New 91/30

[wingspar]

Many of you followed my problems with my recently purchased Romanian M44. Since it has a shot out barrel, I went back to the LGS and brought home a 91/30. As you can see in the photo, it is caked in cosmoline. I have all the metal parts clean and the bolt put back together, but had to quit before I finished the stock.

To clean the metal parts, I used boiling water to get the thick stuff off, and decided that wasn’t going to be good enough, and finished it with mineral spirits. Finished the bore with Hoppe’s9, then some copper solvent, (almost zero evidence of copper in the barrel) then finished it with more Hoppe’s 9 and a few dry patches. The only part I found that had paint on it was the metal butt stock plate. It already has fresh paint on it. Used a flat black. When I look at it tomorrow, I’ll decide if I want to keep it flat black, or use gloss black on the next coat. Anyone have any preferences on that?

I used a hair dryer on the stock. It’s a slow tedious process. Still lots to do with the stock, but I should have the gun all back together tomorrow and ready for photos and a range trip.

One question I have for now. How does one get the cosmoline out of the sling, mag pouches and the little pouch the tool kit comes in?

[Gsragtop]

Your missing the most important pic, how about a pic of the receiver ?? From the one pic, it looks like you have a war time issue mosin, but possibly a red letter. Does it have a triangle with a 25 in it?? How about a 2 stamped into the stock in front of the trigger guard?? How is the bore on this one?

[racerguy00]

Nice rifle, but we don't condone the painting of any parts here. We leave it as it came from the arsenal. Black paint is common on refurbs, many times it's flakey.

[qz2026]

Agree, leave it as is and remove the paint you put on, if possible. Once you get the grease off of it, it will be a beautiful rifle just as it is. Also, it looks as if you have a red rifle. I can't tell, but with all the grease it could be a Century import. I'd be interested to know if it has all the markings that "GS" brought up. If a red, it would be unfortunate to paint the butt plate for collectability reasons but in many cases the s/n on the butt plate is also painted orange and you would lose that.

[tjtM38]

I've bought a couple that had painted buttplates and sometimes some touch up on the barrel. After a while and some use, the stuff just came off on my shoulder while shooting. I agree with others; leave it as is.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Lucky for you it's not cosmoline, it's plain old axle grease. Cosmoline was used on our stuff, not theirs, wash the sling using warm water and gentle hand soap, avoid heavy scrubbing over any areas that have markings.

[wingspar]

Your missing the most important pic, how about a pic of the receiver ?? From the one pic, it looks like you have a war time issue mosin, but possibly a red letter. Does it have a triangle with a 25 in it?? How about a 2 stamped into the stock in front of the trigger guard?? How is the bore on this one?

I took some crude photos of the receiver yesterday out in the sun. Good enough to see the markings on the gun, but not something I’m going to post here as I’ll get to some good photos later on today in my studio. Every mark on the gun will probably be posted here eventually. There is a lot of markings on this gun that were not on my M44. The bore on this one looks good, and it is not counterbored.

[wingspar]

Nice rifle, but we don't condone the painting of any parts here. We leave it as it came from the arsenal. Black paint is common on refurbs, many times it's flakey.

Agree, leave it as is and remove the paint you put on, if possible. Once you get the grease off of it, it will be a beautiful rifle just as it is. Also, it looks as if you have a red rifle. I can't tell, but with all the grease it could be a Century import. I'd be interested to know if it has all the markings that "GS" brought up. If a red, it would be unfortunate to paint the butt plate for collectability reasons but in many cases the s/n on the butt plate is also painted orange and you would lose that.

I've bought a couple that had painted buttplates and sometimes some touch up on the barrel. After a while and some use, the stuff just came off on my shoulder while shooting. I agree with others; leave it as is.

Well, I certainly didn’t think there would be anything wrong with painting the butt plate. The paint that was on it came off in the mineral spirits with a little bit of paint remaining, and it looked cruddy. I thought if it was painted before, painting it again would be no problem. Removing the paint I put on it would be easy. There were no red markings on the butt plate, or anywhere on the rifle that I can see.

I thought the Century Arms tag I left in the first photo indicated that it was a Century import. The tag on the box has “Part#: R1660-X. I read in another post that number indicated a year of import. Can anyone shed some light on that?

