Pics of what happens when you clean a Monin Nagant stock with Easy Off over cleaner.

[engineer40]

Pics of what happens when you clean a Monin Nagant stock with Easy Off over cleaner... then bleach it with Comet bathroom cleaner... then rub 10 coats of Tru Oil onto it... then media blast all metal parts... then Duracoat those metal parts... then leave the parts of the bolt in the brass tumbler for 2 days... then polish the bolt with 3000 grit paper...

I got this rifle last year for $150. It was sinfully ugly. By far the ugliest gun in my safe. The stock was blotchy and really dark. The blueing had also seen better days.

So after putting in over 40 hours of labor into this cheap *** mil-surp rifle it's got to be worth at least........ at least......

$150? LOL. Maybe even a little less since I've modified it from it's original form. Not sure.

In all seriousness, I did underestimate the grain detail that would come out of this wood stock. I don't think the pictures do it justice. This stock has a lot of "depth" now. Not sure that is the correct word to describe it, but it's the only one I can think of. My wife even went so far as to say "I think that is the coolest looking wood stock I've ever seen". Hmm, I wouldn't go that far. But it does have a lot of character now.

This entire redo cost me about $20. I think it was worth it. It's not completely done yet. I have some custom peep sights on order (both front and rear). They should be here within a couple days. I really didn't want to put any money into this rifle. But since it turned out so nice, I think it'll be worth it to put on a set of high end adjustable sights.

Thoughts? Questions?

 

[MudRunner2005]

****... That's nice. For $175 total investment, I don't think you went wrong.

What kind of sights did you go with?

For that cheap of a price, I might go pick up 1 or 2 and try the same thing you did. I never bought any when they were $99 years ago because I figured they had 2x4 stocks and were cosmoline-coated nightmares. I also always heard about how inaccurate they were, too. But I bet if they have a good bore, they would shoot decent with handloads.

 

[engineer40]

Thanks!

I honestly haven't shot it much yet. Probably just 30 trigger pulls on it last summer with some cheap Tulammo the seller gave to me. I was able to consistently get 3 inches at 100 yards with the irons. I was on a bench with a nice solid rest. My bore and muzzle crown look to be in pretty good shape though.

I did some light trigger polishing while I had it apart this time. Took it from 10+lbs to right under 7lbs without much effort. I may try to get it better next summer. Timney makes a replacement trigger for these but I'm not putting that much into this rifle.

There are a handful of accuracy tricks that guys do with these Mosins. I don't drink wine but I asked my in-laws to save a couple corks for me so I can cut them up and use them in the barrel channel. I've also done my share of bedding stocks so there is a chance I may do that to it also. But stock bedding is a lot of effort so I'm undecided on that yet. If I end up enjoying the rifle I probably will bed it this winter.

I would imagine that the Tubb's Final Finish bore lapping might do wonders for a mil-surp. I already have some that I was going to use for my 303 British but might allocate them for the Mosin instead.

The cosmoline can definitely be a nightmare. The wood stock was pretty dark even after I stripped it with the Easy-Off. Hence, why I used the Comet bleach cleaner to brighten it a bunch. I lost a couple of the cartouches because I had to sand the stock a bit after I rinsed off the Comet cleaner. But managed to keep most of them.

This was my first venture at Tru Oil. There are different methods of application I've read people prefer. I used many thin coats that I hand rubbed onto the wood. Seems to work out well.

I am undecided if I will reload for this yet. You can get ammo so darn cheap. But if I do reload, Lapua makes brass for 7.62x54R.

After some research and reading of reviews, I ordered the Mojo brand sights. They were the most expensive but people really sang their praises. The cheaper sights available definitely had some negative reviews. I have plenty of rifles with scopes, so keeping this one with just iron sights.

 

[engineer40]

My only regret for the entire project was NOT taking "Before" pictures... Just to be able to prove how ugly this thing was.

 

[LPRoad]

Well done, nice to see old rifles looking their best.

 

[LRSickle]

My only regret for the entire project was NOT taking "Before" pictures... Just to be able to prove how ugly this thing was.

I can imagine how ugly it was. I have "a few" of these and every one is pretty rough looking. After looking at your pictures, I might have to try and refinish a couple just to see what I have under all that cosmoline. A couple guns at $90 investment isn't too much to risk.
Thanks for posting.

 

[RT2506]

I have fooled with a number of these rifles and have many of the different models. Here are some tips to make accurate handloads. Slug the bore first. These rifles have various diameter bores. Get some .315 diameter muzzle loader lead balls and drop one into the chamber end and start it down the bore by using the metal cleaning rod that came with the rifle by placing a piece of wood on the end and driving it with a hammer to get it started. Then use 6" long pieces of wooden dowel rod dropped on top of the lead ball and pushed through with the metal rod. Measure beteen the high spots on the slug which are where they filled the grooves. If it measures .310 to .311 use .311 diameter bullets. If it measures .311 to .312 use .312 Hornady bullets. Most load data uses .308 bullets but I personally have not seen one of these rifles with a bore that tight. Prvi Partizan (SP?) has reloadable cases that are cheaper than Lapua and are very good cases. I have found that no matter what model rifle this load just plain shoots great.
50 grs Accurate Arms 4350, CCI 200 primer, with .311 Sierra 174 Match Kings or 180 Sp COAL 3.000 . If .312 bullets are needed the Hornady 174 RNSP COAL 2.790 and this is VERY IMPORTANT to accuracy. Use a Lee Factory Crimp Die with a medium crimp on all rounds. Have fun. Oh. That rifle looks nice.

