To refinish a Mosin 91/30?

[Maksim 1,504]

Picked up a Mosin from a board member and took it out to shoot today. Was fun. =P

 

now the question is... shall I refinish the stock, or keep it original?

 

I dont necessarily care about keeping it original state as much as having it look nice.

 

so voila...

 

anyone refinished any old mil surplus rifles?

[tbtrout 141]

I redid an old Enfield, but I did it so it still looks old and used. my main goal was to get the excess dirt and grease out of the stock and then sealed it with the dings, scrapes and signs of wear still in it. It still has the Australian Militrary unit carved into the stock.

 

They were not made nice and shiny so I would not make one that way.

[djg0770 481]

Maks,

 

I just did an M44 stock. I think I used my lifetime limit of Acetone in one project Actually, it took the majority of the Cosmo out of the stock and stripped it down as best as anything I could have used. I then refinished with several coats of boiled linseed oil and a coat or two of Carnauba wax on top. Classic sort of but not really very protective. The 'purists' at 7.62r forums frown greatly on any type of 'restoration' to the stock, but for $100 what the heck right? Plus, my cartouches and stamps seem fubared anyway so, to me, it's just a piece of history, not an accurate mil-surp for a collector. ie it's a shooter, not a lover.

[coldsolderjoint 84]

Did you really think it looked that bad?

[Maksim 1,504]

its not terrible... but dunno. I want it good looking. =P

[usnmars 136]

go to http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewforum.php?f=83&sid=8337a184324565737064c6a911cba0ea they have tons of forum threads on refinishing a mosin. I have done mine and love how they came out. and if you check out http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=137&t=61170 there is a nice how to on stripping a stock from THE MAN when it comes to stocks. Here are pics of my PE and PU snipers that i refinished using the linked stripping method and finishing with tung oil

[devils4ever 0]

I refinished my M1 Garand a few years ago. I wanted to keep it original, but I also wanted it looks a little nicer. So, I used stripper to get the old finish off. I kept the original markings on the top of the stock that must have been a rack number. I put on a new finish. I think it looks a lot nicer and it's still original. Good luck with your project.

[Maksim 1,504]

already went to homey D to go shopping. got denaturatilized? alcohol and klean strip.

 

just have to decide if to keep it natural wood color and do oil, or to stain/dye it. leaning towards keeping it natural.

 

worst case... can always pick up another one.

[junkmanted 54]

tung oil is the best let it dry between coats and buff with steel wool after each 4 or 5 coats looks nice.

i have done countless stocks with it .

heres a m38 i did

 

[Maksim 1,504]

the more I think about it, I want a lighter finish on it. lol.

[coldsolderjoint 84]

Didn't the Russian's refinish the Nagants with shellac? So you would have to remove that first before you could go lighter.. by sanding I presume.

 

When I got that gun, I used a 50/50 mixture of Boiled Linseed Oil and Turpentine to clean the stock, but not actually take off the finish, it lighted up quite a bit compared to where it was. Lots of dirt/cosmoline came off.

[Maksim 1,504]

Didn't the Russian's refinish the Nagants with shellac? So you would have to remove that first before you could go lighter.. by sanding I presume.

 

When I got that gun, I used a 50/50 mixture of Boiled Linseed Oil and Turpentine to clean the stock, but not actually take off the finish, it lighted up quite a bit compared to where it was. Lots of dirt/cosmoline came off.

 

 

Need shellac stripper to take it off, and then the wood is actually pretty light color. i will post pics before and when I get started.

[usnmars 136]

watch out maksim, those mosins tend to multiply on you and breed. One turns into 2 turns into 3, yada yada yada. When you take it out shooting long distance and see how accurate they are and how cheap they are, every time you are in a shop and they have one you tend to look at them. Before applying any finish to the stock once it is stripped, i recommend sitting it on the dash of your car in the sun to leech out any hidden cosmo. just go outside every half hour or so with a rag and wipe up all of the cosmoline that came out. I also recommend doing this to the bore- http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=80&t=39312 I do it after every couple of range trips and it is amazing what it will pull out of your bore. especially if it is your first time doing it. I have done a lot of accurizing on these rifles and am willing to share some of my tricks and tips if you want em.

[Maksim 1,504]

watch out maksim, those mosins tend to multiply on you and breed. One turns into 2 turns into 3, yada yada yada. When you take it out shooting long distance and see how accurate they are and how cheap they are, every time you are in a shop and they have one you tend to look at them. Before applying any finish to the stock once it is stripped, i recommend sitting it on the dash of your car in the sun to leech out any hidden cosmo. just go outside every half hour or so with a rag and wipe up all of the cosmoline that came out. I also recommend doing this to the bore- http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=80&t=39312 I do it after every couple of range trips and it is amazing what it will pull out of your bore. especially if it is your first time doing it. I have done a lot of accurizing on these rifles and am willing to share some of my tricks and tips if you want em.

 

 

tell me about it. there is a m44, and another 91/30 that are soon going to be mine.

 

I did clean it after shooting the other night, holy crap the bore just wouldnt stop producing dirty patches. lol.

 

After like 20, i gave up for the day.