[wingspar]

Lucky for you it's not cosmoline, it's plain old axle grease. Cosmoline was used on our stuff, not theirs, wash the sling using warm water and gentle hand soap, avoid heavy scrubbing over any areas that have markings.

I’m quite confused about the preservative on this gun. I thought all Russian Mosins were packed with cosmoline. The stuff looks and feels like grease, but from the info I’ve found with a Google search described cosmoline to be in many different forms, from almost liquid (which I’ve had on other guns) to thick grease and is always brown. I tried searching for some info as to what these mosins were packed in, but came up empty. It was easy to remove from the metal parts, but the stock is something else.

I’ll try the warm water and soap on the sling and the other suff. I had a canvas mag pouch that came with my AK, and I was never able to get the stuff out of it, so I left that stuff in the box the gun came in. Fortunately, the sling didn’t have any cosmoline on it.

[desdem12]

[TopperT]

Its CHEAP Commie axle greese and it SUCKS! Roll of paper towels and a can of Charcoal fluid and a hot day........all that gooey crud is the reason we got into this hobby

[Junk Yard Dog]

Lucky for you it's not cosmoline, it's plain old axle grease. Cosmoline was used on our stuff, not theirs, wash the sling using warm water and gentle hand soap, avoid heavy scrubbing over any areas that have markings.

I’m quite confused about the preservative on this gun. I thought all Russian Mosins were packed with cosmoline. The stuff looks and feels like grease, but from the info I’ve found with a Google search described cosmoline to be in many different forms, from almost liquid (which I’ve had on other guns) to thick grease and is always brown. I tried searching for some info as to what these mosins were packed in, but came up empty. It was easy to remove from the metal parts, but the stock is something else.

I’ll try the warm water and soap on the sling and the other suff. I had a canvas mag pouch that came with my AK, and I was never able to get the stuff out of it, so I left that stuff in the box the gun came in. Fortunately, the sling didn’t have any cosmoline on it.

Cosmoline is the product of a western first world economy were cost was not an object, it's our stuff, the Soviets used grease. Cosmoline in it's original form was a bog wax like block that had to be melted down in a cook pot and applied to the metal while warm, it would then dry to a thick, wax like coating that we used to preserve everything from small arms to locomotives and tanks being shipped to Europe. These days you can get Cosmoline in a spray can, it's had a solvent added to it that evaporates once exposed to air leaving a thin layer of that same wax cosmoline behind. Cosmoline is not cheap, not to make, or apply, or remove, but it is the best long term metal preservative we have yet come up with that can be used in massive quantities quickly.

[wingspar]

With all the people here telling me it’s grease and not cosmoline, I knew there must be some truth to that, and I finally found some info on that. No longer confused. It’s grease, and it’s gone.

I’m finished cleaning the gun and it’s back together. I have lots of photos to post, but just a couple for now. It is a numbers matching gun, but I doubt it’s anything special.

Top of the receiver. Does anyone know what that figure between The “T” and the “5" is? We thought it was a 5 at the store, but looking at these photos, I can’t figure out what it is.



The bottom of the receiver.

[jonnyboy091373]

Im pretty sure it's Russian letters. And wow. Look at all those stamps

[wingspar]

I did mention earlier that this gun had a lot of markings. Some more photos.







Even with a magnafying glass, I can't determine if the number on the stock below is a 6 or an 8.





If you look close at the stock below, you can barely see what looks like a couple of circles. Most of the circles are gone, and they are not really stamped into the stock. Any idea what they mean?





It’s not pretty, but it’s my first 91/30 and the numbers all match. Any info on the markings is welcome. I did find out that the one that looks like an open book means that it is Russian Refurbished. The Russian roll mark is almost completely faded. Looks more like a face than a hammer and cycle.

[Chrome Moly Vampire]

Great rifle! Like the white markings.

