My latest nagant

This is a modification ive had laid out for quite a while, just never got around to it for some reason. My favorite rifles are the various nagant carbines, but mine are too nice to take into the woods so i used a much more common 91/30 for this. This started as a '38 tula, numbers match except the floorplate... i wanted a numbers matching gun for this since its going to get shot a lot and i feel better knowing the bolt is original to the gun. Originally i wasnt going to refinish the stock, but the brake cleaner i was using to remove the cosmoline splashed onto the stock and took the finish down to the bare wood instantly in that spot. Once i started cleaning off the finish i was glad i did, i liked how the grain looked on this stock.
I had originally planned to cut the barrel to 16.5, but decided on 17.5 once i took some measurements. I didnt do much work to the stock other than cutting it down, really all i did was fill in the cleaning rod channel and handguard spring channel plus sand out the ridge where the rear hand guard clip was. Its finished for now, but all the metal will be getting done with something more durable once i have my air compressor set back up. And i think ill do a better top coat on the stock, whats on there is really thin and probably wont last long.

Sweet

Looks great!!!

Leaning on the paint of that poor Mustang? Nice looking rifle!

hmmm looks great............. i may have to refinish one of my rougher mosins just for me. i know they are cheap and not worth alot but i love my mosins. even though they kick like a mule

Recoil on this one isnt that bad, less than my m44 is. It does produce quite a fireball, it will be getting a flash hider one of these days.. more for looks than anything. That probably wont happen till i get another lathe, in the spring at the earliest. I have not shot it a whole lot, maybe 5 rounds since i got the site remounted... but i can tell its going to be a fun one.
Now i need a couple more for the pistol caliber rebarrels i want to do, probably will do another in 45/70 to. But those will wait till i have a lathe again so i can do everything myself.

how much brake cleaner was used to make the stock come out looking like that? You did a great job on that stock. Was it easy or difficult to get an even finish?


Good work!

Its easy enough to get it even, though the original shellac is tougher in spots. My guess is the cosmoline reacts with it and makes it stickier. Next time i will just use lacquer thinner, its much cheaper and will do the same thing. Brake cleaner was used this time because its all i had where i was working on the gun. The thinner or whatever just melts off the original shellac/cosmoline/grunge finish and luckily this one had nice wood underneath. My m44 is getting stripped next, the handguard on it is much darker than the rest of the gun so im hoping i can even it out.

I stripped a Nagant Stock with dawn power Blaster I think that is what it is called it comes in a small blue spray bottle. It cleaned the wood to the point that the finish was just perfectly even. It is a very concertrated soap that will take paint off a car so if you do not want to take soap and a water hose to your stock I would not suggest it but it worked wonderfully for me.

An update on this project: i got to looking on amazon the other night and found a deal i couldnt refuse on a bsa pistol scope, so i ordered it and a mount(not crazy about the mounts design, will get a better one later on). So, heres my version of a mosin nagant scout rifle. Also cut a better crown on it too, i had half assed what was on it.

Thanks, its been a fun project. Next will be one in 357 mag. Will end up looking identical to this one

Great looking wood!

It amazes me that the furniture on an 80 year old battle rifle that was slapped together for someone to likely not get to carry home is more attractive than what can be found on current production arms. I may have to go plant a few trees for my hopeful future grandchildren and great-grandchildren to have stock fodder.

looks real nice

I wish i had taken a better picture of how dark and grungy the wood on this was when i got it, it was just about the darkest ive seen on a mosin. This is all i took before i stripped it, there was no real indication of the grain underneath. Within minutes of that picture it was completely apart, and the barrel was cut a few minutes later.