Mosin Project Part #1

**Bama Man** · March 12th, 2010, 10:39 PM

I made a major step today on my Mosin project.
I have a 1943 91/30 built at the Izhevsk arsenal That was crude looking to say the least.
The receiver was very poorly machined on the outside, unlike my Tula arsenal model 38/59 that was reconditioned and in superb condition.
I'm one of those people that love to tinker, and, since I have a freind down the road that lets me hang out and help in his gunshop (cliogunshop.com),
I have been getting him to teach me the ins and outs of smithing. ( what a blessing)
He had a new .308 heavy barrel from a 700 Remington just laying around, so, he's selling it to me for my project, which is: putting a good .308 bore barrel on my Mosin and seeing if I can get it to shoot as good as any commercial
rifles. .30X54r or .308X54r
My first chore was to pull the military barrel from the receiver, which was easily done with a small ring Mauser wrench.
The outside measurement on the Remington's tenon was 1.06" and the outside measurement on the Mosin's was 0.976". Both are 16 teeth per inch,
which makes it ok to use the Remington barrel on the Mosin.
After looking over the receiver, I found that it APPEARS that the face of the
receiver is not square, so I had to make a receiver mandrel, which is a bar of steel that passes through and threads into the receiver, so that the receiver can be "chucked" into a lathe squarely, and the receiver face turned square.
I made that this morning, although threading the mandrel will have to wait until next week.
I also found that the bolt lugs show that the lug on the "left" has been making contact with the bolt, but the one on the "right" has not.
Therefore, I will need to lap the bolt into the lugs correctly, and this will mean that I need to make an adaptor to allow me to use the bolt lapping tool.
Jerry, the gunsmith, says that the lack of a lapped bolt will cause some "vibration" in the works upon firing, and will kill consistancy. I thought it would be because the action would "bend" to the light lug side after the rifle heated up after a few rounds.
The receiver has been filed and finished and ready to be polished before bluing.
I made a slight alteration to the top of the receiver, taking the "hump" off where the stripper clip feeds through to the mag. This will allow me a little more clearance for the tuned down bolt handle I will weld to the bolt at a later date.
I have already changed the bottom plate,magazine box, trigger guard, making it flush to the bottom of the stock. It will now only hold three cartridges.
More to come in the future, with pictures, (when I can steal my wife's camera and take it to the shop).
I will also be making my own wood for this rifle, as there is no real custom wood to be found.
"Why?" you ask? "Why not?" I answer.

**Azzy** · March 15th, 2010, 04:40 PM

Gonna follow this one, its a shame you did not take photos the whole time

**idpasharpshooter** · March 17th, 2010, 03:35 AM

mosins are great guns to learn to smith on. being they are cheap and easy to get. did you decide what chambering you are going to go with i assume you are sticking with stock 7.62x54r. when you chamber use to go and no go to fit the rear face of the barrel and using the sizing die you will be using to reload with to size a round and bore the chamber to fit that round this method will give you the tightest chamber possible. it is not advisable to use surplus ammo in a 308 boar anyway as surplus ammo measures .3105-.312 i am building a scout mosin (still i know) when i start working on it again (soon i hope) i will post some pics. maybe i will snap a few of what i have so far tonight. best of luck to you and if you have any questions feel free to ask as i have experience rebarreling a mosin.

**deth502** · March 24th, 2010, 04:13 PM

Originally Posted by Bama Man

I will also be making my own wood for this rifle, as there is no real custom wood to be found.
"Why?" you ask? "Why not?" I answer.

if you want to make your own stock, by all means, go for it.

ive made my own. ive worked with wood all my life. i hated it. never again, unless i REALLLLLLY have to.

so, if you really want to make your own, have at it, if not, try here:

http://www.rifle-stocks.com/sporter_hunting_styles.htm

**idpasharpshooter** · March 24th, 2010, 04:18 PM

i've heard nothing but good about boyds gun stocks here is a link to the mosin stocks they carry http://www.boydsgunstocks.com/Search...x=0&Search.y=0

**LastManOut** · March 24th, 2010, 05:32 PM

Ditto on the Boyd's Stocks. I bought new furniture for an old double barrel to replace the plastic. It's now a pretty home defense home invader perforater.

**thetruepyromaniak** · March 24th, 2010, 08:16 PM

im interested to follow along as well

**Bama Man** · April 3rd, 2010, 05:24 PM

Originally Posted by deth502

if you want to make your own stock, by all means, go for it.

ive made my own. ive worked with wood all my life. i hated it. never again, unless i REALLLLLLY have to.

so, if you really want to make your own, have at it, if not, try here:

http://www.rifle-stocks.com/sporter_hunting_styles.htm

Thanks for the links.
I'm really interested in the Boyd's stocks, and will probably order one of those.
I've changed the triggerguard/magazine enough now that it may not inlet right on one of their stocks, but, I'm sure this won't be the last Mosin I work with, so I'll use the stock later if it doesn't work out with this one.
I have a Tula model 38/59 that I've mounted a scope on and shortened the barrel to 19" for a good "bush" rifle.
I worked the Triggerguard/magazine assembly to fit flush with the bottom of the stock, and even fitted an old Pattern 14 Enfield floor plate to it.
Still working the minor fitting with it though.
I've yet to get the lathe time to machine threads to the arbor for machining the face of the receiver, but that will get done very soon.
I've been busy helping Jerry with other projects, and, since he's the one that will teach me to chase threads, I need to help him get some time clear.
I have taken some pictures of some of the work so far, but have yet to fiqure out how to upload them.
I'll get the associate pastor at my wife's ministry to teach me how to do that, and as soon as that is accomplished, there will be pics forthcoming.
Again, thanks so much for the link on the stocks.

**idpasharpshooter** · April 4th, 2010, 01:53 PM

as far as posting pictures. i use http://www.tinypic.com just go to there sight on top there is a browse button. click it and find the picture on your computer. i resize to 15"screen (800x600) just make sure to put in your e-mail so the link to the picture is e-mailed to you. otherwise there is no way to find your picture later. after it uploads or when you click the link in your e-mail it will give you diffrent links to the picture use the one that looks like this

PHP Code:


[img]http://www.tinypic.com/xxxxxxxx[/img]

then click the little img icon on top of the message box when you type on this site and just insert the code, then the picture will pop right up on the screen when you read the thread.

hope this helped

**Bama Man** · April 5th, 2010, 02:14 PM

Originally Posted by idpasharpshooter

as far as posting pictures. i use http://www.tinypic.com just go to there sight on top there is a browse button. click it and find the picture on your computer. i resize to 15"screen (800x600) just make sure to put in your e-mail so the link to the picture is e-mailed to you. otherwise there is no way to find your picture later. after it uploads or when you click the link in your e-mail it will give you diffrent links to the picture use the one that looks like this

PHP Code:


[img]http://www.tinypic.com/xxxxxxxx[/img]

then click the little img icon on top of the message box when you type on this site and just insert the code, then the picture will pop right up on the screen when you read the thread.

hope this helped

lets see what happened