How to judge my Mosin barrel?

[jasonr]

I've got a 91/30 that I've cleaned up. The barrel still looks dark to me when I put a light in the other end. How shiny will these old rifle barrels get? What I'm wondering is whether to keep it, or give it up as a lousy barrel. I've put a couple hundred rounds of Bulgarian surplus down the pipe, and it shoots ok, I think. I'm new to rifles, and I'm not sure if the variance I'm seeing is me, the cheap scope, or the barrel. At 100 yards it seems to be pretty tight as far as windage, but the elevation seems to vary by 5-6 inches. I suppose I need to take it to gunsmith if I really want an informed judgement on the state of the barrel. Have other folks gotten their Mosin barrels to look really good when looking down them with a light?
Jason

[Vlad 11]

The condition of the rifling and the crown are much more important than if the bore is shiny.

Some dark bores can be cleaned to a shinier state by various methods. However, most will stay dark. It really not a big deal, a lot of dark bores shoot very well

[knucklehead0202]

lots of old milsurp rifles don't shine up real good but it doesn't mean the barrel's no good. bear in mind that just about EVERYTHING back then was shot with corrosive ammo. try soaking the bore with Kroil, letting it sit a while and then patching/brushing. if the lands aren't sharp that'll hurt you a bit but a dark bore itself is not a limiting factor. shoot it a lot before deciding whether or not it's accurate too. remember, the arrow and the indian are both important factors here...

[jasonr]

Thanks for the info guys. The lands do look decent. Now I have no more excuses. I'm just a lousy shot :-)

[knucklehead0202]

lol, they take some getting used to, you'll be fine. I shoot so seldom I have to re-learn every time. it sucks but that's life.

[6mmintl]

You could fire lap it (imbed different types of abrasive to clean it up) but if deeply pitted it will just open up bore diameter and make it shoot worse, maybe better with oversize cast bullets if only shooting out to 200 yards.

PM me and we can take a look at it, try to clean it up.

[NOTABIKER]

that is why most M1 Garands do not have the original barrel. most WW2 ammo is corrosive and causes dark bores. it will shoot OK but it will foul faster when shooting.

[jasonr]

6mmintl, thanks for the offer of help. I think I'm going to shoot it a few more times before I try to do anything that will alter the bore. If I have to reload and shoot oversize cast bullets, this isn't the rifle for me :-) I reload for my pistols, but I bought the mosin because I thought ammo would be cheap. If I'm going to reload for a rifle, I'll probably pick up a 308 or 30-06 or maybe an AR. I'm not so thrilled with the Mosin that I'd start doing custom loads for it.

[JAGGUY]

"but I bought the mosin because I thought ammo would be cheap"

It doesn't get any cheaper than reloading with cast boolets!
That's about all I shoot in my MN's anymore.

[Ulis_m86]

J-B Non-Embedding Bore Cleaning Compound

I'm gonna give this stuff a try sometime apparently a lot of people use it on mosins read the reviews on amazon

[emcon5]

Vertical stringing, I would look at the tightness of the screws, and the stock. Shim the action, relieve the stock so there is no contact, then wrap the barrel with felt even with the front band.

See details from a Soviet competition manual here:

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?294174-Yur-yev-quot-Sport-Shooting-quot-Book&p=2393834#post2393834

[kouye]

I have a 91/30 with a big fat bore and it shot poorly until I started loading .312 bullets.

[Crunch130]

+1 on JB's Bore Paste! Use it for an initial cleaning. It is abrasive enough to get all the fouling out, but "soft" enough that it won't cut steel.

After that, look at your action shimming and bedding.

Crunch

[jasonr]

Vertical stringing, I would look at the tightness of the screws, and the stock. Shim the action, relieve the stock so there is no contact, then wrap the barrel with felt even with the front band.

See details from a Soviet competition manual here:
http://forums.gunboards.com/showthre...34#post2393834

Do you guys know the details for bedding the rear of the tang? In the old Russian tome above, he says to make sure the rear of the tang doesn't contact the stock. But I've definitely seen people glass bed their mosin and have the rear edge of the tang "glassed in" as well. Do I just glass under the tang? I'm planning to steel bed with posts and JB weld.
Thanks,
JR

[mosinnagantm9130]

Vertical stringing, I would look at the tightness of the screws, and the stock. Shim the action, relieve the stock so there is no contact, then wrap the barrel with felt even with the front band.

Vertical stringing I'd think breath control more than anything else, especially since the OP is new to rifles.