 

[Deleted member 46119]

Engineer40,

Good work.
You have enriched my life with sharing your out of the box thinking.

Oven cleaner. Way cool.

I have a Mauser to try it on. Several other dipped rifles including a "Finnish" Mosin.

The Durocote and polishing is inspiring. Not that I need more projects but looking forward to projects is what floats my boat.

Go for the reloading thing. I do and accuracy is very satisfying not to mention much cheaper than buying.

 

[engineer40]

Well done, nice to see old rifles looking their best.

Thank you!

I can imagine how ugly it was. I have "a few" of these and every one is pretty rough looking. After looking at your pictures, I might have to try and refinish a couple just to see what I have under all that cosmoline. A couple guns at $90 investment isn't too much to risk.
Thanks for posting.

They are usually double that price these days! I fully realize that I most likely devalued the rifle by refinishing it. But at least now I'll take it out of my safe and shoot it sometimes!

I have fooled with a number of these rifles and have many of the different models. Here are some tips to make accurate handloads. Slug the bore first. These rifles have various diameter bores. Get some .315 diameter muzzle loader lead balls and drop one into the chamber end and start it down the bore by using the metal cleaning rod that came with the rifle by placing a piece of wood on the end and driving it with a hammer to get it started. Then use 6" long pieces of wooden dowel rod dropped on top of the lead ball and pushed through with the metal rod. Measure beteen the high spots on the slug which are where they filled the grooves. If it measures .310 to .311 use .311 diameter bullets. If it measures .311 to .312 use .312 Hornady bullets. Most load data uses .308 bullets but I personally have not seen one of these rifles with a bore that tight. Prvi Partizan (SP?) has reloadable cases that are cheaper than Lapua and are very good cases. I have found that no matter what model rifle this load just plain shoots great.
50 grs Accurate Arms 4350, CCI 200 primer, with .311 Sierra 174 Match Kings or 180 Sp COAL 3.000 . If .312 bullets are needed the Hornady 174 RNSP COAL 2.790 and this is VERY IMPORTANT to accuracy. Use a Lee Factory Crimp Die with a medium crimp on all rounds. Have fun. Oh. That rifle looks nice.

Thanks for all of the information! I do already have a couple different kinds of 30 caliber bullets that measure .312. I also have IMR4350 and H4350, but no Accurate Arms. I'm also a fan of using a light to medium hold with the Lee Factory Crimp Die!

I have plenty of very accurate rifles with nice scopes that I can shoot tight groups with. I have no delusions of trying to turn this Mosin into something it's not. But I do think it can be moderately accurate, with a reasonable amount of effort, for a lot of fun shooting.

I have a handful of projects going on. Lately though I've had a renewed interest in enjoying my mil-surp rifles. Hmm, maybe I'll attend a CMP shoot next spring.

I need to constantly remind myself that I have my entire life to use and modify these firearms; I don't need everything done this week.

Engineer40,

Good work.
You have enriched my life with sharing your out of the box thinking.

Oven cleaner. Way cool.

I have a Mauser to try it on. Several other dipped rifles including a "Finnish" Mosin.

The Durocote and polishing is inspiring. Not that I need more projects but looking forward to projects is what floats my boat.

Go for the reloading thing. I do and accuracy is very satisfying not to mention much cheaper than buying.

I sincerely appreciate the kind words!

The Easy-Off oven cleaner literally just melted the old finish and cosmoline off of the rifle. I just used an old plastic health insurance card to scrape off the goo. I'll caution that you'll have to rinse the wood stock off well after using the Easy-Off and that could swell the grain and you may need to do some light sanding because of it. If I had just used the Easy-Off and rinsed, I would not have lost any of my cartouches. But since I also bleached it twice, I did need to sand it more and lost a couple of the less visible cartouches unfortunately. On this particular rifle I decided it was better for me to like the gun enough to take it out and shoot it, rather than just keeping it for a collector rifle hoping that it goes up in value.

My goal was to clean the rifle up and make it better looking but not lose the military/historic appeal that makes these old rifles cool. I purposely did not get rid of all the the wood stock's imperfections. In fact, at one point I looked at the stock and had it WAY too shiny! When I saw it after it had dried I thought "That is just too glossy for a military rifle". So I steel wool'ed it slightly to take it down a notch.

Thanks again!

 

[morcey2]

Be careful with oven cleaner. It will start to break down the wood fibers on the surface and cause damage that won't show up for a little while. On refurbished russian/soviet mosins, the finish is almost always shellac and will come off almost instantly with denatured alcohol. The bleach in the Comet will also cause damage to the wood fibers.

