The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

I got this 1944 Ex Sniper a little while ago. Very rough, or seasoned. I have a spare stock to cut for it and for Christmas got a Firefield repro scope I was going to have mounted to it, but have considered selling it if I can find an original scope I can afford. Is there any place that still sells genuine surplus scopes? I'm not too anal about this project, but would like to give the old girl her second wind. Any suggestions? Thx

Sorry for the poor camera pics.

It's an EX sniper... leave it as it is..

Yes, it is an ex sniper, decommissioned because it is worn to the point of no longer meeting the specs required of a sniper. Shoot it as it is, it's a regular M91/30 now.

I haven't shot it yet, mainly take my '42 and '32 out to the range or farm. What did the Russians do when they decommision a former sniper? Do they replace with a standard trigger, remove bedding or shims, or just remove the scope? In the one pic the bore looks ok, in others it looks far more worn than my other Mosins.

It's sent in for refurbishing with all the other rifles, stripped down to a barreled action, it's parts scattered to the four winds and refurbished with batches of like parts that are used at the end of the line on any rifle they are putting together. Looks like your rifle ended up with a repaired ex PU stock, but the trigger, any shims, the bolt, the rest of the scope mount and all gone. Sniper scope on an ex sniper is like tits on a bull, of dubious use, and a waste of money and time. It's just a M91/30 infantry rifle now, not a sniper, the bore shows a good deal of pitting.

Eh, that's too bad. I was hoping to ressurect a sniper. I cannot find any import stamps on it anywhere, receiver, barrel, no where the rest of mine have them anyways. Oh well, I still have my hotrod '67 M39 that shoots well.

Kalinka is the only game in town for a PU scope now, they are running out. If you have 399 to 500 bucks you can have one of the last 400 around. I saw a real PU scope go on ebay for 190 bucks. Don't change a thing. You have a wartime stock and by the looks a reason for it to be decommisioned. There are a few nice exs out there for a 150. If you find a TULA I'd get it

Sirex wrote:Eh, that's too bad. I was hoping to ressurect a sniper. I cannot find any import stamps on it anywhere, receiver, barrel, no where the rest of mine have them anyways. Oh well, I still have my hotrod '67 M39 that shoots well.

If you want a Mosin Sniper, order one from R-Guns & get the real deal. The 44 Tula you posted is a cool looking gun in it's own right.... Should prove to be a good shooter. Try it out. Or sell it to me... I would love to add it to my collection just the way it is.

as a side note... making permanent alterations to a gun is not condoned here. Please refer to the forum rules please.

Mantis wrote:Kalinka is the only game in town for a PU scope now, they are running out. If you have 399 to 500 bucks you can have one of the last 400 around. I saw a real PU scope go on ebay for 190 bucks. Don't change a thing. You have a wartime stock and by the looks a reason for it to be decommisioned. There are a few nice exs out there for a 150. If you find a TULA I'd get it

For the amount of money you would spend to acquire parts you could buy a real deal sniper for $800 instead. Building a fake makes no sense...

I'm not condoning a thing. I keep my rifles original. BUT you got the money and don't get a PU scope then your loss. I have seen TULA cert snipers out of the crate from com bloc countries, drilled no mount no scope, and no welds, what then? It's a sniper, it's real, it's not de commissioned. Can't add anything? Why? What if there is a scope/mount with that number floating around? Why can't a re pop scope be added, nothing is being changed.
Never is not a word that can just be thrown around when it comes to Mosin rifles. There is no rhyme or reason how these rifles are refurbed. Depends on the country and who was cracking the whip. Did I say drill baby drill? No I said buy a scope.. and I stand behind that. If you have a mismatch PU and I have the right scope that I bought when they had them, as an investment, well I have your scope, do you want it?

Kinda went thru a dilema with this rifle. Was gonna try to rescope it. Then decided not to. Then I was going to sell it. But, all my other modern Mosins are refurbs (except maybe my M91 and Westinghouse). I got some really lowball offers on this old girl that offended me. So I picked it up. The bolt is super slick. No import numbers I can see. A very, um, "experienced" stock. So I decided to keep it, but maybe try a Finn trigger and slip some cork under the front of the barrel and see how she does. Nothing to permanently alter it, just make her more fun to shoot. If I need a great sniper rifle should the ever feared zombies arise, I still have the Rem700 in .308 that will outshoot any of my Mosins.

