stiff m44 action

[MichonRAFW]

Picked up a romanian m44 (1954) the other day and after a thorough cleaning the action is smooth as glass so long as it's not cycling shells. it's about 10 times harder to lock and unlock the bolt with a round in the chamber vs. air. Is headspace to tight? or maybe the chamber is a little tight? Would spinning a .45 brush in the chamber with a drill help? thanks
Ryan

oh, and how do you take off the bayo lug? I unscrewed the bayo and got that off but got that chunk of metal hangin off the side:rolleyes:

[MichonRAFW]

anyone have any ideas?

[SteveW]

With respect to the Bayo lug, it looked to me on the M44 that I had
that the huge lug was part of the barrel, or somehow affixed before
the gun was blued. I think it's there to stay. If it offends, sell the M44
and buy a M38.

I can't advise on the bolt lockup other than to ask the usual questions
like :

a) Have you fired it ?
b) What ammo are you using ?
c) Have you tried to chamber a brand new, unfired brass case ?

S.

[MichonRAFW]

I fired about 50 rds of wolf 147 gr. I have brass case ammo on the way so I wont be able to test that for a few days.

[MichonRAFW]

^

[legion489]

First, check the headspace! Second, make sure the chamer is ACTUALLY clean, as get out the brass brush and drill. Next, are there any marks on the case when extracted without firing? Any tears in the rim? Body OK? Shoulder crushed? Bullet marked/scuffed/dinged? Base of the cartridge OK? No grooves or scrathes? Clean out the locking lug grooves. After that? Who knows!

[MichonRAFW]

No marks are on the cases upon extraction. bullet is fine, no scratches. It appears that some of the copper wash on the wolf cases gets scrathed off of the rim however. Will chuck up a brush in the drill tomarrow. thanks for the replies
Ryan

[JOHN E]

One of my M-44 rifles has the same problem.
Let us know how that works out please.

[SCCogswell]

Re. bayonet lug: Dremel it. Chop the lugs off, clean it up with the grinder, match the barrel profile with a file and some emery cloth. If it's anything like mine, a smooth finish won't look right; I stopped at 100grit. Hit it with cold blue. Expect it to shoot high without the bayonet. Acraglas the bayonet blade into a handle and give it to one of your SCA friends as an oddball "main gauche".
Cogs

[NagantNut]

Cogs is right, its best to cut the bayo lugs off and file the lug/frt sight unit to match the profile of the rest of the barrel. The Front sight/ bayo mount is all one piece. It is taper fit to the end of the barrel as well as having two pins holding it to the barrel. I have heard that some of these units were soldered on as well, but as of yet I have never seen one that was soldered. To remove the unit, drift out the pins, then give the bayo lug a few love taps with a large hammer and a drift. Once the bayo/frt sight assembly is removed there will be two grooves in the barrel where the pins used to go. They can be filled with silver solder or epoxy, but this will limit your choices on what type of finish you can use. Also, there will be a "step" in the barrel where the bayo mount stops and the barrel meets it. This "step" will have to be turned down with a lathe or filed down. As you can see it is one hell of a lot more work to remove the bayo lug assembly than it is to simply chop off the lugs with a dremel. As for the tight action, it is most likely the ammo. Try several different types of ammo as the rim thickness tends to vary quite a bit on the 7.62x54r stuff. One last thought, I saw a barrel extension idea for the m44 that was really kinda neat. It used a piece of steel pipe to add some length to the barrel and incorporated a recoil compensator!
-Luke