Figured someone might find this interesting.

Basically, a while back I decided since I only use my Mosin Nagant at the range I'd rather have it not retain the cartridge well in the top of the mag with the bolt back instead of getting one of those nasty rim jams every 30 rounds or so and I cut out the guides on the right hand side of the receiver. Why the **** I decided drastically modifying the receiver was the best way to go about it, I dunno, but I recently wanted to see if I could give it the round retention ability it previously had without messing up loading or feeding. So here are a few pics of what I did. The spring itself is made from sacrificing a lockpick I didn't particularly like and then bent with pliers and a hammer. High tech stuff right here.


Spring installed and epoxied onto the magazine, with extra epoxy trimmed off, before touching up the bluing.


Relief cut in the receiver to accept the spring. Done with a chainsaw file.


Assembled, mag fits tight now so it should help hold the spring in place if need be. Spring/epoxy are completely hidden.


Assembled top


Assembled with a cartridge. Cartridge is pushed back as far as it'll go and it's still retained well. It holds better than it looks since the cartridge would have to move towards the spring to pop out.


Spring hopping over the rim of the cartridge. Getting this to work was tricky. I don't much care for rimmed cartridges anymore. Worth noting, firing pin is removed from bolt in these pictures.

So far it's working very well, and adds very little force required to operate the rifle (but it's a surplus Russian rifle, come on). I supposed if the epoxy eventually fails I can screw the spring on but for now everything seems great.

That's some A grade bodging right there - but yep, its a surplus Mosin Nagant.. nice fix 

I assume you will have read this since you own one..
http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinHumor.htm

So wait, what was the goal when "modifying" the gun?  Did you want the round to pop up over the cartridge interrupter when the bolt is retracted?
I think it could have been accomplished with a modification to the cartridge interrupter, and it would have been replaceable.
In fact, I think simply cutting off the top-most edge of the interrupter would have done that.  There is a tongue lower in the magazine that holds the subsequent round down and away from the topmost round.  Just have to leave the ejector piece intact.


Also, "rimlock" is something that is cured with proper loading.  You just need to make sure each round in the magazine is loaded in front of the one below it.  So, if loading one at a time, insert round, push down, slide back, insert round, push down, slide back, etc.
Each rim is on top and in front of the one below it, rimlock is impossible.

I've never encountered a Mosin with "rimlock" that wasn't shooter error.  I've even had people at the range a few lanes over cursing their Mosin because of a feeding issue, I introduce myself and ask to try, fire off 5 rounds without an issue, then they try and get rimlock.  Then I try again and shoot 100%.  Replace the ammo I spent, show them how to load it, carry on shooting.

The only times I've gotten rimlock in my Mosins was from improper clip loading.


I like the way the wood looks, what did you do to the stock?

Not an issue with rimlock... I think what you're calling the 'tongue' is the interruptor, which by function keeps the second round down in the magazine so it doesn't get rimlock.
The issue that I was having was that there's grooving cut into the sides of the receiver that guide the round past the retainer then up, and the round was sitting too high relative to the grooves so the rim (which was the largest part) would jam up in those grooves. In hindsight a modified retainer to hold the round lower may have been a better option, and I did try replacing it, same problem. The one in the pictures is actually modified from stock -- that round cut makes the rims sooo much easier to push over it, and while it would normally cause the rounds to sit too high and cause the same problem my rifle had previously... it isn't an issue now.

Stock was chopped to be a more 'traditional' style. I just did a quick sanding and finished it with some furniture oil I had on hand (I hate the 'plastic' feel most finishing methods give). The stock is laminated in a dark-light pattern and the oil gives the light parts a pretty neat reflective quality based on how the light hits it. Attached pictures are a bad representation of the actual color, but show the reflectiveness pretty clearly -- the layers of lighter wood kinda change 'lightness' based on how you look at it. The pictures are taken with no flash, no moving the gun, just moving the camera.

Actual color is pretty close to what you can see along the edges of the pictures with cartridges in them.

All of my mosins never malfunction.  Sure they suffer from sticky bolt syndrome, but fail?  Never once.  I have two 38's and a bunch of the 91's.  Never was a fan of the 44.  I like the 38s much better.

Quote from: john on March 17, 2014, 06:09:46 PM
All of my mosins never malfunction.  Sure they suffer from sticky bolt syndrome, but fail?  Never once.

Gotta get in that chamber and get all the cosmo out.  I did mine with boiling water and brake-clean, of course take the action out of the stock first...

Neither of mine get sticky bolt, and my M44 is surprisingly smooth.


