The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

Unfortunately she seems to shoot to point of aim for me which seriously weakens some of the "misjudged the Kentucky Windage" excuses I've been known to employ on occasion. Odd thing is that the rifle seems stiff on closing, not not on opening. I have to slap the bolt handle down but once fired it opens up with just finger pressure. I've not started looking for a cause yet. This is with '71 Bulgarian LB. I did have one failure to fire with this ammo. But I re-cocked the striker and the round fired on the second try.

Also fired the M38 I picked up over the winter. I was wearing a jacket as the temps was in the low 40's but to me the stories of excessive recoil form the M38 seems exaggerated, at least with LB ammo. The stories of the loud muzzle blast with the carbine were spot on but owning a few M44s I expected that.

Like a new pair of shoes, these refurbs need a break in, it will wear in over time

The Mosin cocks on closing, so it will get 'stiffer' then; you are fighting the firing pin spring, which is plenty strong for it's job.

entropy wrote:The Mosin cocks on closing, so it will get 'stiffer' then; you are fighting the firing pin spring, which is plenty strong for it's job.

All of mine must be broken then because they cock on opening. In this case the bolt goes completely forward smoothly, it's just the rotating the bolt handle down the last 45 degrees that takes force.

And headspace is ok? If it were me, I try bolt from one of your M-44's. If that is smoother locking up the cartridge, then try exchanging the bolt head to see if that is the cause. If so buy another bolt head but be sure to make sure the headspace is good before you fire it. If I have issues with a bolt, I will exchange every part of the bolt with another until I find the cause of the issue. But, if everything is ok now, eventually the two pieces of metal that are rubbing will wear down - eventually... BTW, does this occur when you cycle the bolt with no cartridge?

This only occurs when chambering a cartridge. The bolt goes forward then half way down before it gets stiff. Opening and extracting the fired casing is smooth as glass as cycling the action empty. I at first thought there may have been a burr inthe throat but after careful inspection I do not think that is the case.

A caveat first: I have not yet fired my 91/30's.
Mine act the same way. They cock on opening, open easily, then are hard to close the last little bit when a round is chambered. When opening bolt again to extract round, all is very smooth. So, bolt closes easily with no round, difficult to close with a round. Opens easily with or without a round.
Surplus and new ammo feel the same. Just my

I'm not too concerned. The easy extraction of a fired casing makes me think the chamber is OK so I expect the stiffness is just a result of the force matched bolt parts. I've had a Mosin previously that had a similar problem when i firs bought it. After 50-60 rounds it smoothed up tot he point I can't even remember which Mosin was acting stiff.

Check the extractor. A lot of times the problem you are having is do to a mis-formed or otherwise ruff extractor face. There are also many Youtube vids showing this issue.