Mosin bolt engage problem (Not sticky bolt!)

JackThompson · Mar 8, 2013

This is a Mosin Nagant 91/30 purchased new-ish from Big5 in December.

I've already cleaned it with break cleaner, taken a 12 gauge bore brush mounted to a drill etc... the bore is clean. The issue I'm talking about isn't in closing the bolt, it's in sliding the bolt to chamber a round.

It's hanging on the mechanism that holds the rimmed cartridges in place. (I've heard it referred to as the magazine interrupter.)

Here's a video I found that talks about it, but not specifically about my issue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axDWSWvoPao

If there are no rounds in the magazine it cycles just fine. (Same if I take my finger a depress the rounds down into the magazine.)

It works intermittently, which only serves to frustrate my poor son who got this rifle for christmas

Is there something I can trim/polish/adjust to allow it to consistently cycle?

ridnjon · Mar 8, 2013

You can take the stock off and clean out where that area is. Either there is crap in there or it's not cut out enough.

jricker3 · Mar 9, 2013

Have you tested by loading only 1 round and attempting to chamber it? The reason I ask is that the round is rimmed, and if you load the magazine so the top rim is behind the rim of the second round, it will not chamber properly due to the rim getting hung on the round below it.

I realize that the Mosin is supposed to handle this automatically, but I have found that taking the time to stagger my cartridges makes this a non-issue.

JackThompson · Mar 9, 2013

Hmm, I'll take it apart and use my dental tools on the nooks and crannies to see if it has some offending junk in there. Hadn't thought of that.

I'll test with 1 round as well, although I was able to visually verify that the rims weren't touching each other, and in most of the hang-up cases, the bolt wasn't moving forward far enough to engage