Help with Mauser 98K

[smokestack]

Bought from fellow INGO member... worked fine at first but now hard to open bolt after shot. Has anyone ran into this before or have any helpful info?
Thanks!

 

[Mad Anthony Wayne]

I don't shoot mine much, but it does get a bit stiffer after firing it. I don't know how bad yours is tightening though...I would recommend that you break it down and clean it well (including bolt), grease the bolt rails well, and reassemble. Don't be gentle when operating the bolt either, cycle it like ya mean it. If that doesn't work you'll probably need a gunsmith.

 

[22lr]

Make sure that the chamber is cleaned, very well. Then try a different batch of ammo. Its very possible that you have some gunk in the chamber causing the round to stick. Or its not unheard of to have a batch of ammo that is out of spec enough to stick. Ive seen this happen on a lot of Mosins, but honestly haven't seen it on a Mauser yet.

Is the round sticking after it has been fired? Or will it stick if you just chamber a round and try to extract it?

 

[johntheplinker]

What kind of ammo are you shooting? Some of it is a little hotter than others, especially the Turk. And as Mad Tony said, don't be afraid of using a little muscle on the bolt, you aren't going to hurt it any!

 

[smokestack]

Currently using Remington UMC ammo I picked up at Cabela's. We did give the gun a good cleaning and went out again. It's still sticking only after the round is fired. We did notice that as the gun warms up it gets tighter. The first few rounds aren't too bad, after about 10 rounds it's pretty tight. I have noticed the edge of the fired shells have a small flat spot in them. It's gunsmith time I think.

 

[sgreen3]

I have a Yugo and a Turk Mauser (big Mauser fan here) but when I first got my turk it started to do that after I shot it. Take the bolt apart and give it a good cleaning, its probably full of old crusted up cosmo, there are vids on youtube to walk you through the dissasembly. Then re-oil havent had a problem since. And youll get to experiance one of the smoothest actions in a rifle

 

[johntheplinker]

I agree with sgreen. Sounds like there is some petrified cosmolene somewhere. May need to give your chamber walls a good scrubbing, search for "Mosinsticky bolt" for the cure.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

When you cleaned it, did you remove the extractor?

If you did, have you considered replacing the extractor? I did on the last one I built up and it works like a champ now.

 

[USMC_0311]

Sounds like the cosmoline didn't get cleaned out real good. Gun scrubber works good, just spraying the bolt with a good dose should work. I took my bolt apart, its a little tight and tricky. You want to clean these after every use, especially when using the older corrosive ammo.

 

[smokestack]

Thanks guys for all of the help. Took the bolt apart, cleaned it, lightly lubed it and reassembled it. We just got back from putting 9 rounds through it and it worked perfect using the same ammo we had from before. I would have never guessed it made that kind of difference, thanks again.

 

[sgreen3]

Glad ya got it shootin like a champ

 

[boblade]

Hey if you Take the Bolt and drop it in a can of K1 Cerosene and let it set for 2 or 3 days then blow it out with air compresser it will dissolve all the old Grease,worked for me.

 

[Mad Anthony Wayne]

Glad to hear ya got her fixed with just some elbow grease! Happy shooting!