The Unofficial P64 Resource Forum

Well hello everyone the title explains it all. I have a 1927 dragoon mosin my first mosin very happy with it. And I cant wait to get it ready. I am just wondering how or what is the best way to clean the cosmolean off the darn thing. There is so much in there its not even funny. Which I am grateful for since it keeps the gun nice but now its it's time to clean it out. Any advice is mich appreciated and welcomed thank you guys and gals.

Heat will melt the cosmolene , rags and qtips to wipe it and dig it out. Bolt assy will have to be taken apart , there are some good you tube videos on disassembling and reassembling. Once the bulk of it is off I've used simple green on metal parts. My stocks I actually put in the deep sink and used tide and a soft paint brush and lathered it up and rinsed it down. Cosmolene really likes to get into the wood. But mainly heat is your friend , I use a heat gun.

I have used kerosene on the metal and some guys have had luck with putting the wood in a black trash bag and let it sit in the sun to sweat it out. Wipe with rags and repeat.

Let us know how you make out.

Well first question is should I strip and disassemble the whole rifle and all the metal parts ? Or do a partial ?

Complete disassembly of bolt assy and trigger. Take the barrel and reciever off off the stock.All the cosmolene needs to be cleaned out, cosmolene can and will cause the gun to fail.The mosin is very easy to take apart, not much to them. Check out YouTube , find a good video and take the gun apart with the video.

Well I dont have a heat gun but I do have my wife's hair dryer. Would that work ? =)

yes the hair dryer will work but it may not get AS hot as a true heat gun. The other problem is avoiding the frag pattern after your wife finds out that you burnt up her blow dryer as they are not designed to be used for as long a period as a true heat gun. but in relatively short work time periods it will do ok. I found that acetone (nail poish remover) will take cosmo off rather well. First heat up the metal then rub with a cloth soaked in acetone. Course the fumes are a bit tricky. NO SMOKING!

Well I was thinking would WD40 be okay to remove the cosmoline . I saw a few videos where people would leave the metal parts soaked in hot water and that just yurks me. Dont wanna do that. But would wd40 work or car parts cleaner like the stuff you can buy at home depot.

Spray on parts cleaner will work but be advised it may also remove the arsenal finish too. That would be bad.

Is the arsenal finish the same thing as the blueing or browning on the mosin nagant?

If my information is correct no it is not. If your Mosin has a black finish, and almost all of them do as all were recalled to arsenals after WWII for refurbishing, then it has a type of spray on finish not unlike what the CZ 82's have except it is not ceramic based so it does not chip. It is sort of a paint. But it is not impervious to all cleaners and solvents so if you do use a spray parts cleaner test it in an out of the way spot first. And let it sit overnight after wiping it off before deciding it is safe. And I don't believe WD 40 is powerful enough to remove cosmoline but I have never tried it either. I know acetone will do it. And heat. And elbow grease. Lots of elbow grease.