Factory defect on Mosin Nagant barrel, fixable?

[His lordship.]

I bought a like-new, not a rebuild, Mosin Nagant Model 44, Ishevsk arsenal, 1948 date of mfg last weekend.  Part of the end of the barrel appeared to have been hit, or ground sometime when it was being made as the Russians blued over it, the crown appeared undamaged, as I know better than to buy a damaged barrel crown on a gun.

Took it to the range and it shot very poorly at first, went at least 12" or more to the right of the point of aim at 50 yards with my best ammo (Czech surplus and Hungarian), it went several feet to the right with the crappy Albanian stuff at 100 yards and it shot inconsistently as well.  Put 45 rounds through it on that day and it seemed to really improve toward the end, I just need to allow a 9" windage to the left at 100 yards to put it into the target spot.

During the cleaning process I noticed that the bullet must be getting squeezed near the end of the bore as the copper fowling was accumulating there on one side, the area where the arsenal employee had caused a defect on the outside of the barrel had a small but noticable polishing on the lands and grooves, I think it was getting altered by the bullet putting pressure on that end, but there was little copper accumulation on the defective side, copper fowling only on the undefective part, just polishing of the steel on the defective side of the bore.

I once had a Russian made Makarov pistol that had a poorly machined barrel, put 700 rounds through it and it became very accurate.  My question is...will the accumulation of bullets fired through my squeezed defective end of my MN do the trick, fix the problem?  I know that a gunsmith can counterbore the end, but I was seeing improvement in accuracy on the first day of shooting it.

Thanks.

[1911crazy]

The only three things you can do, one is to counterbore it just enough to clear up the tight spot, the second is to fire lap it and the third is to slug it then hand lap it.                                                        BigBill

I have a brand new M44 that I shot thats needs to be sighted in because its off quite a bit. I already moved the front sight but I haven't shot it yet.

[His lordship.]

Thanks for the reply, Bigbill,

In the old days I would sell off a gun that had minor problems, but this piece is really nice and I want to keep it, how do you adjust the sites on one of those post-war MNs?  Is it strictly the front site, impact with a brass hammer sideways on the wedge plate mount?

I have heard that some MN's don't shoot that well, all the ones I have had up until now were good,  I wonder if these critical people simply had one where the bore was corroded and shot out?  I remember the old days in the 70's and early 80's where it was common to buy old surplus bolt actions with the bores showing signs of corrosive ammo usage, not like now where there are all these like-new or arsenal rebuilds to choose from.

Thanks.

[1911crazy]

Chris;    I think that some mosins shoot well because they were sighted in already because they were used and the work was done for us.  But some are "new" and were never shot like my M44 and have to be sighted in.  I moved my front sight and I think there is a way to do the rear site but I'll have to look at it and see how to.  Don't forget we have to move the site to where it hits at so if the gun is off to the left we move the front site to the left to put it on to where it hits.  Just benchrest it and site it in.
                                                                       BigBill

[Zorgon]

If you're not getting any signs of a dangerous condition because of the barrel problem, try shooting it with the bayonet extended.  A lot of these were originally sighted that way.  The side-folding bayonet can affect the POI.

Steve