October 18th, 2021
7:13 runtime
Ever cleaned the cosmoline out of an SKS rifle?
As a lover of guns, I aspire to collect pretty much all of them.
After all, what purpose would some old beat-up war rifle serve in a self-defense situation in modern America?
So guns like the Mosin-Nagant rifle andunder-appreciated SKSnever really appealed to me.
The challenge Im referring to is what I call the milsurp experience.
If you ask me, cosmoline is the grossest-feeling substance on planet earth.
If youve ever picked up a gun covered in it, you know the struggle.
Its truly an enigma.
Removing all of that cosmoline is the first chore to accomplish.
It might just be the hardest challenge to returning the gun to a useable state.
Heres how I did it.
Dont spend too much time wiping it down, just remove the globs of surface accumulation.
There will be plenty of time to detail clean later, believe me.
Once the first wipe down is complete, disassemble the rifle.
Fortunately, the SKS isnt hard to tear down.
You want to get all of the small parts off and separated for cleaning.
it’s possible for you to take notes and photograph everything during disassembly to help you reassemble everything later.
Now its time to clean.
For maximum effectiveness, leave them to soak overnight.
The wooden stock can be placed in a trash bag and stored somewhere hot.
Doing this allows the wood to sweat all the cosmoline out of it.
I placed mine inside my storage shed, which on a summer day will bake anything placed inside it.
I left this until I was ready to assemble the SKS, which would be the next day.
With the stock sweating and small internals soaking, it was time to clean as much as I could.
The mineral spirits caused the easy surface cosmoline to wipe right off the gun.
I cleaned the bulk of the easily reached areas and started cleaning again in the morning.
Detailed SKS Cleaning
Now it was on to the detailed cleaning.
Break out the cotton swabs and the SKS cleaning rod.
I used q-tips to clean all the nooks and crannies.
It took doing this quite a few times to get the cosmoline from the barrel.
I did this until the paper towels came out clean.
The area where the firing pin sits has to be perfectly clean.
I used cotton swabs to scrub this area and the entire bolt.
If it does, then it means you got the bolt good and clean.
Now, its time to lubricate and reassemble.
Conclusion
I enjoy the milsurp experience, and it definitely gives you a bond with the gun.
I hope this video and article will help you develop a method that works easily for you.
Go to forum thread
Hoppe’s
