Mosin M38 & Steel Case Ammo

[MAUSER88]

Mine lets me unlock the bolt but I can't pull it back to eject the spent casing. I have no problem with copper washed or brass cased ammo. Lucky I had a rubber mallet or shooting would have come to a screeching halt.

Anything I can do to alleviate this problem or should I just sell the steel cased ammo and stick with brass?

 

[vellocet]

It isn't the steel so much as the coating on them. If it's surplus that paint is sticky, especially in a hot chamber. If not surplus or if it's polymer coated I don't know what to tell you. Copper washed is still steel. Good luck.

 

[rcmodel]

The mossy should work just fine with steel case Russian ammo, because thats what they fought several wars with.

You have a dirty, or rusted chamber.
The drill & steel wool trick will most likely fix it.

Stick a short cleaning rod with an oversize bronze brush & solvent on it down the hole and spin it up with a cordless drill.

Wrapping the brush with 0000 grade steel wool won't hurt anything either, and is in fact a good idea.

rc

 

[nathan]

In my M91 30 dated 1939 i experienced the sticky bolt syndrome with fired steelcased lacquered ammo. These were the Polish made surplus i had a year ago. But once i tried the Hungarian grey and Albanian brasscased, it extracted smoothly. I ll avoid steelcased on that particular rifle.