Damaged crown on Mosin Nagant

[CrufflerSteve]

Thanks to everyone for the responses. After weighing my options I have decided to tackle this myself. I am going to use a 6 fluted, 100 degree countersink to clean up the crown and muzzle. I'll follow this up with the brass bolt and lapping compound trick and then cold blue the area as needed. I'll post pics when I am done later in the week.

You might want to try some rounds from a rest at a short range, something like 50 yards or less. Then try after and see if there is a difference. Use the same ammo since milsurp 7.62x54R can vary wildly in quality.

Good luck. I've know people who've gotten good results with this method for milsurp - which used to be very cheap.

Steve

[totallyunimodular]

OK, I finally got to this this past weekend and I think the job came out nice. Here are some pcitures of the before and after (before pics are from June 9 and 10, after pics are from June 23): http://img30.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=p1000335p.jpg

I used a variable speed drill with a 1/2", 6 fluted, 100 degree countersink to iteratively work the crown until the gash was removed. I then used a series of very fine grinding stones (manually shaped on a grinding wheel to be conical in shape as opposed to a cylinder) to establish the crown and buff out the muzzle. Finally, multiple coats of cold blue and #0000 steel wool finished the job. Total cost: $0.00 I know that ideally I would have used a lathe (which actually sounds tough to do on a lot of lathes due to the big lug where the receiver and barrel join), a 90 degree countersink, etc, but it just felt insane to pay a gunsmith (those who weren't too busy to work on milsurp) $75 or more to repair a $135 gun. I think it came out reasonably well and I shot it on Father's day with good results. I won't bother getting into specifics here, since I had a new Mojo sight on it and was shooting some what I think was 147 grain FMJ rounds from who knows where. The next task is to buy a few boxes of Silver Bear, Brown Bear, Barnual and the like, and go out and shoot some more to figure out the gun and sights better. I am playing with keeping the Mojo front sight versus keeping the stock one on. I have to say though, after 25 rounds this past weekend, my shoulder was screaming and that was with a butt pad. I'll probably start a new thread on range results once I shoot some more and have some opinions. Thanks again to everyone for the advice and reading!