Some questions on my Mosin Nagant? Weird stuff.

[His lordship.]

I was looking at my Mosin Nagant Model 91/30 again and noticed some oddities that I have not seen on any other rifle.  While it is a 1942 wartime vintage gun with the sloppy machining in places, the front area of the bolt, not the face, has some extensive and deep porous holes, my 1938 Nagant revolver had some too, but not as bad and it was on the outside of the pistol.  I had read once that these were called "blood pits",  the result of the caustic effect of blood on bare steel, but why is just one part of the bolt head with these pits?  I wonder if it was a replacement part as it seems to me that if you bled on the gun, there would be other areas with pitting?  

The bore rifling near the muzzle is noticably more worn than the barrel in general.  It is not counterbored, but the rifling is so worn that it is almost a smooth bore near the last 1-2 inches of lands and grooves.  When I bought the gun I ran a bore light down the barrel, and saw nice shiny rifling all the way to the end, but when looking at the bore from the front and side ways with a powerful light and optical device, there is hardly any rifling to see.  I had read that some of the Model 38's were coming into the country counterbored, obviously the rifling was corroded at the end and this was done to improve the shootability, and I have heard that this helps.  Why would the bullet wear or the corrosive primer effect just the last few inches of the barrel on these guns?  :?

Thanks.

[Castaway]

What you are seeing was probably worn by a cleaning due to cleaning the rifle from the muzzle end.

[Robert357]

I am not sure how to explain your bolt wear, but offer some speculation.

From what I have read, having a bolt of different manufacture than the rest of the rifle should not be too surprising.  After a battle to expedite the cleaning of firearms a barrel mixed with oil and fuel would be used to toss bolts into.  The solders would then pick it out, hopefully getting the same bolt, but maybe not.

The 7.62x54R as a rimmed rifle cartridge, headspaces on the rim, which makes rifles in this caliber much more tollerant for all kinds of field abuse.

[RB Rooson]

Blood pits??

[savageT]

Chris D.,
I'm going out on the limb now, so bear with me.

Later on during war production, normally milled parts were produced by casting rather than machining out of solid-block material.  This was done for expedience and to limit the amount of machining time required.  What you may be seeing are porosity holes that are normally found in sand castings due to entrapped air displacing molton metal..........saves time and material.
Jim

[Mikey]

Chris D:  I'm going to agree with Savage T regarding the porosity holes rather than blood pits.  I have recovered battlefield rifles and pistols with blood 'etchings' on them.  The blood seems more to eat away at the bluing than cause pitting.

I have a Beretta 70S in 380 that had porosity pits from the casting that was used - I had the barrel replaced but this was a new production handgun with those pits.

Many of the Aks, SKSs, Toks and Maks we secured from the battle field had been covered with blood and stuff for days before we secured them and mostly what we found was the 'etching' of the bluing, not pitting.  Just my two cents worth though.  Mikey.

[S.S.]

I have seen some Military weapons that had loose fitting parts,
And the Dimples were "Peaning" marks from a round chisel
or punch of some sort. Punching dimples in the metal makes
little raised up areas around the dents (Crater Rims) which can
make the parts fit tighter against each other.
(I have seen this many times on the front face of the locking lugs)
As for the Blood damaging the metal, yes it will over time.
Just as any liquid will.