Refinishing my M44 Mosin Nagant

[sirsloop 1]

Sooo... Yeah I screwed up and didn't realize Brakleen takes shellac off rifles with insane ease. I was cleaning the Mosin sunday after a day at ft dix and wanted to get a little gook out. Got some on the stock and it literally melted that shit away like there was no tomorrow. I had originally intended on keeping the original finish, but this gave me a good reason to strip it and redo it.

 

The game plan.

 

1. Disassemble the weapon.

2. Use the rest of the can of Brakleen to strip off all the shellac.

3. Inspect the weapon for possible sanding touch up spots, and spots to avoid (cartouches, etc)

4. Sand down the weapon as per needed with 60 grit, 100 grit, 220 grit, 400 grit, and 0000 Steel Wood

5. Blow out the dust with the air compressor, then clean the weapon with a lint free towel and mineral spirits.

6. Wipe on Ebony stain, repeat until desired darkness is achieved

7. Wipe on gloss polyurethane until desired depth, smoothness, shine are achieved.

8. Clean excess shellac off the barrel and magazine well

9. Put a drop of solder on top of the front sight to raise it up

10. Adjust the front sight slightly to the right

11. Get some glue in the handguard, resand, stain, and polyurethane to match the stock.

12. Reassemble the weapon taking particular care with the front handguard rings, apply blue loctite on the two main bolts.

 

Soooo... after thinking about it and seeing what other people have done I decided to go with a black stained glossy Mosin. Most people go with the factory reddish color or blonde with a satin finish. I decided to make mine different and use Ebony stain until it was quite dark, then apply like 3-4 coats of poly, sanding in between, until it was glassy. Why? Why not? I didn't see anybody doing it so there's should be at least 1 our of 37mil like that :mrgreen:

 

pre-f-up

 

Disassembled.

 

Literally 10 minutes later.

 

Took like 2-3 hours to sand down. There were a few dings on the left hand side that coincidentally were right on top of a little bump in the stock. I used 60 grit to remove the bump and there are no longer any dings. A few of the dings would require filler, but I neglected to do anything about those. It is what it is, which is 64yrs old.

 

I have a nice drilled hole in my concrete... stuck a broom in there and hung the stock off it.

 

applied the first coat of stain... letting it sit for 15 minutes

 

wiped clean the excess stain... i'll need another ~2-3 coats to achieve the level of darkness I'm after.

 

 

I got some wood glue on that handguard. I thought about replacing it, but for a $150 rifle, who cares. Its good enough and will not be very visible once everything is black and coated with polyurethane.

 

More to come soon!

[Ray Ray 3,566]

Wow man, looks sharpe. Good pictures too.

[LibertyOrDeath 3]

Very Nice work... :clap:

[sirsloop 1]

laid down another coat this morning... its gettin there. I want it quite dark, almost as dark as it is when the wet stain is soaking in. I'll lay down the 3rd coat after work and post up some more pics. As its going, looks like maybe 4 coats of stain?

[sirsloop 1]

Talking about this on another forum... looks like I'm going to be corking the barrel, bedding the stock, shimming/polishing the trigger, and installing a slack spring on the trigger to give it a two stage pull. Now I'm really looking forward to getting back to the range to try it out!

 

Corking the barrel:

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/edu63_2.htm

 

Bedding the action:

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/edu75.htm

 

Slack spring

http://www.amazon.com/Mosin-nagant-M44- ... 245&sr=8-1

[Sigman 41]

Nice job JD. Looking forward to pics when it's done.

[civictuner04 6]

dude it's coming along great....i think i'm stealing the idea of bedding action and corking the barrel. and give my mosin another shot.

[Krdshrk 3,877]

Nice! I'd love to do that with mine but I would have to get a new stock first - the one on mine has already been broken and repaired.

[sirsloop 1]

You can also paint the stock a solid color if you want. It'll hide repairs, etc. Some will say blasphemy, but this is a el-cheapo super common rifle we're talkin about here. Hell, these were sold BY THE POUND....

[remthewanderer 0]

Thanks for the links to the box o truth!

[sirsloop 1]

You could also just hit up a gunshow and find the most shot out pos M44 with a decent stock. FYI, Mine has a few repairs that will be mostly hidden with the dark stain.

[rifleman 90]

Believe it or not, let the stain sit for an hour. I never had the patience to do this until recently and it comes out great.

[sirsloop 1]

Im just concerned about it drying on there... with it being so hot up here the stuff would be rock solid at an hour!

