Mosin-Nagant Barrel Sleeve

More years ago than I care to remember I had worked on a rifle for my Uncle Gale. He took me on my first Canada fishing trip and first northern Quebec Caribou hunt. Great memories, and awesome northern lights, too. That rifle was a Mosin-Nagant and I sporterized it for him. Nagants are not the sleekest looking rifles and their 7.62x54R chambering wasn’t popular or common in the United States back then.

However, Uncle Gabe said he wanted something unique, so I did the work he requested and delivered that rifle to him. Since then I have kept an eye on those particular rifles, watching prices go up and down along with surplus availability. Recently, I thought that it would also be unique to build a tactical Mosin-Nagant.

In doing research for the project I found that the Southern California Mosin Owners (SoCaMo.com) are running their own streaming television channel available via Ro k u Streaming TV Player (roku. com ) andat You Tube. com/Mosin- Nagant Channel. Seeing the different gunsmithing project featured and the accuracy potential that could be had, I sought out to build my own based on a Mosin-Nagant 91/30 chambered in 7.62x54R.

I picked up a Century Arms International Russian 91/30 rebuild with a 28" barrel and a very nice looking bore. Most available 7.62x54R ammo will have bullets measuring .311 caliber, however, this barrel slugged at 0.312" so reloads looked to be in order. Inspecting the rifle parts revealed components to be in excellent shape. I started removing the sights from the barrel. Rock Solid Industries (RockSolidInd.com, 62x54R. tactical handle along with a knurled bolt knob finished off the bolt body.

Holes needed to be drilled and tapped on the receiver for a Weaver scope base (beefy 10-24 screws area nice touch). Before modification and assembly work, I polished and blued the receiver to a nice high gloss finish, along with polishing up all related bolt components. This made for a smooth working bolt. Before getting to the components, let’s discuss polishing.

There are several little tricks to smoothing out a Mosin-Nagant action and bolt for super smooth operation and bolt preparation is at the top of the list: Fit, polish and lubrication. and Blue Grass Stock Company (BG gunstocks. com) have some very nice custom parts for building tactical Nagants. After talking with them I ordered the needed items. A threaded Start with lightening the firing pin spring by slipping the spring over a screw driver and running the spring across a grinder wheel.

The spring will rotate on the screwdriver shaft as you make back and forth passes across the grinder wheel. Only a few thousands need be removed. Follow up with a good polish on the buffer wheel. Several components interlock and slide and rub on each other in a

The detailed process is explained in the Rock Solid instructions and allows any amount of MOA to be set with the mount before the rear screw is drilled and tapped. Nagant bolt. Sharp edges need to be dehorned and everything polished to a bright shine. I found a copper based anti-seize lubricant that gave a good slippery surface along with great cling ability. Look for Loctite Copper Anti-Seize, available in most auto supply stores.

Use a receiver race way tool to polish the bolt inner rails with 600 grit aluminum oxide paper with some oil. This will produce a glasssmooth bolt push. Without removing the original barrel, I chose not to do any bolt lug work as I didn’t want to alter headspace with the 7.62x54R I think this added support helps keep the receiver from any rearward movement from recoil. This along with pillars and full stock bedding makes sure things just don’t move!

The stock will be full-length bedded, along with two inches of the barrel forward of the receiver. round. The stock I ordered was a Special Force Tactical in maple and it’s loaded with nice features including swivel studs, aluminum pillars, and adjustable cheek piece with a soft rubber recoil pad. It’s a very nice looking stock. Drill, Bed, Sleeve Next was drilling the beefy holes for the 10-24 tap. A detailed process is explained in the instructions included with the Rock Solid mount.

This setup allows any amount of MOA to be set into the mount before the rear screw is drilled and tapped. It is ready to put on the rifle and installed once elevation rise is determined. Now on to bedding. I always add an extra recoil lug bedded into the stock just behind the front receiver lug recess. I think this added support helps keep the receiver from any rearward movement from recoil. This along with pillars and full stock bedding means things just don’t move!

A 5/16" threaded rod was cut to fit full width of the milled slot and epoxied into place. The stock was full-length bedded up to two inches of the barrel forward of the receiver. The barrel channel can accept a 1.25" bull barrel sleeve. There was plenty of extra wood on the Bluegrass stock to allow for the cut. I used a Timney trigger (TimneyTriggers.com, as it is the only aftermarket adjustable trigger that has great reviews for Nagants.

Adjusting down to 1.5 pounds of pull was easy and no slam fires happened during testing. Adding an aluminum trigger shoe helped dress up the looks along with providing a wider pressure point for the trigger finger tip. With the receiver and bolt work done I focused my attention to the barrel, I didn’t like the small diameter and pencil-looking barrel, however, I didn’t want to invest in anew barrel either.

