So, I just took out my new M44 and put a few rounds through it for the first time. Beautiful gun, shoots wonderfully, but I ran into a problem when I tried to clean it right afterward. I ran some hot water through the barrel to get the corrosive crud out, and then I put a dry patch on the cleaning rod and put it through, thinking to get out the excess water.
Well, I almost put it through. I guess it was a little too thick, or the water swelled it up or something, and it wouldn’t go more than just a few inches from the breech, and then when I tried to pull it back out, it got stuck. No amount of force seems able to remove it. :smack:
I don’t want to try anything drastic for fear of breaking something (not that that’s probably a serious concern, considering it’s a Mosin, but still…).
I’ve had that happen before. Two things you can do (carefully): One is grab the top of the cleaning rod with a pair of Vise-Grips and use them to try to rotate the rod. If you can get it to rotate, you can usually pull it out while doing so. The other method is to take a mallet and tap on the end of the cleaning rod in an attempt to push it through the blockage. Gentle, perfectly aligned taps are the key. Take your time, and eventually the rod will tear through the patch. You might want to place a patch or two on the breech face while you do this, just to prevent any damage should the rod pop through harder than you expect.
There is a lot of corrosive 7.62X54R ammo out there on the surplus market. Cheap and easily found, but hard on the barrel if not cleaned properly. Sportsman’s Guide and Cabela’s both have Bulgarian ammo cheap in their catalogs.
Yeah, I picked up some Russian surplus 7.62x54R when I bought the MN. A bit on the old side, replete with corrosive primers, but it’s cheaper than the newer non-corrosive stuff.
Besides, with all those billions of rounds of surplus lying around, somebody’s going to have to fire them; it may as well be me.
