?- How 2 remove stubborn Mosin ring?

[HomerTHX1138]

I'm giving my 91/30 a little more love but hit a snag.

The rearmost ring's metal catch, I don't know the name, wont depress enough for me to slide the ring over it so I can remove the long thin piece of wood on the barrel. SHould I try degreasing underneath the catch so that it can be pressed downward more? Use a ton of force? Other???

Thanks in advance.

[HomerTHX1138]

NEVERMIND!

GOT IT. Used pliers padded with a couple of cloth patches.... First one came off with my hands...

[REDSTAR]

Great! Sometimes those can be a real bear to get off. Those are called band springs by the way. I wouldn't try to remove the springs from the stock, they break easy.

[HomerTHX1138]

Thanks for terminology.

I just wanted to do a light cleaning but I'm realizing it deserves far more... Got the bottom band off & now realize that I should go ahead and remove the whole stock. It seems the next step is that bolt that runs through the center of the gun. Not sure...

Anyone have that link to everything you need to know about the Mosin? (Not its name but that what it was...)

[REDSTAR]

You don't really need to remove the stock bolt unless you're going to sand the wood.

I don't have the link but I can tell you how to take it down:

Remove bolt
Remove band springs
Take off upper handguard
Remove screw on the back top (tang)
Remove screw on underside by the front of mag
You can now remove the mag assembly by pulling down and out
you can now remove the barreled action by lifting up and out.

Very easy to take down.

To strip the bolt:

Hold bolt handle in left hand with the cocking piece back( facing you). Pull back on the cocking piece and turn left (counter clockwise) till it stops.

Pay attention to how the lugs fit so you'll remeber when you put it back together. What I mean is just do the coking piece left and right a couple of times so you can see how the head interacts with the assembly.

You can now pull the bolt head and guide forward off the bolt assembly.

You turn the bold head left to remove it from the guide, if it doesn't just fall off that is.

To take out the firing pin and spring (good deal of tension so be careful)- Find a flat surface or a soft wood block. Push the firing pin down on the surface so that the cocking piece moves back away from the assembly and unscrew the cocking piece. The firing pin back just screws into the cockking piece, One the piece is off the spring will move forward and you can remove the firing pin and spring. Don't be pointing the pin twords anything while doing this or it will go shooting out of there pretty hard.

Reverse order for reasembly.

On the firing pin: notice there are some grooves on the coking piece. When the firing pin is screwed in all the way, make sure the grooves line up with the slot in the back of the pin.

On the bolt head: When you put the bolt head back on the carrier, just line up the lugs. Slip it over the firing pin, make sure the guide slot is in line with the guide lug, turn the cocking piece back right, make sure the lugs connect in the grooves up front and your good to go.

It's really easy to do. If you have any problems shoot me an email.

Good luck.

[HomerTHX1138]

RED,

As usual, thanks for the information!

As I was banging on the bolt that runs across the body of the gun, the barrel slowly slipped out and I realized that it didn't hold anything in! DOh!!!!!

First I was only going to clean the gun enough to safely fire it.

Then i was going to do above plus polish wood, but not re finish.

Now, I'm doing the full monty. Then gun is fully apart and I'm going to buy some purple power to strip the stock. One difference from what most have done is that I don't want to put a shiny finish on the wood. I want a dark oil or wax based stain without a clear coat of varnish or other sealing agent. So I'm going to research some type of stain or oil that won't rub off easily. I realize that I may have to periodically re-oil the stock but that's OK. It's just a look I have in my head.

How many people actually check headspace on their 91/30 before firing? I'm a little scared about this. My bolt has a little bit of play in it.

Also, that barrel is friggin' LONG! After removing the wood, it hit me that someone with some imagination could build a stock for the 91/30 parts that would leave the barrel exposed, with perhaps just a foward grabbing handle. That long ass barrel just looks cool to me by itself. I know it is blasphemy in a historical sense, but maybe a really trashy wood 91/30 would work....

[Schuetzenman]

Homie, the cross bolt in these rifle stocks are what the barreled action recoils against. Removal is not recommended and you'd need a special spanner tool to remove it. As you found out it doesn't hold anything in. Once the bolts are out from the magazine to the receiver just lift up and out she comes. Cosmoline can act as a glue sometimes and they can be difficult to get out, especially if the rifle is in a cold room / workshop.

[clearblue]

Originally posted by HomerTHX1138
Thanks for terminology.

I just wanted to do a light cleaning but I'm realizing it deserves far more... Got the bottom band off & now realize that I should go ahead and remove the whole stock. It seems the next step is that bolt that runs through the center of the gun. Not sure...

Anyone have that link to everything you need to know about the Mosin? (Not its name but that what it was...)

http://www.russian-mosin-nagant.com/clean.htm

[REDSTAR]

Boiled Linseed Oil sounds like a winner for what you're trying to do. I love the stuff.

[HomerTHX1138]

As usual, thanks to all!

One final question if anyone would be so kind:

What about headspace? The bolt head has a good deal of play (don't know if that has anything to do with it...). I've read that one post where I can take a fired shell from a good gun (my M44) add material, paper or metal, to the shell until it fills the space to the bolt head face, then use that 'gap' - the shell and extra material, to compare to the 91/30. Did I totally miss the point? Is there some other way to check headspace? I just don't want to die when I fire this thing :)

[REDSTAR]

The bolt heads are built like that, a little wobbly. I seriously doubt your problem was a head spacing issue. The rimmed cartridge is very forgiving on headspace.

Shuetzenman has gone into this subject in detail here, I forget which post(s) it was though, try doing a search under headpsacing in this forum.

[Schuetzenman]

Originally posted by HomerTHX1138
As usual, thanks to all!

One final question if anyone would be so kind:

What about headspace? The bolt head has a good deal of play (don't know if that has anything to do with it...). I've read that one post where I can take a fired shell from a good gun (my M44) add material, paper or metal, to the shell until it fills the space to the bolt head face, then use that 'gap' - the shell and extra material, to compare to the 91/30. Did I totally miss the point? Is there some other way to check headspace? I just don't want to die when I fire this thing :)

Don't worry you won't die. Headspace isn't such a big issue with a rimmed cartridge because the extractor holds the case pretty close to the bolt face. The dangerous part of excess headspace is whit rimless cartridges, like a .30-06, 8 mm Mauser etc. These cases do not get held all that tightly and the potential for "Slamming" of the bolt by the round jumping back against it at ignition and shearing off the bolt lugs is the issue with these.

Wiggly bolt heads really has nothing to do with headspace either. Headspace is the distance from the bolt face to the end of the chamber or shoulder of the chamber depending on if it's a straight sided case or a bottle necked case respectively.

Worse case of a rifle with headspace I've ever seen was a Chinese M14 a friend here in NC was shooting. It was .040 inches over the Go spec and all it did was stretch the cases. Eventually he sent it to get reworked with US parts and had a TRW surplus GI barrel put on it. It's a tack driver now.

[HomerTHX1138]

Thanks for the thorough explanation. It also answered my next question about if headspace could be fixed.