Well, since I decided to keep the '44 ex sniper, I cleaned the bore and chamber with Hopps 9, then used a light coating of remoil in places. Then I did some non-permanent modifications to it before taking it to the range. I installed a 2 stage M39 trigger, M39 dimpled Iz magazine, and put some high visibility orange tape on the front sight pin. The bolt was smooth as butter. Took it to the range testerday to test it out. Shooting a 20rd box of Priv Partisan brass 182gr, and a box of Wolf 147 or 148 gr ammo. Ran about 5 shots , the switched to the Saiga and 9mm pistol, and AR to let the guns cool down between magazines. The grouping on the Mosin looked really good, albiet a bit low and right but pretty close for a rifle I thought the barrel was shot out of. Then in the last 5 rounds of Wolf, we couldn't get the bolt back open. We let it cool for about 30 mins and still wouldn't open. We figured maybe a ruptured case, but with a rubber mallet got the bolt open and back, and saw the spent case stuck in there with what looked like a fractured chamber.When I got home took a cleaning rod and popped the steel case out, no rupture. BUT...... the chamber is shot, literally. I swabbed it and found some rust debris, so maybe the previous owner shot corrosive and didn't clean enough? This my first outing with her. Bad news, the gun is shot, well, done being shot. The only goods news is it didn't blow up in our faces and now I have spare parts for my 1944 M39 project gun.

It's called sticky bolt and is a common Mosin problem, caused by the buildup of fossilized cosmoline and lacquer coating material from steel case cartridges plastered in a thin layer onto the chamber walls. First this, you should have cleaned the chamber before firing the rifle, this is part of basic rifle maintenance, always clean the chamber in the future, oil left in the chamber during firing can lead to dangerously high chamber pressures. Get a 20 gauge shotgun bore brush, mount it on a section of shotgun cleaning rod, chuck the rod in a power drill, wrap the brush with OOO size steel wool and soak it in JB bore paste or solvent, JB works best for the real crusty ones. Drill the brush into the chamber for a minute, do not drill into the rifling, clean up the mess and test fire, if sticking persists then clean it again . With JB bore paste one cleaning should do it, and clean the chamber after you shoot from then on.

I must say it is a looker. I think i would do as JYD says and inspect it good and see if cleaning doesn't fix the problem. I have seen many a new guy that has had this problem and when they get in there and clean it then the problem goes away. I am not saying that this will fix your problem but i would try if it twere me as i like the look of that old girl. If not fixable i would find a display spot for her

Yeah, I didn't have a 20G bore brush so what I used is one of those little brushes that look like a toothbrush, but with the brass bristles. They usually come in a set of three, plastic/steel/brass bristles. Thought I got it all out. So the chamber pressue is what caused the chamber to fracture?

Sirex wrote:Yeah, I didn't have a 20G bore brush so what I used is one of those little brushes that look like a toothbrush, but with the brass bristles. They usually come in a set of three, plastic/steel/brass bristles. Thought I got it all out. So the chamber pressue is what caused the chamber to fracture?

That's the second time you've said the chamber is fractured. What do you see that tells you the chamber is fractured?

If you look down the rifle, look toward the bottom of the chamber, see how the top part is smooth and round, and the bottom part of the "O" is jagged? Metal missing. I apologize, if I am not describing it accurately. We were shooting it and having problems. With the brass ammo (Priv) it shot great. With the Wolf, it started sticking. We put more brass ammo back in and it shot/cycled fine again. Then shot another couple of the Wolf steel case, started sticking again then locked up. Brass ran fine. Steel case no.

I apologize if I am not describing this correctly. It's not the sticky bolt syndrome. Hard to see in the pic, but metal is missing in the chamber, bottom of picture away from the floor. Sorry, very hard to get a picture of the inside of the rifle. She was shootin well too. I was very proud, and very happy to keep her.

Sirex wrote:I apologize if I am not describing this correctly. It's not the sticky bolt syndrome. Hard to see in the pic, but metal is missing in the chamber, bottom of picture away from the floor. Sorry, very hard to get a picture of the inside of the rifle. She was shootin well too. I was very proud, and very happy to keep her.

You mean the channel like on this rifle? If so that's the way it's supposed to look. It's the recess the extractor rides in while you cycle the bolt.


This is your rifle. You mean this area?