Could someone tell me if I did this right? I don't want to have it blow up on me at the range tomorrow.
The Mosin I bought was all gunked up with the stuff. What I read is that you could use solvents, diesel, boiling water, or some other stuff to remove it. I chose boiling water because it was the easiest.
I broke the rifle down as far as possible besides messing with the extractor. I put the wood parts in a trough and filled it with boiling water. I left it there for about 5 minutes then took it out. It was covered in a grey/greenish layer. You could see the oils in the water and it had turned brown. I used a soft steel brush to get the film off, then it would re-appear. I repeated this process (boiling/scrubbing) until the layer would not come back. I didn't know if it was the cosmoline or if it was the finish, but when I had the layer removed the wood was noticeably lighter.
I did the same with all the metal parts, dried them off, lubed up the individual bolt parts, then put everything back together and did a function check.
Did I do this right? I was concerned that I could have weakened or warped the wood some how (it kind of makes a creeking noise that I didn't notice before when I hit the hand guards).
The Mosin I bought was all gunked up with the stuff. What I read is that you could use solvents, diesel, boiling water, or some other stuff to remove it. I chose boiling water because it was the easiest.
I broke the rifle down as far as possible besides messing with the extractor. I put the wood parts in a trough and filled it with boiling water. I left it there for about 5 minutes then took it out. It was covered in a grey/greenish layer. You could see the oils in the water and it had turned brown. I used a soft steel brush to get the film off, then it would re-appear. I repeated this process (boiling/scrubbing) until the layer would not come back. I didn't know if it was the cosmoline or if it was the finish, but when I had the layer removed the wood was noticeably lighter.
I did the same with all the metal parts, dried them off, lubed up the individual bolt parts, then put everything back together and did a function check.
Did I do this right? I was concerned that I could have weakened or warped the wood some how (it kind of makes a creeking noise that I didn't notice before when I hit the hand guards).
