Been wanting one of these Mosin Nagants for awhile but finally found one where the price was decent. Unfortunately I am going to have to clean the cosmoline off myself. Any tips on that front?

I bought a Mosin Nagant carbine full of cosmoline recently. I disassembled the rifle (easy to do, you should have an instruction manual in your box of goodies), then used a coffee can of kerosene and a paint brush to remove the grease and cosmoline. Dunked the bolt in the can of kerosene while I was degreasing the rest of the rifle. That and a full spray can of WD-40 got it clean as a whistle.

Oiled and re-assembled the rifle, shoots great. The only grease that re-appeared after shooting the rifle and heating it up was a little bit under the front sight. A 20 round rapid fire string heated up the wooden hand gaurd on the barrel enough to chase some preservative oils out of it.

The only part you can lose is the trigger pivot pin, so disassemble and clean the rifle on a big piece of cardboard or something similar....

Ammo is still cheap and plentiful, I think Sportsman Guide has some as cheap as .25 cents per round...

Kerosene , denatured alcohol , mineral spirits all do a good job. Heat also helps. Either a fairly warm area or a hair dryer or heat gun. Wrapping in newspaper and setting on the dashboard of a hot car will melt and remove some too.

But time and patience is still needed to finish the job right.

Required reading for Mosin-Nagant owners. Enjoy!

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I've disassembled mine completely, put small parts in mineral spirit bath. Then capped 4" PVC pipe on one end, filled it with mineral spirit and put whole barrel/action into it after couple hours brush/wd40/oil and it looks like new.

Brake cleaner "green can" (spray can) so I'm told by some. Sold at any auto parts store. My understanding doesn't hurt any parts, plastic, plastics, etc. However I can't vouch for it personally.

I use charcoal light with good results to clean cosmoline off military weapons. In the old days I have used gasoline or kerosene too!

I like all the soaking methods you guys have mentioned. Mineral spirits are cheap to get ahold of, so that may be my route. The bolt looks like I'll have to soak and clean the daylights out of it. Hoping that once I get into her the barrel isn't too pitted internally.

Most of these rifles have been redone and have new barrels on them. I have several variations. One thing that I do the the stock is put it in a black garbage bag and put it in the sun. I have used the wally world break cleaner to clean the metal parts. be sure and do that outdoors.

If the stock is not varnished, I use Restore-a-finish to clean it, then put several coats of tung oil on it to seal the wood.

If it is varnished, most are, you can try denatured alcohol or just sand it.

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Corripe Cervisiam

As a Mosin purist, I say don't refinish the stock.

Also if your shooting the corrosive ammo, keep a bottle of Windex with ammonia handy! Squrit it down the bore or run a patch thru soaked liberally with the stuff, wipe the bolt face and chamber, plus magazine out with, or just squirt the whole innards.
The ammonia kills the corrosive salts quit handily. When you get home a nice bath of warm soapy water followed by a good cleaning and the old Moison will be ready to roar again!
These are highly underrated rifles that "shoot hard" and can take a lot if abuse! But then what Russian design can't.
Dale

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"Long live the S&W 3rd. Gen.!"

I agree with this if the stock in in decent condition. I have a M44 that had a great finish on the stock and I did not touch it.

I bought M91/30 that had a stock that had about half of the varnish either chipped off or missing. I refinished that one.

I clean these rifles like I clean my muzzle loaders, soap and water, then dry patches until clean, then I coat everything with Rig.

If a bore is still very dirty after the soap and water, after drying the bore, I run a wet patch soaked with Kroil and let sit over night, then clean the bore with some patches soaked with kroil and coated with JB bore paste. I also use this for C&R guns when I initially receive them.

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Corripe Cervisiam

I'm down to a couple Mosins, a 1936 Tula 91-30, a 1955 T53 and a 1948 M44. The M44 barrel looked unfired and so I've only shot non-corrosive ammo in it. The other two when I clean them I do so with the bayonets deployed. I remove the bolt, stick them in the ground and using a long tapered funnel pour about a quart of boiling water through them as the first cleaning step. At the outdoor range I go to on a typical day 1/3rd of the stations will have Mosins on them. For probably the last 10 years a local sporting goods store ran a $199 special for a rifle and spam can of ammo.