[usnmars 136]

I will write a another little write up on bedding a mosin. I found that gear oil is an awesome release agent. And while you are at it make up some bedding pillars, they work out great in helping consistency. overall bedding a mosin is the best thing to do for helping accuracy, and it doesn't take nearly 20 minutes to do. the wait is the hardest part. As for the slack spring, forget about it. I was going to do a write up on tuning the trigger but for liability reasons I decided not to. Some people are gonna go too far and make their rifle unsafe and blame me. All you have to do is drill and tap a hole in the top of the trigger for a set screw and stone the sere. There are several board members that have shot some of my mosins and cannot believe the triggers on them. A little elbow grease and time and a mosin can be an insane shooter. Also if you look back in the c&r forum a little, there is another write up I made on making your own sniper bolt. Mine are almost exact to the originals I have, and they help a lot with sticky bolt. That extra little bit of leverage goes a long way. Send me a message if you have any questions.

[sirsloop 1]

No way in hell im usin gear oil. That shit stinks to high heaven. After doing the rear on my 92 mustang I have vowed never to use the stuff again. Well... maybe its just the friction modifier that stinks?

 

Well, I don't plan on going very far with lowering the spring pressure. I do like the idea of shimming it to purposly create a loose trigger, then put a spring on it to make it dual stage. The trigger on the M44 is fine as is, but its got quite a long pull so its hard to predict when it'll break. You can certainly take it too far and make the thing fire if its bumped. The dry fire drop test is worthy. This is a range gun too... I doubt I'll ever be walking around with this with one in the chamber.

 

You're talking about these pillars at the bottom? http://www.rocksolidind.com/Mosin%20Nagant.html Do you have the specs on them or for 10 bucks would you just get these?

[djg0770 481]

for liability reasons I decided not to

 

[sirsloop 1]

well the 3rd coat is on... put on a heavy coating and left it for about 45 minutes. It was pretty tacky coming off, but it came off... and the weapon is pretty damn close to where I want it. One more coat tonight should even it out and be good! I can't wait to see it glossy!

 

[usnmars 136]

SWEET!!!!!! cant wait for completed pics

[matt6669 71]

Kinda has the color of a Finn.

[JonF 79]

Kinda has the color of a Finn.

Then your stock is filthy! Lol

[sirsloop 1]

dudeeeee... I just finished the last (4th) coat of stain. ITS THE SHIIIIIT!!!!!!! I'll take some pics on the morning when its dry. I should be able to apply the first coat of gloss poly tomorrow evening after work. This is gonna look so badass when its all said and done!

[sirsloop 1]

Gonna do a light 0000 steel wool pass then lay on the first coat of poly this evening.

 

 

[sirsloop 1]

Lightly rubbed down with 0000 steel wool, blew off the particles, wiped with a rag and mineral spirits... then wiped on #1 coat of poly. Check it!!!!

 

 

[maideneddie 35]

Wow that is coming out awesome. Has me thinking of picking up another to try a custom refinish

[usnmars 136]

come on now, there is a fun show this weekend. Can pick em up for almost nothing there!!!! you know you want to mike. Come along, it will be fun!

[sirsloop 1]

I just laid down the 4th coat of poly... man its looking great! I got some brass bushings for the pillars, and JB weld to make bedding. That should be done over the weekend. I should have this project wrapped up tuesday next week.... cause im shooting it wed. That means Poly will be done probably sunday. I'll be working on the trigger and getting the pillars prepared over the weekend. Monday should be the JB weld bedding and corking + final assembly will take place tuesday.

[sirsloop 1]

4 coats of stain, 7 coats of poly.... one more coat of poly and its a done deal.

 

 

 

The handguard wood didn't match the stock... like on most mosin's I've seen. Another benefit of going darker is I could match the wood a little bit so its not as noticeable.

 

 

 

I also spend the afternoon doing the trigger job on the thing. It included pounding down a metal washer to be the correct width to have a lighter and reliable trigger. I also installed the slack spring which makes the trigger have a nice two stage feel. I also took some 400 grit sandpaper and sanded down the metal/metal areas. I used a file to remove some material where the trigger was rubbing in the trigger guard. Its all tested out and reliable! The slack spring does a great job helping to ensure no accidental rounds are fired.

[Redfish62 1]

Looks great and can't wait to see it completed. Nice job

[Blcklightning 11]

Very Nice! I was wondering what that "Ebony" stain would look like. I went the red route with "Sedona Red" on my Mosin. I'll definitely have to try out that "Ebony" stain on something. :handgestures-thumbup:

[coldsolderjoint 84]

What do your neighbors think