Milsurp After Hours

Looks like a project with a happy ending in sight, after you take a trip to the range and get it zeroed. I'm looking forward to a report.

Those stripper clips are the deluxe version. I had some of them... probably still have them if I go looking for them long enough. Looks like the ammo is either brass case or copper wash. That's a plus too, over the steel cases, in my experience.

Anybody ever try one of these laser boresighters?
Saw them on ebay for $12, so I figured, Why not? And it came with batteries.
The ad says it won't fine tune your scope, but will put you "on the paper" and
save you some ammo, hmmmm....$12 worth?..
I love toys....


The cases are copper washed steel and the bullet core must be steel too, case and slug both
very magnetic.

Recently I purchased 300 rounds of the Comm-Bloc light ball, 148 grain, and still have about 300 rounds of
the yellow tip heavy ball, 182 grain ammo left. Think I will try the same thing I plan on doing with my Nagant
pistol, alternate every other round light and heavy ball and see the difference.

Vern.

The copper wash case generally won't stick on extraction while the lacquered steel case often does. At least that's my experience.

That bore sighter looks interesting. I've never used one.

Maybe I don't really understand about different casings. I thought copper washed was a very thin
layer of copper on a steel casing and then lacquer over that.
What exactly are the descriptions of copper washed and/or steel casings and what about lacquer?

Vern.

I think you have it right...only the copper wash doesn't have any, or at least a noticable layer, of varnish like the steel case does. And.... the copper wash has a magnetic case from the metal compostion where the brass doesn't. The bullets all have a magnetic content under the copper jacket. The steel base ammo case is gray to gray-green in color. The steel case ammo is often...maybe always... coprunickel and has a gray steel color. They look look like "steel" bullets but are a compostion of about 75% copper and 25% nickel.

The washed case ammo looks a little red, unlike the more "brass" golden color of the actual brass ammo.

The thing about the non copper wash steel case ammo is that it was probably made for automatic rifles or machineguns. The coating of laquer heats up quickly upon firing and, in a bolt action rifle, causes the case to stick sometimes as the heated laquer acts a little like crazy glue inside the rifle chamber. The auto rifles fired and extracted almost instantaniously so no sticking resulted.

Back a few years there was a lot of Silver tip laquer coated steel case ammo around. Guys would rave about how accurate it was. Some guys like me would also rave about how sticky it was after firing and how it made the bolt difficult to open after firing. There were any number of "solutions". One was to go to extra pains to clean your receiver for at least as far as the loaded round would seat. Maybe use emory cloth was another solution in cleaning the chamber of melted coating residue. But... one thing advised against was to use some grease on the case... bad things could happen if you did that....so they said....and I'm willing to believe them without testing it out. I just used up my silver tip and didn't buy any more.

I also found one of my deluxe stripper clips. I noticed there was an Izhevsk proof mark on the back of it.

Went to the range Fri. morning and learned A LOT.
This is what I learned...........

After about 50 rounds, my shoulder was so sore that I couldn't hit the target because I would flinch when pulling the trigger because I knew it was going to hurt. It was sore because I had installed a new butt-plate pad that was too hard, even though I drilled out the holes in it (see pic), even used the Dremel with drum sander to clean out holes. Am going back to my softer slip-on butt-pad. And yes, I must be a wussie because I have a 3 inch bruise. This is what happens when you wear thin cotton shirts because it is 82 degrees.

The heavy ball yellow tip ammo has more of a kick to it, but noticed no difference in my ability to miss the target. It did however want to play sticky-bolt after only a couple of rounds, and the barrel was hot from shooting light ball, which never gave me any sticking problems at all. Anybody want to buy 300 rounds of heavy ball???....

The laser boresighter is very pretty red and only $12, the downside is that it doesn't seem to work very well. I sighted it in at 30 yards, on the neighbors block wall across the street from my garage. The instructions said to sight it in at 25 yards, so it was what they recommended. When I got to the range, not only was it not "on the paper", it was not on the target stand. Was shooting at 100 yards, hit nothing, so started shooting at target stand corners, finally hit paper while aiming at the top right corner of target stand, finally worked it on down. Turned my scope mount around and will give it one more try.

The scope mount moved, didn't notice it until I got home. I had moved forward until it pushed the upper wood handguard over an inch and almost bent the rear sliding collar open. The verticle set screw that is supposed to dig into the top of the dovetail mount was no match for the hardened steel of the rifle, all it did was flatten the the tip of the unhardened set screw.
So I have modified the scope mount, thereby voiding any warranty, by putting the forward pin back into the dovetail and using my Dremmel to put grooves (see pics) into the mount that lets it fit over the pin, thus hopefully keeping it from moving again.

Even with the scope moved forward, using the Ichvesk marked stripper clips was still awkward, and ended up loading rounds by hand anyway. So that being the case, I turned the scope mount around and there is a slight improvement in the eye relief and I think it looks better this way.

As you can see in one of the photos, where I have smoothed the dovetail mount, it has been "reblued" with a felt tip marker...

As soon as my shoulder feels better, it's back to the range to learn more...

Vern.


Forgot to mention 2 things, next time I will sight in the scope at 50, not 100 yards and will also remember to use Loctite on the screws.....

I think stripper clips are more of an aggravation than a help too. I never use them any more.

Thanks for the honest report. Many guys would exaggerate how swell their handwork is regardless of how it all works out. And the bruise on the shoulder is one of the hazards of this hobby. I got to where I consciously press the stock closer into my shoulder every time I fire one of these milsurps. It seems to help to reduce the body damage.


I look forward to your next stage of this experiment report.

The latest thing I tried is a trigger spring and shim, got a couple of sets on ebay, for my 91/30 and M38.
They were advertised to shorten and lighten the trigger pull, and they seem to work, a little.
What probably helped the most was taking the bolt apart and polishing the touching surfaces on the bolt and the
sear and trigger. Got out my Dremmel, tiny buffer wheels, and jewelers rouge and went to town on all touching
surfaces I could find. Even if the trigger isn't a great deal better, it sure has some shiny parts in there.
Actually I experimented on my M38, and it is a little lighter and smoother, now I will do the 91/30 next.
The sets were cheap and I figured they couldn't hurt, so why not.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/320953126242?ss ... 1497.l2649

Edit: Also found out my rear sight, on M38, is soldered on, although there seems to be one pin in it. The rifle is dated
1942, but thought I had read somewhere that they stopped soldering them about 1938 or 1940. Maybe have to try
a different style scope mount on it......


Vern.