Looking back in my archive of American Gunsmith I found an article called "Barrel Sleeving A New Way" by Norman Johnson in the October 2012 issue. I like to experiment with different things when working with guns and the concept of sleeving a barrel to improve accuracy and dull vibration harmonics really interested me. I researched other theories on barrel sleeves along with types of compounds to fill the void between the barrel and outer

25" bull barrel sleeve. There was plenty of extra wood on the Bluegrass stock to allow for the cut. sleeve. Nodes of vibration and barrel whip are all very interesting subjects. One interesting fact was the need to displace heat generated during firing the bullet through the barrel along with the ability of the compound to withstand the shock of recoil.

While digging through the data I found a company that does exactly what I was planning to do, The Straight Jacket Barrel System from Teludyne Tech (Teludyne Tech. com, is the name of the product. However, the price tag was more than I wanted to spend, so I ordered up some material from a local supplier and headed out to the shop for some machining time to build my own.

First, I fully bedded with Pro-Bed 2000 (ProBed2000.com, Pillars were factory installed and the rear pillar was cut to allow clearance of the Timney trigger. Pillars were factory installed and rear pillar cut to allow clearance of the Timney trigger. Bluegrass saved me time by offering installed pillars. 25" stainless sleeve and muzzle cap. Bluegrass saved me time by offering installed pillars. I cut an 11-degree target crown on the original military barrel, then sized it with a stainless sleeve and muzzle cap.

I had already ordered a 1 1/4" stainless steel tube and cut it down to 28" long to cover the entire military barrel. Turning to a depth of three inches, the inside diameter of the sleeve was shaved to 0.003" under the barrel outside breech measurement to provide a nice tight press fit. Along with this sleeve I made a muzzle cap to fit around the barrel muzzle and inside the sleeve. I used an oversized washer and turned it to a snug fit for the muzzle and the sleeve.

An important note here is metal coating to prevent corrosion from the heat displacing compound. The barrel must be properly coated to protect it from any form of weakening. After epoxy coating the barrel with Brownells Aluma-Hyde II (#083-002-012WB) and mixing up some hydraulic cement, the sleeve was pressed on. I used brass turnings mixed in with the cement to act as heat sinks to transfer heat away from the barrel to the outer sleeve. This hydraulic cement was prepared as directed with 1/3 brass turnings added.

Small remnants from lathe work are ample size. Tap the sides of the sleeve during filling to raise any air pockets to the surface. Hydraulic cement is used because of it expands during the drying process. This ensures a very tight bond between barrel and sleeve. Plug the bore with putty to prevent cement entering the bore during filling of the empty cavity. As with any cement curing, the "cream" water will form on the top during the hardening process.

It only takes about 30 minutes for hydraulic cement to start hardening. Soak up the water with apiece of paper towel and press in the muzzle cap within about 15 minutes of pouring in the cement. Once

I used a washer of oversized dimensions and turned it to a snug fit for the muzzle and the sleeve. cured, the sleeve is solidly attached to the barrel and ready to assemble to a complete rifle. Completely rough up any surface to be in contact with the cement to allow a grip for bonding, such as the underside of the muzzle cap and inner surface Sub-moa at 100 yards. That’s more like it! Bottom: Final build of the finished Mosin-Nagant. of the sleeve.

With the barrel sleeve filled with compound and muzzle cap installed, let things cure. Once out to the range with a newly built rifle and some factory ammo, I am happy if this rig will print one minute groups. I can always try further load development to tighten up groups. During the first range session, the sun was gleaming through the leaves with temperatures in the upper 50s. A 25+ mph wind was blowing across the bench to keep things interesting.

A quick check at 50 yards easily zeroed the Leatherwood Uni-Dial 4- 16×50 scope. I then went out to 100 yards to set the initial zero. 148 grain bi-metal jacket Wolf white box ammo started the range day and the first 100 yard results had groups printing around 1.25". Saying I wasn’t very impressed with the accuracy would be an understatement. I did note the barrel was not very hot after several rounds and cooked through to the bore.

Switching to the same type of ammo in Wolf’s black/red box really turned the day around! The first three rounds made a nice crescent 1/2" group. I thought that was a freak thing judging from the previous rounds fired but timing the shots again for a second group put another single ragged hole at the bull’s eye. That’s more like it! The blonde Russian Mosin-Nagant started to really settle in and drive some impressive groups with that Wolf ammo.

Steel case, bi-metal jacket bullets at economical prices that shoot darn good. What’s not to like about that? When someone questions what are you going to do with an old, beat-up surplus Russian gun, just smile and start putting on along sleeve! After several range trips I found a very interesting trick to do for consistent grouping of Wolf or other cheap factory ammo. Such ammunition is mass produced, and disassembling and measuring bullets revealed that they are among the most out-of-spec component.

I measure bullet diameters of my Wolf ammo as loaded, separating them into likesized lots. This will lead to smaller groups as the bullets of each of your lots is the same. The diameter that works best will depend on your rifle’s particular bore. AG