The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

I don't know what it is. Anyway, I fired my 91/30 PU for the first time just to see how it does. Once I fired it, I was able to open the bolt, but I couldn't pull it back. The bolt held on to the round which was seemingly stuck in the chamber. I was able to turn the bolt handle up to unlock, or rather re-cock the bolt, but I simply couldn't pull the bolt back to extract the round. I had to use a cleaning rod (a strong brass one) to plunge down the barrel and push the case out and bolt back. Once it broke free, it extracted fine. I inspected the spent case, and noticed that it appeared as if something gauged..gouged...gowjed..(however the hell you spell it) the case. The marring can be seen in the attached picture as the silvery part near the rim. Something caught hold of it and wouldn't let go until it was forced, thus marring the case. I chambered another round, and extracted it without firing just fine. I don't know what to do about this.

Can you see a problem in the chamber by shining a strong light down in there?

Looking down there with a light, nothing is obstructing it, or sitting in/on anything in there. When I stick my pinkie down in the chamber, it feels smooth; although, when I ran my finger around the edge of the chamber mouth, I felt a sharp burr. One burr couldn't have done all that damage to the round though could it? The marring was around 2/3rds of the case.


There was no marring on the second, unfired round.

Cases expand on firing , if you can feel one burr there are probably smaller ones you can't feel. Gunsmith time to lap the chamber, I don't recommend this to the home gunsmith as an error in removing material here will turn your PU into a $800 wall hanger.

Ok, so I should take it to a gunsmith and ask him to "lap the chamber"?

and inspect it to be sure that is the problem, save the case to show him. This sort of thing is common, a small burr left behind after the refurb, put that together with steel case ammo and you have a world class case of sticky bolt. There are ways to cure this at home, but with the dollar amount you have invested in this piece having it seen to by a professional is probably for the best.

Thank you. I'll find a good smith to fix it.

Was this the only round you had a problem with? I had my M39 on the range this weekend and had one round of Russian, all the same surplus vintage 70s or 80s (I can't remember) but I had one round that wouldn't chamber, bolt wouldn't close. Fired a couple others fine as all the others were fine. I went back to this one round and it wouldn't chamber. The bolt would close but I was unable to turn the handle down. Compared side-by-side I couldn't eyeball any difference's. I tossed that one out.

But if it were me I'd try more rounds and see if you can isolate it, the last thing I'd do is talk about lapping a chamber and getting invasive with a gunsmith at this point when you can simply try to eliminate one defective round, which is doesn't sound like you did. I think that advice is wayyyy to premature for your problem at this point.

I had an experience with magazined rounds bringing up some grease I didn't get removed, when chambering them. After two rounds the grease was enough to stop the bolt cold. I gave the breach a good cleaning and the magazine the same. It cycled five rounds no problem afterward.

I took it down to Jarret Rifles in Jackson SC near where I live. One of the guys took care of it in five minutes and didn't even charge me for it.

If you shoot steel case ammo you must clean the chamber very well, search for "sticky bolt" on the forum and you will find some cures for this dirty chamber problem.