Do I even want to remove the cosmoline?

[son of a gun]

Intresting, I've considered getting a crate of mosins and this was a question. Now, I would get it to store, probably in a non (well) insulated basement, or a barn or something like that. Would I want to leave them in cosmo, or clean them, then coat them with standard gun oil? They would be more ready to pull out and use/sell quickly, but might not store as well. Imput???

[MN Fan]

If you're buying to sell, don't. They don't like private owners selling several guns. You'd get a knock on your door sooner or later. Or a chainsaw.

Basements can be humid if they aren't finished or lived in. Barns of course would be humid. I'd suggest to stick with collecting one at a time. That way you can build a collection and pick up the specific ones you want. With a crate, you can get some surprises, but you're most likely going to get 20 or pretty much the same thing. If you're going to display them, clean 'em up, oil them down and repeat every so often. If you're going to put them into long term storage, keep them in cosmoline, wrap them in plastic and don't touch 'em.

[SA1911a1]

Clean the dang gun. Shoot it and clean it again. These rifles love to be shot, it ain't gonna hurt 'em unless you bought one so expensive that it should live in a dark cold safe.

How would you even know if it shot or how good it shot? They ain't worth a damn unless you play with them.

[tjtM38]

This whole thread brings up an interesting thought. Depending on the importer, it seems there is a variability as to the amount of cosmo clean up that needs to be done. When I got my M-44 from the dealer (it originally came from AIM Surplus), it took me three days to clean it up. It was literally caked in cosmoline. This last M91/30 I bought a few days ago came from ATI and it had almost no cosmoline in the action. However, it had some kind of dry preservative on the outside metal parts. Maybe some dealers clean them up, individually box them and then ship the weapon with minimal clean up required. Others seem to take them out of the wooden crate, wrap them in bubble paper or something else and you get to remove the cosmoline. Any other experiences out there?

[SA1911a1]

I think the dealers handle these rifles as little as possible, and can't imagine them cleaning them up. These rifles were packed for long term storage in the Soviet Union over a period of decades. They were, more than likely, packed in many different locations. It is likely that the specs for packing varied a great deal, and the work ethic of the Soviet workers varied over time also.

A side note:

Many of you remember my joke a few months ago about Soviet cosmoline being made from Russian ear wax. Yesterday, on another forum, someone posted that he had read one time about the cosmoline being made from ear wax..... I laughed my butt off. This is how urban ledgends are born.

[desdem12]

Having gotten some from ATI and from century and having taken them directly out of the boxes i can attest to the difference. ATIs are almost clean and centurys are full of cosmo. Also i have gotten a pistol from J&G and it was packed in cosmo. There does seem to be a difference when dealing with thte ATIs for some reason.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Collect them long enough and you will end up with many more than 20, and you will have picked each one individually because there was something about it that caught your eye. Crates are not secure storage, they only hold 20 rifles and take up a lot of space. A good gun vault is secure, will most of the time hold more than 20 and you can add a humidity control device. Buying by the crate sounds good, and is useful if you have a bunker to store them in, and your intention is to arm 20 members of your family should the world turn to shit, in that scenario you will not care if they are all the same year and arsenal. If you buy a crate with a C&R FFL and sell them off you will most likely end up in jail. You are buying them from an 001 dealer who has regular compliance inspections were the bound book is carefully scrutinized by BATFE agents. A sale of 20 at a time to a C&R will send up a flag, your chances of getting your own compliance inspection will be near 100%. Despite that business with selling guns to Mexican gang bangers not all F troop agents are idiots, you run a good chance of becoming the example to other C&R holders that they need from time to time. They bust you, it makes the papers, your friends talk about it at the gun shows, word gets around and other 003 holders get the message. This of course will mean little to you as you enjoy the nightly embrace of a 300 pound lifer named Bubba. If you have a C&R obey the F&^%in' law, because if enough people do not then they have an excuse to pull the privilege from everybody.