91/30 bolt operation.

[Liam]

My 91/30 extraction problem a couple years ago was due to a burr in the chamber. After firing new Lapua brass I had to use a piece of wood to get the bolt to open. Upon scrutiny of the fired brass I determined that slight gouge and weird scrape was NOT on the brass when it left the factory. A second firing verified this. The rifle sat for over a year until I had a spare few hours one weekend. Chucked up an extra long screw driver extension wrapped with fine grit sandpaper (but it wasn't sand...something else). Once I determined where the burr was it only took a minute to smooth out. There is still a slight indication of the burr left on fired brass, but I can live with it. Don't feel comfortable taking off any more of the rifle's chamber, no matter how minute. Might do a chamber cast just to see what I have. - Liam

[joem]

A friend of mine had the same problem of a burr in the chamber. A short section of drill rod with a slot cut in the end so as to roll up some emery cloth and a drill did the trick.

[RED]

Most, if not all, the extraction problems are ammo related. Despite information to the contrary, you are not shooting the same WWll ammo the Russkis used and there are other reasons they did not have the failure rate you are experiencing.

The first Chinese SKS rifles inported into the U.S.A. were actual CHICOM surplus. They were well used and full of the Chinese version of Cosmolene. I bought dozens of tlhese used rifles for $75 and sold them for $150. I would degrease them, and test fire every one. They were amazing. Every one of the rifles were zeroed out of the box. That was in 1979, and when the actual surplus rifles dried up, the PLO started to sell "new" SKS rifles and as those sold out, the Chinese manufactured "stamped and pinned" models for exportation. They were not the same quality as the "issued" rifles that were actually used by the PLO.

Later, I was buying Finnish Mosins 3 for $99 with free shipping. Some of those rifles appeared to be brand new. Soft point hunting ammunition was hard to find at the time but I found some brass cased FMJ rounds and pulled the bullets and replaced them with the same weight Sierras.

[CHW2021]

As I posted earlierr, some guns have a ammo preference, additionally, there are light and heavy bullet weights that can be a factor. I shoot the light (Hungarian and Russian) ammo from the 50's to 70's with no problem.
There is good info in the above posts, the Russian military was not interested in ease of operation, they wanted function, as such the spring tension was heavy enough to fire every time. Not too great for dis assembly or trigger pull, but it made the rifle fire reliably under any conditions (such as below zero temps).
In addition to the above replies, do make it a point to clean the bolt body, the commie cosmoline is a true russian bear to get out of the bolt, I have had to scrub and soak the bolt for days to get the old crud and varnish out of my Mosin bolts and still had some appear during further cleanings. You can change the spring or cut coils if you wish, no harm there, but they still remain as unfriendly as ever with some ammo.
Fun rifles to shoot, accurate and cheap.

[Chaz]

As previously mentioned, be sure to measure the protrusion of the firing pin beyond the bolt face after re-assembling the bolt. My Mosin (surely Vassily Zeitsev's personal rifle!!!) came with a tool made for that purpose. Also, 2021 is correct. I read in a milsurp website that bolts of "new" Mosins should be disassembled and thoroughly cleaned to prevent them from freezing/locking in place. I was once at the range and a poor guy couldn't open his bolt. He said it worked just fine a year earlier when he first shot the rifle...He cleaned the gun's bore and put it in a closet, and now the bolt was stuck. Short of using a 4 pound hammer, I could not help him open it. And that safety: Ha, Crazy Ivan didn't need no stinkin safety.