Gunsmithing Mosin nagant bolt play

[NY700]

I have a couple mosin nagants.
I feel like the bolt on one has an exceptional amount of play in it. Wondering if this is normal , acceptable, safe?

the first bolt is the one I’m concerned with the second off of a 1944 carbine is much tighter.

 

[Wannashootit]

I've worked on hundreds of them.
That's a little sloppier than typical, but doesn't affect the operation or safety of the bolt. So long as the slotted forward end of the bolt body effectively engages the bolthead to rotate it fully into battery when you close the bolt it's fine. The connecting bar just serves to hold the parts together in alignment.

As long as the headspace is in tolerance and firing pin protrusion is correct you're GTG.

 

[Ledzep]

Agree with the above. Head space is set from the rear of the lugs to the front of the bolt face. As long as the bolt head is locking into the receiver, there's not a lot left to go wrong from a safety standpoint as far as that slop is concerned.

 

[Squider_K]

If you think the bolt is excessively worn, there are over sized bolts out there that made for that problem. The bolt image below is numbered, from what I have been told they vary from 2-4 in size. I myself, have yet to find one marked, but I have a half dozen bolt heads or more at home and started checking them and found ones with larger and smaller diameters. This may help with your problem.

 

[Wannashootit]

^^
Never heard of bolt head diameters numbered by diameter; but that isn't related to the OP's question.
He was referring to "play" when seated in the connector bar, which is irrelevant as the bolthead is detached from that assembly.

I've got a small box full of boltheads (I just wish they had extractors!) that I'll swap out to change/decrease headspace when needed but never seen a reason to check diameters.

 

[Squider_K]

^^
Never heard of bolt head diameters numbered by diameter; but that isn't related to the OP's question.
He was referring to "play" when seated in the connector bar, which is irrelevant as the bolthead is detached from that assembly.

I've got a small box full of boltheads (I just wish they had extractors!) that I'll swap out to change/decrease headspace when needed but never seen a reason to check diameters.

My misunderstanding on the connector. As for different bolt head diameters, I also checked mine and I have found that there is a degree of variation in them from being slightly over sized in relation ship to the bolt body to slightly undersized. The image comes from someone who is both on Ebay and Gunboard. He lives in Ukraine and typically sells a lot of tools for various weapons of that era. As I have read some of his other posts, I doubt what he has put out as he access to a lot of things that haven't been translated to English that I don't have. I will say outside of his image, I have never seen a bolt with a marking like that. There may be a warehouse in the former Soviet Union or Eastern Bloc that is full of these, one day they will inundate the mil surp market. Or they sold as scrap and we now use them for shaving razors.

 

[Mugsy32]

I have two Mosin Nagants, one is 1932 and one is 1943, the 32 is slightly sloppier than the 43, I suspect the age difference is the reason, but as was said by others this doesn't subtract from the safety or reliability of the weapon. Russian or Soviet block made weapons are designed to have very wide tolerances, this cuts down on the need for major maintenance in the field and makes for very reliable weapons.

 

[tomcatmv]

I love my MN's, especially the M-38's. they make big fire balls at dusk!

 

[tomcatmv]

OP. do you have the firing pin bolt gauge? I've swapped bolts in my Mosins and never had an issue except for my one pot-bellied Finn that had a Finn Tikka barrel.

 

[roostercogburn98]

Bet that sumbitch will run for 100 years or more just like that

 

[NY700]

Honestly it runs like a champ and is surprisingly accurate. Well inside any hunting need as far as accuracy.

I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t looking at a potential safety issue.