replacement handguard for my old Mosin-Nagant rifle

Nice looking work

You did a very nice job matching the look of the stock. Thanks for inspiring

-- CurleyJoe, "You only learn from your mistakes"

Great job building and matching the finish of the stock thanks for posting

Bill

Very fine refitting!

Making gun pieces is very challenging; I have tried and failed too.

-- Wood rescue is good for the environment and me! just rjR

Thanks all!

Looks like a great fit and finish!

Those old stocks were usually oil saturated wrecks and getting a good arsenal rebuild with a new beech stock was difficult.

Beautiful!

-- VR, Richard "Fear is nothing more than a feeling. You feel hot. You feel hungry. You feel angry. You feel afraid. Fear can never kill you"--Remo Williams

Looks like that’ll do the job. Well done!

-- Dave - Minneapolis

Very Nice Work & Well Done!

Regards: Rick

-- Richard (Ontario, CANADA)

Mosins are not so bad as you might think. The Soviets generally slathered their rifles with a heavy coat of shellac which prevented the stocks from absorbing the cosmoline.
The Mausers vary. But there are ways to draw the cosmoline, heat being the most reliable. I live in Texas and I’ll take a cosmo drenched stock and simply hang it on the barn wall which conveniently faces south. The stuff literally drips off come late afternoon.
Some folks make a stock oven- a tube with a screen at one end and a heat lamp bulb at the other. Hang it vertically to let the cosmo drip out.
Some stocks however, will be so thoroughly saturated that nothing will ever draw it all out. There is still one recourse left (other than the burn barrel). Seal it in. As noted, shellac will block the passage of the cosmo. Thoroughly coat the stock with shellac inside and out. Put a bit of tape over stamps to preserve them first however. Then sand the shellac just to the wood’s surface then you can put a bit of oil finish for proper looks.

I am one of those that encourages these historic firearms. At today’s prices, there is nothing to be gained by sporterizing a firearm that’s no longer made. If you simply must, I would encourage any would be sporterizer to at least research the rifle in their grasp. Just a difference in markings or minor change in detail can render an otherwise commonplace rifle into a rather rare one.

Looks like a great fit and finish!

Those old stocks were usually oil saturated wrecks and getting a good arsenal rebuild with a new beech stock was difficult.

- splintergroup

+1!

For old Garand stocks, I’d wrap then in some towels and leave them on my dash board, The heat then did the rest to sweat out the oil.

Those old Nagants are interesting rifles, I have several, including a 91/30 PU and M39 Finn. Great with cast bullets!

You can take that a couple steps further. For a really saturated stock, put your stock & hand-guard in a black plastic trash bag with some ground clay “oil soak” or kitty litter (not the clumping kind!) and put THAT in your car’s dash or rear window deck. Shake it up a couple or three times a day. Then after three to five days, no more than a week I’d say, you can take it out and give the stock a good wash in mineral spirits and you can give it whatever finish you want.

With that, I’ll say thanks and for more gun info, please visit “Gunboards.” I realize I’m veering pretty far from the wood working aspects of this topic. Thanks for the indulgence though!

+1! For old Garand stocks, I d wrap then in some towels and leave them on my dash board, The heat then did the rest to sweat out the oil.

Those old Nagants are interesting rifles, I have several, including a 91/30 PU and M39 Finn. Great with cast bullets!

- splintergroup

After the restoration

-- Ganchik Sasha. Life is not a draft, tomorrow you will not redo......

We had a 1903 and 1903A3. Held the stock over the gas range and let the cosmoline seep out, wipe down, repeat until all is gone.

Sasha. Great save on those stocks. But, whatever in the world did they do to the metal??!!