sticky bolt

[Big Ron]

My 1916 Westinghouse Moisin bolt is often stuck. I have to use a mallet to loosen it. Is the surplus ammo the problem? I've used a brush and drill to clean out the receiver but that does not seem to help.

[Dutch Mosin]

First let me welcome you to this forum Big Ron.

Thanks for looking in and posting a question.

Personally I never had problems with sticky bolts but I heard about this problem many times.

Maybe the fact that I only use reloaded ammo is the cause of that, so I had to look around a bit.

Here’s what I found

Check the site below

Met vriendelijke groet,

Martin

http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting200 ... /index.asp

[awo425]

What ammo?

Green steel cases?

They do stick real bad in some guns, other eat them without any problem.

Try brass cased ammo, if steel does not work.

If that fails, your rilfe may have some mechanical problems, did you check headspace?????

Chris

[Niner]

Is that what you are using?

[NuJudge]

In particular, I like the Albanian stuff.

I have a 1918 Remington, a Polish 44, and several others. They liked the last of the Finnish-captured

pre-WW II steel cased Russian stuff, but they hate all this post war steel cased stuff. They liked the brass-cased Chinese stuff, but President Clinton banned importation of any more of that. Buy lots of the Albanian stuff.

CDD

[Big Ron]

I think it's the ammo because it's steel. I'll try reloading brass cases.

[RGRWJB]

IT ALSO COULD BE HEADSPACING PROBLEMS

[Scotsman]

I have one mosin that sticks and one that does not using the same surplus ammo. That leads me to think it is a cruddy chamber which I have scrubbed many times or head space issues. Not sure what to do next.

[Niner]

Are you using steel cased ammo? If so then it is possible the one that sticks has tighter headspace than the one that doesn't. One thing I would do is try a field gauge on both of them and see if the bolt closes or not under light pressure. That would tell you if it is a headspace problem or not.

Nagants are not often found with headspace problems in so far as I've observed on the net, but it can happen. I have a M39 that will eat a field gauge with no problem even though I have fired a time or two before I knew it had a headspace problem.

[warshield]

I have seen severel sticky bolts with steel case ammo never with brass case.Do not I repeat do not lube the case I saw a guy try that with case lube, he was lucky just got a face full of crap.Ammo and chamber must be dry for the whole system to function as intended, greasy or oily chamber or ammo will cause way to much pressure on bolt lugs.