bolt parts until you determine what the issue is. Even then, there is no guarantee that any bolt head you purchase will pass a headspace check. Crap shoot... If you have an existing bolt that works, then use that one if you decide to shoot it. I don't know that I would shoot or buy anything the g@@ks used - but that's just me - still soured...
NA could also have roughly stamped the right side of the rear sight, as well.
From the 1960 T-53's I have seen they are not stamped on the butt plate.
+1
