[jboot]

I collect Nagants. My tried-and-true "initial cleaning" is a 5-day soak submeged in kerosene for all metal parts. This dissolves gunk and softens rust. After the soak scrub with hot soapy water and administer a strong ammonia bore cleaning to remove gilding metal. Rinse with more hot water and then dry in an oven.

After lube and reassembly they shoot like the day they were made.

[andy58-in-nh]

In place of kerosene, you might want to try mineral spirits to remove cosmoline- works extremely well and much faster. My big problem is trying to remember how to put the damned Mosin bolt assemblies back together properly ;-)

[nomad]

5 days, wow! Well the one I had couldn`t have benefited much from that cause it had more pits in it`s bore than a basket of cherries! Had to get rid of it,damn shame too, say, got any pointers on how to tell,thru all the cosmoline and gunk, if its even worth the 80 to 100 bucks they`re asking for in my area?