JavaScript is disabled
Our website requires JavaScript to function properly. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser settings before proceeding.
Messages
137
Reactions
218
All,

When I purchased my first rifle at 18 I did not know much about gun cleaning nor corrosive ammo. Fast forward 12 years my Mosin M1939 is all fouled up.
I did, eventually, learned my lesson.

Could some one help me identify what is going on with the rifle bore and is it fixable at this point? Is there anything else i can do to mitigate further damage to the bore?
Pictures below were taken after cleaning last night.
693065-afd95ab9e12a306ba8bace84d67c6a68.jpg 693067-4195bb5b31e73a03b7e3b1d9ab2f782c.jpg 693066-4f001a9fa7ba82f18808300f6a0537d4.jpg 693068-6984516302d186ae9077ded801c11860.jpg

After a 6 hour soak with Hoppe's Elite Gun Cleaner the patches came out looking like this (appears to be rust) IMG_2935.jpg
last patch that i ran with just rem oil came out like this: IMG_2943.jpg

Lastly, i am looking to sell this rifle at some point, What would be a fair thing to say about the bore as i want to be upfront about the condition.

Thank you for reading,

Len

IMG_2938.JPG IMG_2939.JPG IMG_2940.JPG IMG_2941.JPG
 
Sounds good, will have to get out to the range soon. It's just all my other rifles are nice and shiny and this one dull and "pitted" If that's a correct term to use in this case.
 
LOL.....so then......
Yesterday, I went shooting with the old Mosin Nagant M91/30 (bbl dated 1927).

Dec-27-2019.jpg

When I bought it it had a cool looking muzzle brake on it and the action had been mounted into an Archangel stock with a Timney Trigger. I've shot it on many prior occasions but was never really happy with the 4-6" groups at 25 yards. Yes....25 yrds is about all I can clearly see with iron sights (old age sucks).

Anyway.....I had been working on getting the muzzle brake off as I suspected that it was negatively affecting my shooting. I managed to get one of the set screws off. But the other (last one) was a PIA. I had started to drill it out as it would not screw out. I gave up on that idea as I got closer to the barrel's metal.

Yeah....I'm chicken. And I don't really wanna spend the big bucks for a real gunsmith. So, it was still attached with that one mangled screw.

Back to the story......
So, I was shooting and into my maybe 60th round of ammo and something happened. Yep....that muzzle brake flew off. LOL.

Then, OK....so, it's off (happy days) and I finally started getting decent groups.

IMG-5983.jpg

Then, the rest of the story.....
To add insult to injury......when I took it home for it's cleaning routine (shooting corrosive surplus, comes with chores). Well, I found that my barrel had been counterbored at some point in it's life.

Oh well....the fun of shooting surplus.

Speaking of corrosive ammo.......

corrosive-primers.png

Not really.......but my friend thought it was funny.

Aloha, Mark
 
Last Edited:
and this one dull and "pitted" If that's a correct term to use in this case.
Yes it is and I have two about the same - a 121 year old Mod 94 and a T/C Renegade ML that was left uncleaned for over 20 years I restored.

Both are tackdrivers in spite of the pitting.
 
And IMHO....it's not so much the Timney trigger. This was shot (on previous outings) from a plain old Mosin M91/30 with issued stock and trigger (with home mod shim and spring).

Feb-16-2020-1.jpg

And even the M38 was tried at 25 yds.
IMG-20180518-135015.jpg

Aloha, Mark

PS....all of the bores on my Mosin Nagants have bores that don't exactly shine. For me.....the idea of a clean patch coming through at any point is "only a dream".
 
Last Edited:
There isn't much you can do to restore the damage that's already been done. I've seen much worse. The rifling lands still look pretty strong. Years ago, we used to call this a "rough bore." These days, the description would be "dark bore." Your description implies that it wasn't in this condition when you first got it. If so, and if it still shoots as well as it did then, your sales description might include the words, "shoots well." Being as I've seen worse, my description (based on your pictures) might be, "bore shows pitting, shoots well."

I recently sold an Austrian M1895 long rifle that was over 100 years old. With original barrel. It had about as bad a bore as I've seen in a smokeless powder arm. Yet it was still a fair shooter and the buyer didn't seem to care.

This Austrian rifle had a barrel about 30 inches long. You could see the worst part of the bore was right in the middle. My take on this was that soldiers weren't getting to the entire length of the barrel. They'd go at it from both ends with a rod that wasn't long enough.
 
A pitted bore can still shoot well, depending. Yours doesn't look like it might be fine.

Tornado brush with penetrating oil, run a few patches... Shoot, then clean as normal.
 
Based on the pictures in the OP, it doesn't look all that bad. You can still see an edge on the rifling.

There is a theory about cleaning a heavily pitted bore. Which is, the deep pits can contain some pretty hardened deposits. Which possibly are better left undisturbed because they fill in space created by the pitting in the first instance. Therefore kinda building it back up. So if you don't shoot any more ammo with corrosive priming and clean normally, the hard deposits will mostly remain and fill in the pitting to some extent. Just a theory but the idea seems sound.
 
A few passes with some water based valve lapping compound with a bore mop wouldn't hurt. It might remove some of the 'high spots' and brighten up the bore a bit but you don't want to overdo it.
 

Upcoming Events

Tillamook Gun & Knife Show
Tillamook, OR
"The Original" Kalispell Gun Show
Kalispell, MT
Teen Rifle 1 Class
Springfield, OR
Kids Firearm Safety 2 Class
Springfield, OR

New Resource Reviews

New Classified Ads

Back Top