Mosin Help

tonedef89 · May 15, 2011

I have a new to me Mosin that I took apart today for the first time and discovered a healthy chunk of rust and corrosion on the top of the barrel under the handguard. The bore was dirty but no rust like this. Should I just clean it up and shoot it or be worried? I was thinking of buying a headspace gauge to check it before shooting but am now wondering if it might be a good idea to take it to a smith for a full check. Any info appreciated.

deadeye · May 15, 2011

By the looks of it I would take it in and have it checked. I cant quite tell by the photo but it looks like the pitting is pretty deep in a few spots. Taking it in is cheeper than a hospital trip or seeing eye dog.

billdeserthills · May 15, 2011

Real depth perception in a pic not being very possible, but looking at that makes me wanna grab a steel brush & finding out how deep it goes...(the rust)

torpedoman · May 15, 2011

it is only a 100 buck gun not worth spending a lot to fix just get a new one and keep or sell the usable parts off the old one

xm193 · May 16, 2011

i have had rust on old guns before i usually take down to bare metal and kg gunkote them but this rust looks very deep. I wouldnt risk it

MarkAd · May 16, 2011

parts gun, parts gun....
Ship it to me. i will make sure it ok. i have a few pounds of powder to proof test the barrel.

darkminstrel · May 17, 2011

The wood colour makes me think it's a Polish mosin...could be the pic.

I've had a couple MNs with rust in that same spot, but the pic does make it look worse than the ones I had. I'd recommend stripping the rust out and checking the actual depth of it.

saxon · May 17, 2011

clean it and see how deep it is that also looks to be on the barrel and NOT the chamber, i had a bruno mauser that looked worse then that
cleaned it up was only surface rust shot the #@#@ out of it
remember the mosin the rim is the head space not the sholder so,,,,,,,

tonedef89 · May 18, 2011

Thanks for the replies and advice everyone. The angle of the pic does make it look a little worse than it is, didn't notice that until I posted. I'll clean it and hope that it doesn't go too deep but will have a smith check it too for peace of mind. I'll update later. Thanks again.