Beware the "Cosmoline"

Yesterday drove down to my local Cabelas to hit the "Library" to look for any hidden gems. Spotted a 1915 Westinghouse Mosin Nagant in what looked to be decent shape for $500 CAD. The sales person and I had talked about it,he knew his stuff. It had what looked like cosmoline in the muzzle end and was plugged. I was thinking I had scored and the salesman said he also did not want to remove the cosmoline when they took it in. Got it home, cleaned it. Grease not cosmoline was found. The last 1/2 inch of the barrel was shot out. Not a counter bore. Long story short, they took the rifle back despite a "final sale policy". Hats off to my local Cabelas, we both got fooled by "the cosmoline".

A different tale = From a local G/S that has since closed I brought a MKIII it looked alright had a glance up the bore a bit dark but appeared ok it was Thursday night shopping took it on face value by the salesman it was good to go, got it for $300 took it out to a farm for a shot. The first and only round I fired from it the bolt jammed to such an extent I had to belt it muzzle down with the cocking handle hitting on the top of a strainer post luckily it did not break off or bend once ejected the shell case had a prominent raised ridge at amout 5 o'clock as it sat in the chamber deduced by the extractor mark.

Cause was my WWII armourer said an insect had crawled into the barrel carked it in the bottom of the chamber the acid in its body had over an extended period of time whilst decaying had eaten a divet @6mm x 1mm x 0.1mm deep in the bottom of the chamber had a new barrel fitted by him and not long after the gun was stolen along with my PH 22/250 1200.
Sale was final my bad luck!!!!

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Originally Posted by JerryEAL

Yesterday drove down to my local Cabelas to hit the "Library" to look for any hidden gems. Spotted a 1915 Westinghouse Mosin Nagant in what looked to be decent shape for $500 CAD. The sales person and I had talked about it,he knew his stuff. It had what looked like cosmoline in the muzzle end and was plugged. I was thinking I had scored and the salesman said he also did not want to remove the cosmoline when they took it in. Got it home, cleaned it. Grease not cosmoline was found. The last 1/2 inch of the barrel was shot out. Not a counter bore. Long story short, they took the rifle back despite a "final sale policy". Hats off to my local Cabelas, we both got fooled by "the cosmoline".

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Had to laugh when I read this! I sold a couple of SVT 40's at a show last year and one of the things the "shrewd" buyers looked for was the all important "cosmolene" which they seemed to figure guaranteed some kind of authenticity. Here I thought I was doing buyers a favour by spending around an hour per rifle cleaning them up and making them ready to shoot. Really bizarre- no one showed any interest in actually looking at the bore but the lack of "cosmo" was brought up many times. On another note, the "cosmo" the recent SVT refurb arrivals here were slathered in is actually a heavy oil or very light grease. Nothing like the ultra viscous waxy grease I've found in other rifles fresh from long term storage.

Ridolpho

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Originally Posted by Ridolpho

Here I thought I was doing buyers a favour by spending around an hour per rifle cleaning them up and making them ready to shoot. Really bizarre- no one showed any interest in actually looking at the bore

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No, you're right. The second thing I look at is bore condition. I don't want to assume there's anything left at all under the grease. I want them clean to see... That's one reason I'm not interested in the least in these Irish contract #4s, they're unusable. I also hate the smell of cosmoline...as bad as keeping a cup of diesel on the work bench, would give me a headache. Only thing keeps me off the SVT is the 5 rd mag law.

The first rifle I ever bought - at the tender age of 18 - was an Enfield. The shop had about 20 or 30 on hand (1960s) and all were freshly surplussed and packed with cosmoline. I donated an hour of free labour cleaning rifles before I found the pick of the litter, one with no pitting and a good bore. The bloke knew I was on my school's rifle team and tossed in a bandolier of ammunition as a bonus.

I'm still not sure who got the better of the deal.