 

After shooting it again tonight, i will be ripping it apart to both, clean, and remove the old shellac. will have all the metal parts cleaned, and the wood cosmo free.

 

i have no doubts they are great shooters, esp with good ammo,

 

t2M1hC4c0tc

[coldsolderjoint 84]

I have no doubt that the rifle is more accurate than I am, I just don't really care for the iron sights though.. the mauser sight is much more precise.

[Lublin 3]

Holy $hit to I regret not buying that rifle. :oops:

[Maksim 1,504]

the counter bore can take a bit of the accuracy away from it. also ammo can be an issue. just going through the rest of the surpluss, before using the reloadeable stuff.... and then will be loading my own for it.

 

now if i can only pick up an original SVD while I am in ukraine/russia.

[coldsolderjoint 84]

I want an SVT-40.. but then again.. i want a lot of stuff..

[wsl 2]

I was getting pretty tight groups with it the other night, and I haven't shot a rifle in 12 years. I definitely want one, as well as a mauser, and a garand, and an enfield, and....

[JonF 79]

I refinished the stock on my M44. When i bought it i was new to milsurps and thought it looked pretty beat up and was looking for a project. It may have not been as bad to some folks but i suppose i don't have the emotional attachment that other collectors do and went at it. In retrospect, i shoulda just left it not because of of preservation of the original finish, but the finish i applied didn't turn out how i liked. The wood is very uneven in its coloring with a lot of dark discoloration. Maybe that is just a part of the properties of beech or a factor of its age and use but it's no walnut beauty. I used the Birchwood casey tru-oil kit with stain but the stain didn't darken it very much. I dunno, maybe i'm being too critical. Let me know what you think.

 

The original finish is flaking badly after wiping down with mineral spirits to remove the ridiculous amounts of cosmoline coating this gun.

 

Stripped using a non-toxic citrus based stripper. This product worked quite well at removing all the shellac in all nooks and crannies.

 

I steamed out as many dents as possible, lightly sanded (no markings to preserve on this stock) and applied some walnut stain. IT hardly darkened much at all compared to the pic above when it was fully stripped. Again, the grain is ok, but the coloration is very splotchy.

 

Final result after about 6 coats of tru-oil applied by fingertip. Its quite glossy and neither a deep walnut color nor does it resemble the reddish tint of the original shellac finish.

[Maksim 1,504]

the original shellac is not representative of the true mosin nagants.

 

original mosins were just wood. they were refinished in the shellac for preservation when most of them were redone/refubed at the factory.

 

=) just an fyi.

 

btw, JonF, that color came out beautiful. really nice looking.

 

So was shooting the 91/30 today... holy cosmo batman. It started coming out of places I never knew existed. by the last 40 rounds, the cosmo was splattering back on the face, shirt, all over. this is why you wear safety glasses.

[usnmars 136]

From my experience in milsurp collecting(my collection make museums jealous) the best thing to remove cosmo is plain old boiling water. I am just a hobbyist collector and am not responsible if you goof up your gun. I am just saying this is my normal de-cosmo routine that i follow. The reason for the boiling water is that cosmo melts at 128

[coldsolderjoint 84]

the original shellac is not representative of the true mosin nagants.

 

original mosins were just wood. they were refinished in the shellac for preservation when most of them were redone/refubed at the factory.

 

=) just an fyi.

 

 

Ahh, see, I didn't know that.. didn't read into history that much. If it were me, I would keep it with the shellac as that is a part of history. Same reason, I wouldn't have a problem owning a Russian Capture K98.

 

But.. everyone has their cup of tea

[JonF 79]

the original shellac is not representative of the true mosin nagants.

 

original mosins were just wood. they were refinished in the shellac for preservation when most of them were redone/refubed at the factory.

 

=) just an fyi.

 

btw, JonF, that color came out beautiful. really nice looking.

 

So was shooting the 91/30 today... holy cosmo batman. It started coming out of places I never knew existed. by the last 40 rounds, the cosmo was splattering back on the face, shirt, all over. this is why you wear safety glasses.

 

Thanks for the compliments. That's interesting to know about the shellac. I do like the red shellac finish they put on the beech though. It seems to suit the "plainness" of beech well.

 

I was at Ft Dix with my buddy who has just bought a Yugo Mauser and a Hungarian Mannlicher. He's not the most thorough guy with cleaning/maintenance and his idea of cleaning the cosmo was to wipe the gun down with a rag wetted with mineral spirits. Now its well known that mineral spirits does clean off cosmo very well and is easy to work with but you gotta strip the rifle down and bathe some of these guns to get them clean. Fast forward to the initial range outing with it, it turns out that this gun is a nice shooter giving good groups. About 30-40 rounds into it with him shooting right next to me, I notice some reddish beads of liquid on my arm. At first sight i though i might have caught some kinda particle blowout or return-to-sender fragmentation from someones gun. Turns out his cruddy mauser was sneezing cosmo on me with every shot as it percolates from every nook and cranny that he didn't clean out. :x

 

[devils4ever 0]

Man, all this talk on mil rifles is getting me jealous. I might have to look into getting a Mosin or a K98 to go with my M1 Garand. 8-)