Problem chambering round in my Nagant

[Tread_Head]

My nagant's bolt works fine w/out ammo, but when I try to chamber a round (whether hot or cold), the bolt is hard to close. I don't think it is due to cosmoline since I cleaned the weapon well and the bolt is hard to close on the round whether the weapon is hot or cold. Any ideas?

[Teyvareb]

Did you check for a broken shell and any rechambering marks? Those would be the first two I'd look at.

[landtoy80]

Did you try different ammo?
What are you using, brass or steel cased?

[Tread_Head]

I'm using Hungarian Milsurp light ball. I think it is brass.

[Perro]

headspace it
wouldnt be the first mosin that didnt pass a HS test

[wonderwolf]

Look at the HS for sure but also take a heavy duty bristle brush and clean the chamber out. I cleaned a friend MN after he thought he had all the cosmo out but when I took a 45 cal nylon brush to the chamber I pulled out a nice ring of dried cosmo out of it. Good luck

[vair65]

Look at the HS for sure but also take a heavy duty bristle brush and clean the chamber out. I cleaned a friend MN after he thought he had all the cosmo out but when I took a 45 cal nylon brush to the chamber I pulled out a nice ring of dried cosmo out of it. Good luck

Yes, clean clean clean! I bought a very nice, clean M44 that had a bunch of dried up cosmo in the chamber, which I cleaned out. Shot it for the first time and it got hard to chamber and what I thought was clean ended up with a little more nasty old melted cosmo in the chamber again. Cleaned it out again and it's been fine, at least 500 rds thru it.

[wonderwolf]

If you have a wood stove or heat gun put those to good use. Unstock the rifle and allow it to get hot to the touch. Heat gun works well cause you can direct the heat to a point. If you have a wood stove just make sure you don't get the too hot. OR....place the action in about 8" or so of diesel if the cosmo is really dry and hard.

[nevada]

It could be dried laquer or something similar in there too. I used a chamber brush in a drill covered with Mothers mag polish to clean mine out. Others have recommended acetone on the brush. You have a build-up of something in there, once it's cleaned out the rifle will work fine.

[M1 Tanker]

I can tell you he doesn't have a wood stove in Texas :) Down here we use a heat gun or the truck hood in the summer.

[wonderwolf]

Eh...he could be one of those back woods types. I've used the tailgate of my ranger alot to do this kind of stuff. I sure hope its just cosmo and not a HS problem...thats a little more work than I would want to put into a rifle of that caliber...eehhhehehe bad pun :sorry:

[SteelCore]

serial # on the receiver? I mean stamped, not force-matched with electropencil. Seems the Mosins with the matching parts have less problems with ammo and chamber.

When cosmo sits on those mosins for 60+yrs, it turns into a laquer-loke substance that is really hard to detect, visually or otherwise. Definitely clean the chamber, the areas before the chamber, too, where the bolt locks in. Use some serious solvents as suggested, or some of the bore cleaners that will dissolve plastic and metals as well as powder fouling. If a bore cleaner will take out plastic, it will take out really old cosmo.

If that doesn't do it, and the bolt and receivr #s don't match, it is really starting to sound like a headspace issue. Buy another one (best thing abt mosins is their price), and hang that one on the wall.

[Tread_Head]

I can tell you he doesn't have a wood stove in Texas :) Down here we use a heat gun or the truck hood in the summer.

You got that right Tanker. :744: I tried both methods on my Nagant, cleaned the chamber w/ a brush chucked in a drill, and played w/the extractor. Not sure which one was the culprit, but now she chambers smooth. Thanks again guys.

[gunkgy]

I had one that did that. I took it apart and soaked the receiver in a can of WD40 for a few days then ran a bush on drill through the chamber. It works fine now,

[97th Signalman]

While head space should always be checked on milsurp acquisitions, most of the chambering issues on Mosins seem to turn out just like yours...get it clean, then it works OK.

[walt-oxie1]

I bought a M38 several years ago that the headspace was too tight on. I cleaned it with solvents, heated it and scrubbed it and it still would not fully chamber a surplus round. It would however chamber S&B with no problem. I brought it back to the shop I bought it at and he checked the headspace and it was too tight. He fixed it and I have had no problems since. It was all matching numbers by the way.

It makes no sence though. It would not chamber Bulgarian, Hungarian, Czech, Polish or Russian 7.62x54r but S&B worked fine:icon_neutral:

[wonderwolf]

Softer brass perhaps that has been annealed properly???????????

[97th Signalman]

Softer brass perhaps that has been annealed properly???????????

I have had experience with S & B ammo in .38 special where I actually got stretched and sometimes even split cases in a slightly oversized chamber where no other brand of ammo failed in the same way. It was obvioius, upon inspection, that the S & B brass was about half the wall thickness of any of some more popular US domestic ammo that I was shooting. It might also be harder (more brittle) but I don't actually know that for a fact. I don't know if the rifle ammo from S & B bears the same differentiating characteristics as their pistol ammo. If it does, it might be that, if S & B has thinner brass, it may more easily be made to conform to a tight chamber since it might yield more easily than steel cases or thicker brass cases. That's highly speculative on my part but your words reminded me of my experiences with that S & B .38 Special ammo.