Here's the trick I use on a cruddy stock. I learned it from my gunsmith. It's an old trick, but a good one. Take a cheap roll of paper towels and mummify the wood parts being sure to remove all the metal parts first. I like to put at least a half a roll, which is probably overkill. I also stuff paper towels in the cutouts where the action goes. Then put it in two black plastic garbage bags and wrap those around it. Stick it on the dash or hat rack of your car with all the windows rolled up in direct sunlight for two days straight if possible. In Mississippi that relates to being in about a 135 degree oven for two days. All that grease and funk will have bled out on the paper towels. Wipe it down with clean paper towels, then put a heavy coat of lemon oil and let it soak in overnight. I've done 8 rifles this way, some funkier than others and couldn't be happier with the results.

[qz2026]

The character in question is Russian "Б". I don't know it's name. But the "TБ" translates out to "TB". I don't know if I recall reading who your Importer was. The early importers would sometimes stamp the "TB" adjacent to the "TБ" on the barrel shank so the serial number could be "Americanized" to be TB5306 (which could be your "legal" serial number) but that wasn't done in this case. Others translated and put the "new" serial number on the receiver just above the wood line on the left side. Then Century, PW ARMS and recently Molot jumped on the bandwagon and turned the left side of the receiver into a dot matrix/laser bill board By this time they were assigning their own serial numbers. I have examples of all these.

An indispensable tool for any Mosinitis struck collector is to be able to translate Russian into English and visa-versa. Here is the link. http://translate.google.com/#ru/en/%D0%A2%D0%91

[wingspar]

Great rifle! Like the white markings.

They are actually yellow. My monitor hasn’t been calibrated in a long time, so they could look whiteish on other monitors.

I’ve probably done most of what I’m going to do to the stock. You can tell I didn’t get it all off the stock by feel, but I no longer feel I need to wash my hands after handling before picking up the camera, and it’s not a cheap camera. I’m collecting ideas people have given me for total removal of the grease from the stock, and will try one of them one of these days.

The character in question is Russian "?". I don't know it's name. But the "T?" translates out to "TB". I don't know if I recall reading who your Importer was. The early importers would sometimes stamp the "TB" adjacent to the "T?" on the barrel shank so the serial number could be "Americanized" to be TB5306 (which could be your "legal" serial number) but that wasn't done in this case. Others translated and put the "new" serial number on the receiver just above the wood line on the left side. Then Century, PW ARMS and recently Molot jumped on the bandwagon and turned the left side of the receiver into a dot matrix/laser bill board By this time they were assigning their own serial numbers. I have examples of all these.

An indispensable tool for any Mosinitis struck collector is to be able to translate Russian into English and visa-versa. Here is the link. http://translate.google.com/#ru/en/%D0%A2%D0%91

Excellent info and link. Thank you. So, the LGS has it recorded wrong. Oh well.. I’m pretty sure it’s a Century Import. First photo in this thread has a tag from Century showing in the photo.

Yes, this has that stupid dot-matrix stuff on the left side. I just didn’t post a photo of it, but here is that photo.

[qz2026]

Your legal serial number is 9130379039 where the first four characters represent the model of the rifle. Others may say M44xxxxx or M38xxxx and so on. I have no idea if there are any more codes in this number. I suspect that the last six numbers represent the rifles imported at that point in time. So, you can see that once Century (C.A.I) began importing big time they HAD to do something with the process at least for the hoard of Russian refubs coming in. Note with Finn rifles and other EBLOC rifles, they kept a small import marking at the muzzle and would stamp only the serial number on the left side of the receiver at the wood line or top of the receiver. As you become more knowledgeable about these rifles you will find that the importers had to do something. It was not unusual for the Russians to restart their barrel serial numbers often in a vain attempt to keep their enemies from knowing just how many they manufactured. The last thing an importer (or the government) wants is duplicates and having to deal with Russian Cyrillic characters not only in the stamping/matrix process but in the paperwork process as well. Imagine the nightmare if they hadn't changed. Today, people would have to use a Russian keyboard or translator to digitize serial numbers. I wish they would have left the importer/rifle information at the muzzle and stamped a small serial number on the receiver. Oh well... I'd like to say there was a good reason they did what they did (probably easier and less costly for one large stamp or government requirement for all the data that would be easily read in one place)

I would be surprised if LGS has the wrong serial number. Does your receipt actually show the shank serial number and not the C.A.I. number?

[gurn]

Let us know how she shoots.