Yeah, the M38s are pretty cool.  I would have gotten one but I couldn't find one anywhere locally and if I had I'm sure it would have been more than I wanted to pay.  I got my M44, IIRC, for about $225 and it's pretty immaculate.
But a short barrel Mosin is a short barrel Mosin, gotta love that fireball!   

theres a few about I wouldn't mind getting my paws on

They aren't getting any cheaper.

I remember when they were $59.  Now $150 is a deal.

38's are indeed hard to find.  I have 2. They are so sweet.

I have, or should say had, a 1929 91/30 made by Tula. It has the hexagonal receiver. It's currently on loan to a friend. Don't worry, he's taking care of it.

I paid $119.99 for it with a 10% discount last year.

Good deal for a hex receiver.


All I could find locally were round receiver Izehvsk rifles, but I was after a range toy and had no qualms about the $99 price tag 

I think the best deal I've found so far on a rifle was a 1956 Norinco Arsenal 25 SKS. Got it for $150 and it looked like it was never fired. The stock is in shambles but all parts have matching serial numbers. People didn't know what they had, and assumed it was junk because of what the stock looked like. My guess is somebody sold the original stock and put a thrashed one on it.

I feel like an SKS would cool to have, but with prices anymore it seems like it's worth it to just drop a few extra dollars for a more  modern rifle... how cheap have you guys been seeing them recently anyways?

EDIT: Just got the time to recrown the MN to try and squeeze a little more accuracy out of it. Took about 1mm off the end and the crown is done by hand (no lathe) so it's not perfect, but I think it's decent. Ignore the thread gunk 

I would be leery to buy anything that uses Russian ammo any longer.  With one executive order all imports could be shut off -guns and ammo.  It is being talked about in Washington DC.

Quote from: john on March 22, 2014, 01:04:16 PM
I would be leery to buy anything that uses Russian ammo any longer.  With one executive order all imports could be shut off -guns and ammo.  It is being talked about in Washington DC.

But when the rifle is so cheap how can you go wrong?  If you get it and absolutely can't find any ammo (which is unlikely since, especially in the case of 7.62x54r, many domestic companies are producing brass cased ammo in Russian calibers) you are only out $100.

What is that, a weeks worth of gas for the Wrangler?

Quote from: Badot on March 22, 2014, 10:50:19 AM
Just got the time to recrown the MN to try and squeeze a little more accuracy out of it. Took about 1mm off the end and the crown is done by hand (no lathe) so it's not perfect, but I think it's decent. Ignore the thread gunk 

A lot of people underestimate the impact on accuracy a proper cut crown has.  If you did it by hand, you probably did it wrong and aren't releasing the potential of the rifle.  Especially since in the case of Mosins a lot of times the bore is not concentric with the barrel stock.
If you do it on a lathe you need to be sure you zero in the bore, or if you want to do it very easily you buy a proper crowning tool for a .30 cal bore and use a mandrel for a power drill.


On the topic, after doing some research I've discovered that Mosins seem to really like shorter and stiff barrels.  A lot of the most accurate sporter projects that can score 1MOA accuracy or better have around a 22" barrel and a properly cut crown.
That's what I am planning on doing to mine at some point.  I'm going to cut/crown the barrel, make a turn-down bolt, install a scope rail, and set it in a Boyds stock.

Quote from: Watcher on March 22, 2014, 07:03:57 PM
...Especially since in the case of Mosins a lot of times the bore is not concentric with the barrel stock.

Mine falls into this category, and was accounted for.

Regardless, it looks loads better than it was. I'll do an accuracy test tomorrow (well I guess later today) weather permitting. Was previously getting about 3" at 100 yds with a muzzle brake, 4.5" without with PPU ammo. I assume this means either the crown or the bedding is detracting from accuracy in some way so hopefully this helps.

~.55" CTC group on a 2" target at 50 yds. -- so estimated ~1.1" at 100 yd. This is with the muzzle brake.

I do feel the need to note that I only had 5 rounds of factory ammo left. First two 'fouling' shots were almost touching. The next three made this group. The shot farthest out I did twitch a little on... it was 45 degrees up at the range and I hate the cold.

Nice!

What ammo is that with?

PPU factory. I'm planning on getting another box sooner or later since my entire sample size so far is a single 3 shot group... I'm still hesitant to claim the rifle is actually that accurate, however my hopes are fairly high for it at this point.

Finally got out to the range again, here's how my groups are looking -- 5 rds ~.65" at 50 yds, seems like I'm the one holding the rifle back at this point, especially since the shots tend to land on a slight diagonal like in the picture. I definitely need to work on my cheek position. Also feels like I'm trying to split hairs breaking MOA with a 7x scope.

(rim measured to .56")