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Zone #74 - The Five Sisters - Restoring
Five M44 Mosin Rifles - Page 1 |
Tman
called me and told me that Centerfire Systems
had an advertisement where we could buy 5
M44 rifles for $39.95 each.
He said the ad said they were "battlefield
pick-ups", had never been arsenal restored,
and were sold in "as is" condition.
I said, "Well, sounds like a great project
to me!" So, we placed the order and waited
for the Brown Truck O' Happiness.
Tman called me in a few days and said, "They're
here and boy, are they a mess." I said
that I would be right over and not to touch
them until I got some pictures. |
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Of course, upon arrival, I found that he had
already disassembled one, as he follows instructions
about like a feral cat.
Here they are on his work bench. |
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I
put four of the five on the driveway and took
a family picture.
As you can see, they were pretty rough.
But the term "battlefield pick-up"
was misleading.
For one thing, I thought it meant that they
were literally picked up from the battlefield,
with mud on them and pried from their dead
comrade's hands.
But these rifles were better defined as "well
used, carried a lot, but shot little".
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As
we cleaned them up, we found that their manufacture
dates were mostly after the war (WWII). And
when we cleaned the bores, much to our surprise,
we found them to be like new.
That meant that they had not been fired much
with corrosive ammo and had been cleaned properly
afterwards.
The finish on some of them was almost completely
gone, and the wood looked especially rough,
but the metal was pretty good, under the Cosmoline.
Tman shook his head and said, "Man these
things are a mess. Maybe we made a mistake."
I said, "Hey, you wanted a "project".
This looks like a great project to me. We're
gonna make these things Shine!"
We agreed that we would go slow, and take
our time, and "enjoy" the project.
Sure we would.
As usual, we attacked these things like crazy
men!
My buddy Ted came down and spend a couple
of days with me and helped us with the project. |
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I
stripped the stocks with Easy-Off Oven Cleaner.
Be sure to wear eye protection and do not
touch them without rubber gloves. |
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The
shellac turned a kind of red color as it dissolved,
but came right off when I scrubbed it with
an S.O.S. pad and water.
This cleaning method also sucks some of the
Cosmoline out of the wood, if needed. I wiped
them down and let them dry over night.
I then sanded them and turned them over to
Tman for staining and finishing.
I also washed the metal down with mineral
spirits, dried the parts, and wet them down
with WD-40 to stop any rust until we decided
how we were going to finish the metal. |
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I liked the one with a blond finish and decided
I would leave it blond after clean-up.
I will show what we did to this rifle, and
it will serve as an example of what we did
to the other four.
It had a split in the heel of the stock that
had been repaired by some Ivan 50 years ago,
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