Bolt difficulty with my Mosin Nagant

[1943Izzy]

Count me in for a shoot .

 

[Margoblixxen]

Mosin nagant

Here is how I dealt with the problem, first and foremost made sure the chamber is super clean, I mean use solvent and apply a cooper brush a tad bigger that the chamber and apply some elbow grease, cooper is soft so you should be OK. Get yourself a wooden stick to clean the groove where the bolt holds the round in. Do this religiously every time you leave the range or are finished shooting, the 7.62x54 is a powerful charge and generates a lot of heat, however surplus ammo works flawlessly which is a steel case with a cooper wash.
I my experience the Winchester ammo sticks more often versus military grade, but most military surplus has a sweet steel core which is a no no inside most ranges.
any how here is a pic from our mosin with night sights from glow-on.com

 

[Dockem]

Link to Sticky Bolt on Mosin Nagant video

i believe iraqveteran8888 on youtube has a video about polishing some of the rough tooling marks out of the chamber so it unlocks better, that would be my guess at why its so hard to unlock

and as far as the case swelling it is normal for rifles to leave a little bulge in the case about in that spot, and it usually is pretty visible, im inclined to say that its fine in your rifle but its hard to tell in that picture

Here's the video:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXC_PQkLkNA"]YouTube - "Sticky Mosin Nagant Bolt? Making your Mosin Rock part 1" M91/30 M38 M44 M39 Finnish Russian[/ame]

This is a great video, wish I had seen it before I went thru the polishing project on mine! Check out the second video also.

 

[PatriotPride]

So I went to Google to search for info on a bolt issue on my 91/30. Guess what the 3rd link was? THIS THREAD So, here I am. For the record, I am not a COMPLETE Mosin noob, I just haven't run across this particular issue.

I have not fired this rifle. It is an all-matching M91/30. I have thoroughly cleaned the exterior and the interior. I have not disassembled the bolt.

I dry-fired the Mosin tonight, and I noticed that I was unable to raise the handle of the bolt more than ~1/2 inch. Upon further inspection, I noticed that the rear-end of the bolt had travelled forward about 1 inch total, and was stuck there. I had to manually pull the rear of the bolt to cause it to reset. I repeated this several more times, and every time had the same result.

Is this a simple case of needing to disassemble the bolt entirely and give it a thorough interior cleaning, or is this a sign of something wrong with the bolt?

 

[Hexa-Tula]

I would definately shoot it until its hot. then take a copper brush and wrap it with a patch. Take the brush and ram it into the chamber and violently try to get anything that you can out of it. Mosin's are known for having cosmoline dry up and make sort of a shell in the chamber making the bolt very difficult to cycle.

 

[johntheplinker]

So I went to Google to search for info on a bolt issue on my 91/30. Guess what the 3rd link was? THIS THREAD So, here I am. For the record, I am not a COMPLETE Mosin noob, I just haven't run across this particular issue.

I have not fired this rifle. It is an all-matching M91/30. I have thoroughly cleaned the exterior and the interior. I have not disassembled the bolt.

I dry-fired the Mosin tonight, and I noticed that I was unable to raise the handle of the bolt more than ~1/2 inch. Upon further inspection, I noticed that the rear-end of the bolt had travelled forward about 1 inch total, and was stuck there. I had to manually pull the rear of the bolt to cause it to reset. I repeated this several more times, and every time had the same result.

Is this a simple case of needing to disassemble the bolt entirely and give it a thorough interior cleaning, or is this a sign of something wrong with the bolt?

Sounds totally normal to me. The part that moves forward is the cocking knob and is pulled forward by the firing pin which is pushed by the firing pin spring. A lot of times during the refurb process the parts used have poorly polished contact areas so when these are assembled and the bolt cycled it can require a bit of effort. Also a long firing pin spring can make it even tougher. These rifles are rough and tough so the chances of you breaking one are slim, so don't be afraid to use a little oomph when opening the bolt.
To solve the problem you need to disassemble the bolt and polish up the contact surfaces on the various bolt parts. Go slow and just remove the roughness and not change the parts dimensionally. Also check the receiver opening where the bolt handle boss rides as there could be some roughness there also. If that doesn't completely solve it, remove a little bit off the firing pin spring, maybe a half a coil then try it again, repeat if necessary. If you remove too much however, you'll have problems with light primer strikes and inconsistent ignition.

 

[HamsterStyle]

All of the Mosin interest lately, I'm gonna bump this thread for the newbies like myself.

 

[n9iui]

I got out a couple of weeks ago and fired the 91/30 that my original post was about. I had used a bore brush chucked in an electric drill and dipped in acetone, alternating between with and without a patch wrapped around the brush.
This seemed to help quite a lot. It still took a little more effort than I think it should, but it's getting there.
Next, I plan to polish the areas on the bolt that need it. Just as soon as I can identify which areas that is.

 

[sgreen3]

Im goint to try an polish the chamber also, like was done in the youtube vid. Might try polishing the firing pin also like he did. Hopfully that might make a little difference in shooting.

 

[johntheplinker]

n9iui, hope the shoulder is holding up!
With the weather getting better, any plans being made for a Mosin shoot?
A couple of other points that might need mentioning. The firing spring that is used in the Mosin is really a little longer and stronger than needed, so that will increase the amount of force needed to open the bolt even if everything else is o.k., also the length of that spring can vary from rifle to rifle, sometimes substantially. I've measured a couple of mine that seemed hard to open even with a immaculate chamber and polished caming surfaces, and found the springs to be on the longer than normal side. I cut some off the spring to get the length closer to normal, and now the bolts in those rifles are much easier to open.
Another thing is the bolt handle on the Mosin is fairly short so the amount of leverage is lower. Combine that with something else and it makes the problem even worse.
One last point, and I've said it many times, don't be afraid to slap that bolt open. These rifles were made to be peasant soldier proof, and most have been involved in some of the most brutal combat known to man, so anything we can do to them only pales to what they've already had done to them.

 

[gregkl]

Bump. I know this is old, but I want to watch the video and I am at work so I can't. My bolt takes a hard blow to open after just one shot.