The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

Thanks JYD! Very clear and informative.

Thanks for posting the video. Would you have any on the headspacing part. I am ordering me some gauges from okie. Just like to see what is done if rifle dosn't pass. Do you have to replace bolt if this should happen? Thanks again JYD

Videos like this are great for beginning collectors and veteran collectors as well, It is great to pass on knowledge to others. Thank you

bravolima56 wrote:Thanks for posting the video. Would you have any on the headspacing part. I am ordering me some gauges from okie. Just like to see what is done if rifle dosn't pass. Do you have to replace bolt if this should happen? Thanks again JYD

No, only the bolt head, however replacing the entire bolt could also bring the headspace into, or out of spec as well. I will see about doing a headspace video ( if I can find the headspace gauge)

Which brings me to another question. Are there different-sized bolt heads? Are they marked?

Only the Enfield has bolt heads made to different sizes deliberately, a very smart idea as the British knew the Enfield receivers were prone to stretch over time. The Mosin bolt heads are different sizes only due to variations in their production caused by aging tooling, wear from use, accident, or incompetence on the production line. It works out for us as it makes it possible to correct a rifles headspace problems by simply swapping a bolt head rather than setting back a barrel, and expensive and time consuming process requiring skills and tools beyond the average collector, and would alter a millsurp permanently. After a trip to the old place and two hours of searching I have turned up my Okie headspace gauge and will do a video on it's use sometime today.

I just used an okie lebel gauge a few minutes ago to check a mle16. Very easy to use. And the carbine passed with much to spare.

Junk Yard Dog wrote:Only the Enfield has bolt heads made to different sizes deliberately, a very smart idea as the British knew the Enfield receivers were prone to stretch over time. The Mosin bolt heads are different sizes only due to variations in their production caused by aging tooling, wear from use, accident, or incompetence on the production line. It works out for us as it makes it possible to correct a rifles headspace problems by simply swapping a bolt head rather than setting back a barrel, and expensive and time consuming process requiring skills and tools beyond the average collector, and would alter a millsurp permanently. After a trip to the old place and two hours of searching I have turned up my Okie headspace gauge and will do a video on it's use sometime today.

Ummm...well it KINDA works out for us. But that involves buying a LOT of bolt heads to find one that works. Prices on E-Bay for bolt heads are from $16-$25 EACH. That ain't exactly cheap.

A lot of times all I did was swap the bolthead with another Mosin and both riles ended up passing with no problem. The measurements we are talking about here are tiny.

The headspace video is uploading, should take an hour or so, I thought I had the 7.62x54r gauge, but it turned out to be the 8mm Lebel gauge, so I used the .303 gauges for the video. It seems my Mosin gauge is once again misplaced, it might be in the bottom of the crate, but I am not moving 20 rifles to look for it just now on a maybe. It started to snow a bit as I shot the video and it was cold.