Bolt on my mossin M24 wont close with a round in it.

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clift83

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Hello I am looking for some advice regarding 2 old mossins I have. I have never encountered this problem before and it's got me confused. When I try to close the bolt on a round the bolt won't close all the way. I made sure everything is clean and have tried 2 different types of ammo and one of those dummy snap rounds and it still won't close. I took the bolt out and tried it in a 91/30 and the bolt would close with a round no problem. I think a gun smith will need to look at it but I just wanted to see if anybody might know what's wrong with it before I do. Thanks for your time.
 
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Really! I never heard of that round, but I also have a westinghouse mossin that is all numbers matching that has no finish marks on it and it won't close on the 7.62x54 ammo as well
 
Get a calipher and check your ammo against the measurements as well. Finish ammo is made to a higher tolerance and thus called x53. Soviet ammo can vary widely in tolerance which is why Soviet rifle chambers are huge. It's like fixing a car, elminiate one possibly at a time and then you have only the problem remaining.
 
Mosins are subject to sticky chambers. Take a brass .410 brush on the end of your cordless drill and give it a few spins to clean it out.


Also, some of the Czech ammo in x54 tends to stick because of the glaze coating they use to protect the round. Other makes of bullets may not be so bad.
 
Thanks for the advice I'll look in to it. But I am still curious as to why my Westinghouse made Mosin has the same problem, there are no finish markings on it? However I did purchase both rifles from the same guy so maybe there is some kind of conection.
 
Could also be because the chambers are made for the earlier style ammo (I believe it was called 'L' standard or something like that). The Soviets starting in the 30s adopted a round called the 'D' standard which is a bit larger of a round (the Finnish M39s for example had a larger chamber so they could use this ammo as well).
 
Are you feeding from a magazine or trying to close the bolt on a chambered round? If the latter, there may not be clearance for the extractor to snap over the rim.
 
Bolt are not interchangeable between rifles.
If you have two rifles that will not close something is very seriously wrong. You need to talk to the guy you bought 'em from.
Get the headspace checked too.
 
Agreed. Sometimes you get lucky and can just swap a bolt to another rifle, but not always. I just had a situation with a m96 Swedish Mauser with #'s matching bolt that had too much headspace, I got another bolt from Trade Ex and it headspaces beautifully, but it's from another rifle. I got lucky that I didn't have to re-chamber. And the tolerances on a Swedish Mauser are gonna' be waaaay closer than any Mosin, you must remember we're talking thousandths of an inch when dealing with headspce.
The tricky part with a rimmed cartridge is headspace is measured from the bolt face to the rim, not the actual chamber, I don't know enough about Mosins and cartridge variations to comment about that.
Anyway, get it checked out, even if they have to do a chamber cast. It might not be worth it to put any money into it though, after all, it is a Mosin Nagant.
sunray said:
Bolt are not interchangeable between rifles.
If you have two rifles that will not close something is very seriously wrong. You need to talk to the guy you bought 'em from.
Get the headspace checked too.
Click to expand...
 
No I'm feeding from the magazine. It could be possible that the m24 is a different caliber but for both of my mosins to be doing it is kind of weird.
 
No i haven't done that I'll check it out. Thank you every one for your advice. This is my first time using the forum for information, I'll be sure to use it again.
 
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the chamber for the 7.62x53 and 7.62x54r are just about the same only thing different id would say is the x53 most likely has tighter tolerances and the fact hat the fin's used a .308" bore
 
kawicrash said:
Agreed. Sometimes you get lucky and can just swap a bolt to another rifle, but not always. I just had a situation with a m96 Swedish Mauser with #'s matching bolt that had too much headspace, I got another bolt from Trade Ex and it headspaces beautifully, but it's from another rifle. I got lucky that I didn't have to re-chamber. And the tolerances on a Swedish Mauser are gonna' be waaaay closer than any Mosin, you must remember we're talking thousandths of an inch when dealing with headspce.
The tricky part with a rimmed cartridge is headspace is measured from the bolt face to the rim, not the actual chamber, I don't know enough about Mosins and cartridge variations to comment about that.
Anyway, get it checked out, even if they have to do a chamber cast. It might not be worth it to put any money into it though, after all, it is a Mosin Nagant.
Click to expand...


Actually, the mosin is the rifle most likely to be able to interchange bolts/ bolt heads with no negative impact on headspace. That feature was in the original design specs. OP, yours may be a little tight but you can lap the locking lugs a touch till they chamber. I can assist if need be.
 
desporterizer said:
Actually, the mosin is the rifle most likely to be able to interchange bolts/ bolt heads with no negative impact on headspace. That feature was in the original design specs. OP, yours may be a little tight but you can lap the locking lugs a touch till they chamber. I can assist if need be.
Click to expand...

+1. Never encountered a problem swapping bolts or bolt heads on any of my Mosins.
 
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