CAUTION: Shooting is fun and educational; it is also inherently dangerous. Anyone operating a firearm should be thoroughly versed in basic firearms safety before attempting to load, fire or clean a gun. While this may sound like common sense it is ignored so often by otherwise intelligent people, as well as idiots, that I feel obliged to repeat it here. I will also mention at this point the vital need for the shooter to wear proper eye and ear protection: anyone willing to pay $300 for a firearm but unwilling to spend $30 on a pair of shooting glasses and hearing protectors deserves to be blind and deaf.
The rifle may be loaded either one round at a time or by using a five-round charger clip. To use the charger: draw back the bolt, place either end of the clip into the slots machined in the top of the receiver, align the palm of the hand parallel to the cartridges and, using the thumb, press them firmly and smoothly into the magazine. Remove the charger clip, close the bolt and turn down the bolt handle; some individual weapons will be cooperative enough to allow you to close the bolt without removing the charger, the action of the bolt doing that for you as it was designed to do. The rifle is now ready to fire — release the safety only when ready to fire.
The Mosin-Nagant has a safety mechanism which, though sturdy and reasonably reliable, is also clumsy and difficult to manipulate; anyone who uses it will instantly understand why the design was never imitated. To set this beast, pull the cocking piece to the rear as far as it will go then turn it counterclockwise. If properly set the cocking piece will remain locked in the turned position. To unlock the safety, pull back on the cocking piece, turn it clockwise and let it slide forward. The safety is now off.
The Mosin-Nagant can also be set on “safe” before loading if you first draw the bolt to the rear as far as it will go, then load the cartridge(s) into the magazine in the usual way. At that point, with the bolt all the way to the rear, pull the trigger and hold it fully back while sliding the bolt forward and turning the bolt handle down. The weapon will then be on “safe” although there is a cartridge in the chamber, and the bolt must be fully-worked in order to cock and fire the weapon.
Note: The “safety” method described in the foregoing paragraph is extremely dangerous if not done properly, as the weapon will be loaded and ready to fire. Anyone wishing to use this method should first practice extensively with empty cartridge cases or other inactive rounds. Use of the foregoing method of placing the weapon on “safe” is NOT recommended, and is presented here only for informational purposes and to avoid accidents caused by people attempting to apply misunderstood or garbled accounts of this method.
This safety catch design is so cumbersome that many individuals ignore it and simply lift the bolt handle fully upright to act as a safety; this will work only if there is at least one round in the magazine to exert pressure on the underside of the bolt carrier, otherwise the entire bolt assembly will slide to the rear of the receiver if the butt is even minimally tilted downwards. I do not endorse any slovenly precautions where firearm safety is concerned, and this method strikes me as being, well, half-cocked...
In addition to being employed to set the safety the cocking piece serves the function its name indicates: it can be used to cock the rifle in the event of a misfire without working the bolt. Simply grasp the cocking piece firmly, pull it to the rear as far as possible, then let it run forward. At the risk of stating the obvious, use of the cocking piece to reset the mechanism for shooting (as opposed to dry-firing) assumes the presence of a round in the chamber which, for whatever reason, did not fire when the trigger was pulled after cocking with the bolt in the usual manner.
Because the ammunition you have fired is almost certainly corrosive, a prompt and thorough cleaning of the weapon is essential. The corrosive effects of old-fashioned, Berdan-primed ammunition — which includes all military surplus from China and the ex-East Bloc countries—derives from the mercury salts used in the primers. The salts adhere to the metal parts of the gun and, as is the nature of salts, attract moisture: if the weapon is not cleaned it will soon become a piece of rust and wood suitable to use as a club, but little else.
The traditional means of cleaning a black-powder gun was to pour hot, soapy water through the barrel, then rinse, dry thoroughly, and coat with gun oil. This will work for corrosive-ammo cleanup as well, but is unnecessarily sloppy and primitive. There are many commercial corrosive-ammo cleaners on the market today; they are inexpensive and available at almost any gun or sporting goods store.
Another alternative is U. S. military bore cleaner from the World War II era: this can be found at most gun shows and some surplus stores and costs about $0.50-$1.50 a can. The little green cans themselves make interesting bits of militaria.
The essential parts for post-shooting cleanup are the barrel, the chamber, the bolt, and the magazine housing. The conscientious shooter will want to clean the ejector/interrupter and the trigger guard follower assembly as well.
To begin: Remove the bolt assembly and set it aside. Attach a barrel brush to the cleaning rod, soak it in bore cleaner and run it through the barrel from the breech end. Wipe the brush on a rag and rewet with bore cleaner before pulling it back through the barrel. Repeat.
Next, using a slotted tip attachment or a cleaning jag, run a dry patch through the barrel, again from the breech end. Repeat with a patch soaked in bore cleaner. Continue alternating dry and wet patches until they come out clean. Run a final dry patch through, then a patch moistened — but not soaked — with gun oil.
Caution: Do not saturate the chamber area with oil or pour oil into that area: it can cause unnaturally high pressure to develop while firing and is very dangerous.
To continue with post-shooting cleanup: field strip the bolt assembly and clean each piece with bore cleaner and a clean, lint-free cloth until no residue remains. Then wipe each part dry and coat lightly with gun oil. Reassemble.
Ideally, the magazine housing and trigger guard follower assembly should also be scrubbed with bore cleaner, dried and given a very light coat of gun oil.
On the following day the barrel and the bolt face should be given another cleaning with wet and dry patches, and then followed by a light oiling.
Having said the foregoing about cleaning from the breech end, I will note that the military-issue cleaning kit common to countries which used the Mosin-Nagant implies a preference for cleaning the barrel from the muzzle end: there is a protective muzzle cap specifically designed to ensure that neither the muzzle crown nor the bore is damaged by using the cleaning rod. If you have an issue cleaning kit and wish to use it in the East Bloc way:
a) Slide the muzzle crown cap over the threaded end of the cleaning rod, making sure than the open end of the cap faces the threaded end of the rod. (Figure E-1)
b) Screw the bore brush (or the jag) onto the rod.
c) Place the punch through the hole in the rod head; this forms a cross-shaped handle for the rod. d) Proceed to clean as in the foregoing instructions.
The main flaw in the East Bloc cleaning technique is that muzzle-end cleaning does not adequately clean the chamber; you will have to do it separately.
There are some who omit cleaning the magazine and bolt assembly; if you wish to treat your piece of history like a cheap screwdriver, so be it.