I prefer Sweet's 7.62 solvent. Ya can smell the ammonia a mile away when ya open the bottle! Run a wet patch thru before ya leave the range and clean thouroughly when ya get home. The ammonia will have loosened any copper fouling by then too.

After shooting corrosive I find hot water works as well as anything. I mix a little Simple Green in some hot water and pour it into a thermos bottle. Pour it down the barrel, run a patch through and wipe the bolt face and chamber with it till I get home where I clean it real good with Hoppes #9. Mobil One after that.

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LIVE FROM THE DAWGHOUSE

Simple green, Purple Power and transmission fluid also works good on cosmoline. Shootings and cleaning works. So does throwing the small parts in a metal container, adding water and boiling it on the stove. To remove cosmo from the stock (summer weather helps). Wrap the stock in newspaper and paper towels, put everything in a large plastic bag and set it out in the sun.

I have several, shooting them is a blast.

BTW try shooting with and without the bayonet mounted. 91/30s were sighted in with the bayonet mounted and your POI can be different without one.

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I've used Windex for years to clean up after corrosive primed ammo.
Plain water is all that's needed to disolve and wash the salts from the corrosive primed ammo away.
Windex is mostly water so that works out.
Some windex has ammonia in it,, some has vinegar. Ones a base,,the other an acid.

Metalic salt compounds are Ph neutral AFAIK.
The ammonia (or acid) doesn't do much to remove them,,the water does. They don't need neutralizing,,they already are.

They are hygroscopic (?),,absorb moisture from the air. That's how they cause the rust in the bore. Not because they are acidic to begin with. Just like common salt corrosion on a car.
Wash the salt away w/water. No ammonia needed to prevent the salt from creating rust..

But ammonia in water does make it clean better, as does vinegar. Wetting action it's sometimes called.
Ammonia will react w/copper also. How much the content in the Windex will actually effect bullet fouling I don't know.

Watch out for weak acid solutions on blued surfaces. They can become un-blued surfaces quickly.

I like the Windex w/ ammonia for cleaning up after corrosive ammo use. Still use it in the M1 and 303's.

As long as you find and use something that gets results for you.
Left undone, the bore can become a rusted pipe in little time in most climates as the salts absorb water from the air and start corrosion.

Mosins are a fun rifle. My M39 Finnish was probably my favorite when I still had a few.
Ammo's gone up, but what hasn't. Was $40 a spam can when I first started buying it. Still have one case of 2 cans left. Maybe should get another M/N.

Dang , I'd hate to see some of the alternative fluids you guys use for daily household cleaning and automotive chores!

Well I hope to clean her up in the next week or two. I haven't picked up any ammo yet, though I'm hoping some cheap milsurp will still be available.

I've always used Hoppes #9 for everything. Though back when I did black powder muzzleloading, hot water worked well for us prior to the actual cleaning.

Hoppes No.9 frequently gets its butt kicked by the stuff you find in the bore of a milsurp. With many of them a shiny bore just means that he top layer of copper is well polished. Some of my milsurps have yielded so much copper the local miners' union have picketed my house as a scab operation. Then there is cupro-nickel fouling, that makes copper seem easy to remove. After that there are the rifles that come with multiple strata of copper and hard powder fouling.

One good thing about many milsurps is that they still shoot well with a dark pitted bore provided the crown is good. Naturally, this will go to rats if the bedding is off as it often is, although Mosins are generally set up better than most Turk Mausers.

I bought a cheap plastic transmission funnel from Wally-World. I stick that into the chamber and pour a pan of near boiling water down it. I also have a cheap metal colander; I disassemble the bolt and dump hot water over it, too.

Mojo makes a nice peep sight that is a drop-in replacement for the rear sight. (Helps to have three hands to change it out.) 91-30s were sighted-in with the bayonet attached. It may shoot somewhat off without it.