As for Mausers, most of them are either BLO or Tung Oil with a nice top coat of cosmoline. Finnish mosins can have anything from an oil finish to pine tar, which is actually quite attractive especially on birch stocks. (I'll post a couple of pics when I find them)

I've used regular stripper (zip strip and clean strip) on lots of stocks to get the original finish off and then lots of low heat to get the majority of the cosmoline out. The dashboard of a truck in the summer works great for that. Set it out in the morning on some paper towels. Wipe it off with some mineral spirits or denatured alcohol in the evening before it cools. Repeat as needed. If you don't get the cosmoline out, it will gradually come to the surface and darken it when the stock gets warm. You can see a little bit of it in the end-grains behind the tang on your stock. The darkening itself isn't a big deal, but if there's enough cosmoline, it can lift the new finish. BLO also darkens as it ages.

As for reloading, I picked up 300 Lapua cases when they were on sale at $35-ish/100 a couple of years ago. Those, along with CCI 200 primers, 45 gr of Varget, and 174 gr HPBT Hornady bullets (0.312", not 0.3105") shoot well in all of my mosins. The 150 gr SP Hornady bullets also shoot well with 47 gr of Varget. None of mine are what you'd call tack-drivers, but they do shoot well. The one that shoots the best is the one with the worst bore. It's a Finn-captured 1933 Tula M91/30 that looks like it was used to club a Panzer tank into the ground. I picked it up really cheap (because I'm a sucker for Finnish mosins) and the bore was the proverbial sewer-pipe. I scrubbed it a little to get the loose stuff out (and there was a lot of it) and then used a couple of rounds of Gunslick foaming bore cleaner. It still looked bad, but at least I could see the grooves. It has an M39 trigger (with the two roll-pins through the trigger) and it shoots about 1 1/2" at 100 yards with the 174 gr bullets.

Matt

 

[engineer40]

Be careful with oven cleaner. It will start to break down the wood fibers on the surface and cause damage that won't show up for a little while.

Hey Matt, I thought about and researched a lot about your statement above before I did anything. I believe it to be 99% Internet rumor. Or maybe I should say it is theory based rumor...

I could not find anywhere that someone actually posted proof of damaged caused from oven cleaner. And many people were asking for proof.

However I agree with you warning people that they should be cautious. Me personally, I would not employ my same methods on a Garand or original 1903. But truthfully I wouldn't do anything at all to any mil-surp that I was holding onto for it's value.

I realize that the dark spots are embedded oil (probably cosmoline) in the wood. I'm ok with that. I was joking with one of my friends and we both agreed that the dark spots makes it look better. Gives it some character and depth.

I did heat the stock and got a good amount of cosmoline out before I tried to bleach it. I feel it will look just like it does now for a long time. Hopefully I'm right!

 

[morcey2]

Hey Matt, I thought about and researched a lot about your statement above before I did anything. I believe it to be 99% Internet rumor. Or maybe I should say it is theory based rumor...

I could not find anywhere that someone actually posted proof of damaged caused from oven cleaner. And many people were asking for proof.

There's definitely solid theory behind it. Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) in most oven cleaner breaks down the lignins (that's a weird word) in wood. Lignins are the "glue" that holds wood fibers together. The same goes for chlorine bleach. NaOH is also used in wood cleaning (usually decks), but is usually used on old, deteriorating wood to remove already damaged wood. One characteristic that can keep it from damaging a stock is that it reacts with oils in the wood (cosmoline, et. al.) and creates a form of a soap. Just like old timey lye soap making, but more cosmoline-y. Maybe I should try that and sell it to milsurp collectors to go along with the Hoppes #9 cologne.

However I agree with you warning people that they should be cautious. Me personally, I would not employ my same methods on a Garand or original 1903. But truthfully I wouldn't do anything at all to any mil-surp that I was holding onto for it's value.

I realize that the dark spots are embedded oil (probably cosmoline) in the wood. I'm ok with that. I was joking with one of my friends and we both agreed that the dark spots makes it look better. Gives it some character and depth.

I did heat the stock and got a good amount of cosmoline out before I tried to bleach it. I feel it will look just like it does now for a long time. Hopefully I'm right!

If you like the looks of the cosmoline on there, you'll love a pine tar finish. It really brings out the variations in the wood. I've got 2 mosins with pine tar finishes and I'll post pics of them as soon as I figure out where they are. One is an M91/30 with a Finnish Baltic Birch pot-belly stock. The other is an M38 with a Russian Birch stock. Anything that has tiger striping or other grain size variations really look good with pine tar.

Matt

 

[engineer40]

I installed my Mojo peep sights today. Wow, what a PITA to install. Both the rear and the front where terrible to install in their own unique ways.

I'm glad I got them on, but I don't think I'd be willing to go through that again.

Suffice it to say, I'll be needing to re-Duracoat some parts now. Bummer.

 

[engineer40]

Mojo peep sights - Duracoated to match the rifle (Since the dial moves I decided to leave that part the factory blued finish).

Each click is .75 MOA.

The last pic I was trying to show the sight picture, but it's always a crap shoot trying to accurately show that.

I've never shot with sights like this before. I'm looking forward to it. Just need to wait for the Duracoat finish to harden before I shoot the rifle again.

Any tips for shooting with sights like these?