Range Day! Range Day! Party Time! Excellent!
So Partner and I head to the range this morning for some deeply needed stress relief.
We went loaded for bear.
Partner had a Ruger 357, a 22 revolver (JC Higgins, a sweet wheelgun) a Beretta 22 auto. And of course his new P1 Walther. I brought the 380, the 45, and my Stainless Model 65.
We threw enough lead downrange to blacken our hands and faces. We depleted the Big Box of 22 ammo by at least a thousand rounds. We shot ALL of the available 9mm, 380, and 45 ammo.
When we got done, drove to the ranger station to wash up. we both regretted that we had quit smoking, as that would have been a great time for a Pall Mall. Damn. I am having difficulty wiping the grin off my face.
Looking forward to the Buffalo Range on the 7th…
.44 mag, Mosin-Nagant… I wanna make some NOISE, dammit ! :)
I want to shoot that Mosin, Grau.
I actually have two (a 91/30 and an m44), but the 91/30 won’t chamber a round for some reason… I need to find a gunsmith who won’t charge me more than the rifle cost just to look at it…
Won’t go in all the way? Will an empty shell go in?
I don’t have any empty shells… yet. Haven’t christened either of them, mores the pity.
I plan on bringing them both, with several different types of ammo to test, and see if maybe it’s the bolt that’s bad on the 91/30…
Grau,
Try the M44’s bolt in the 91/30. AFAIK, they should be identical.
Or you could do vicey-versey and put the 91/30’s bolt in the M44.
Generally problems with chambering in a Mosin are due to crap in the chamber or overly lacquered cases.
I scrubbed the hell out of the chamber, even heated it up with a hairdryer in case there was petrified cosmoline I didn’t see (it looks clean as hell to me).
I only have one type of ammo right now (I only have a few boxes of Czech silvertip). The lacquer on the cases could be the problem. I plan on picking up some Russian heavy ball, and some Wolf too for comparison.
I’m going to bring both rifles with so I can swap the bolts and see if that’s the problem as well. I really don’t like chambering a round in the house for obvious safety reasons. What I WISH I had were 7.62 X 54R headspace gauges but a set costs as much as the damn rifle…
I hope I can get the 91/30 shooting. It’s in really good condition and all the serial numbers match. Bore is a bit dark, but the rifling is nice and sharp (not bad for a gun made in 1942) The M44’s serial #’s don’t, but I couldn’t pass it up for $80 on sale at MC Sporting Goods.
Maybe pull the bullet and dump the powder for a round? I don’t know that this would tell you anything new, since the purpose of the rimmed cartridge was to mitigate lack of chamber uniformity. I think the technical term is the rifle “headspaces on the rim”.
Good luck.