My new Mosin 91/30

mosinmaster said:
Can BLO soak into the wood through the shellac applied by the Russians? And will it react with whatever remnants of cosmoline are embedded in the stock?
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Shellac is not the toughest of finishes. It's also somewhat affected by water. And Vodka would strip it RIGHT OFF :D So it's not likely that many stocks in actual service had much of the shellac left after a few weeks or months of duty. It also doesn't soak in deeply into the wood like an oil finish.

Likely it was used to darken the wood. Then as the shellac was worn off in use it was replaced with a patina of dirt and skin oils along with any gun oil and more dirt which kept the wood from "glowing in the dark". I suspect the idea was that it allowed the Russian makers to use a plentiful supply of light colored hardwood and not leave the stock so white that it showed up in the dark. The Shellac providing a fast and easy method of "staining" the wood to darken it up.

I found that putting my stock pieces in the last days of the summer sun out of any breeze was enough of an oven to cause a lot of the internal cosmoline to sweat out of the wood. So apparently the shellac didn't do squat for sealing the wood from oils.

And given how I just rationalized that the shellac is a poor finish I don't feel so bad about accidentally stripping it away during my comso cleaning... :D

I'll have to get a picture of it now that it's done up in some dark brown leather dye (with wood it only provides a medium brown) and the two or three coats of PTO. I feel like it came out rather nicely. I guess I'll take some pics and start my own thread on my own Mosins.
 
:DWell my $130 Mosin came today. Those guys from Westrifle don't fool around. I ordered it Saturday and it arrived at my door this AM. Not too shabby Westrifle (hows that for an endorsement?)! I took the industrial paper towel that was wrapped around the bolt and applied some diluted simple green and managed to take the majority of the cosmoline off the surface. I know...more to come....I will place it wrapped in a plastic bag in the storage closet my hot water tank is in. After a couple of weeks that should get things going anyway.
Very nice rifle by the way! Not too sure about the bore yet but its hard to say until I run a few patches down the barrel.

Cheers all. Steve.
 
desporterizer said:
Quality shellac is very tough.
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Compared to what? Shellac is shellac. It's a specific type of resin dissolved in alchohal. There's no tougher grades of the stuff since the resin all comes from the same source. The only grading is in terms of how much non shellac debris is in the resin flakes. Although there is waxed and non waxed which each have different uses in finishing.

It's the stuff used in the process called "French Polishing" which used to be a primo way to produce fine deep looking gloss finishes on furniture items. But compared to varnishes shellac has always been more fragile. It scratches easier and is affected by water more easily than most varnishes. This applied back in the day of DaVinci as much as currently.

As careful owners of our milsurp Mosins we'll likely never wear out the shellac coating. But in the hands of a Russian soldier in battle the relatively fragile coating of shellac would not have lasted all that long. Mind you neither would the smoothened finish of the wood. It would soon be chewed up from dragging over stuff in battle. The stocks of such guns would look a lot like the battle worn Lee Enfields that are often seen with their "patina" of nicks, scuffs and splintered out bits.
 
BCRider said:
Compared to what? Shellac is shellac. It's a specific type of resin dissolved in alchohal. There's no tougher grades of the stuff since the resin all comes from the same source. The only grading is in terms of how much non shellac debris is in the resin flakes. Although there is waxed and non waxed which each have different uses in finishing.

It's the stuff used in the process called "French Polishing" which used to be a primo way to produce fine deep looking gloss finishes on furniture items. But compared to varnishes shellac has always been more fragile. It scratches easier and is affected by water more easily than most varnishes. This applied back in the day of DaVinci as much as currently.

As careful owners of our milsurp Mosins we'll likely never wear out the shellac coating. But in the hands of a Russian soldier in battle the relatively fragile coating of shellac would not have lasted all that long. Mind you neither would the smoothened finish of the wood. It would soon be chewed up from dragging over stuff in battle. The stocks of such guns would look a lot like the battle worn Lee Enfields that are often seen with their "patina" of nicks, scuffs and splintered out bits.
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All true but you would be surprised what happen to the mix when you add moisture & let it sit around for a while. I refinished a 91/30 with shellac & found it to be way tougher that the stuff the soviets used MOST of the time. Some of that soviet stuff actually becomes very difficult to remove even with acetone.
 
Hi,

I haven't shot my '43 Izhevsk 91/30 yet, but I was wondering whether I should go ahead and shim the receiver and float the barrel, and put some upward pressure at the front barrel band, before I go out and shoot it. It seems like most stock rifles will get 6'' at 100 yards or so without modifications. Is it a safe bet to just do the minimum accurizing first?
 
mosinmaster said:
Hi,

I haven't shot my '43 Izhevsk 91/30 yet, but I was wondering whether I should go ahead and shim the receiver and float the barrel, and put some upward pressure at the front barrel band, before I go out and shoot it. It seems like most stock rifles will get 6'' at 100 yards or so without modifications. Is it a safe bet to just do the minimum accurizing first?
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Shoot it first, then you have something to compare it to. I don't believe even sniper rifles had these mods when assembled back in '43.
 
Yeah good point. I'll shoot it first. I'm using MFS ammo 185 gr FMJ which is .310 diameter. I'm assuming it won't shoot well?
 
Yeah, but I'm wondering whether shooting .310 bullets will be inaccurate and instead of jumping the gun to accurize, try to shoot .312 or greater bullets.

Just a question, for those that slug their bores and shoot appropriate sized bullets for their bore, what kind of groups do you get?
 
By the way how is the bore on my rifle? I scrubbed it some but it still never came out clean. Also poured boiling water down it.

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mosinmaster said:
By the way how is the bore on my rifle? I scrubbed it some but it still never came out clean. Also poured boiling water down it.

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You have a typical milsurp used bore. He suffered from corrosive ammo so pitting is present but the rifling i good. Will not really get cleaner than that but i'm pretty sure will shoot well. I have somes milsurps like that too and they shoot very well but bore usually foul more quickly.
Jocelyn
 
Lots of rifling there, hopefully it will shoot well.
Shooting it might knock some more crud out of it, or the pits
may just strip the jacketing off the bullets. Either way, you won't
know for sure until you shoot it.
 
i got a 1944 one from westrifle with the same bore im sure its goona perform they picked year for me no charge.thanks westrifle
 
Guess I lucked out though I went for the $130 Mosin. I can't see any pitting and the rifling is really good. I still have to get crud out. A friend of mine uses oven cleaner so maybe i will give that a try? I think i will stay away from the surplus ammo and get some PRVI or S&B so I can reload. Seeing as the bore is so nice it should shoot cast bullets and I have a Lee .312 mold that should work well.
 
What do you guys recommend to put on the front sight to make it shoot at 100 yards?

Also, I tried to see how much my barrel is floated. It's floated until midway then it catches the paper. It's also not floated where the rear sight is.

What's the best way to slug a barrel? Fishing lead weight rammed down the bore?
 
i use kentucky windage at 100 metres.after about 200 most of mine start zeroing in. i realy dont worry about floating the barrels 9 times out of 10 they shoot better than i can.ive got a crappy 43 ishveck with a so so barrel and i can hit a torso sized gong at 600 metrs 8 out of 10 times.on the other hand ive got a fin 91 perfect bore full floated and 7 to 8 inches at 100 meters is all it will do with the same ammo.i could tailor rounds for the fin if i had time and the interest in it but these refurbs run good enough for me right out of the box
 
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