Feeding problem.

The only probelm I have ever had with my M38 is sometimes when I try to chamber the first round, the nose of the bullet just goes down, instead of up into the chamber, and it doesn't budge at all. There is no way to correct it, except to open up the hatch on the bottom of the magazine and take out all the rounds and reload again. Does that happen sometimes with all Mosins? How unfortunate to have it happen in battle!

Make sure when you load that you push the round all the way to the rear of the magazine, if the round drags on the front of the magazine it will jam. Check to see if the lower follower spring is weak or broken. If it is you can replace it.
Here is a place to find one.
http://www.e-gunparts.com/productschem.asp?chrMasterModel=1920z1938
I think it is #23c or #26 or you can replace whole the follower assembly #28.
Just click on the list # under the schematic.

This has happened on all of my Mosins. M-38's, M-91's, and M-44's. It is irritating when it happens. I'm not sure what causes it but it sounds like Warpath has hit on it. Being that I usually shoot my cast reloads and are bench rested attempting to achieve good groupings, I usually load my rounds singularly. I need to pay more attention when it occurs to investigate the problem. I'm thinking that possibly the feed interrupter is sometimes the culprit. This keeps the cartridge below the one being chambered from double feeding.

Yeah, I think making sure they are all the way back is a key factor. It's just odd how it happens to the very first round, or not at all.

If the rounds are not loaded so the rim of each round is in front of the rim of the round beneath it the rounds will nose-dive as they are stripped off the magazine by the bolt.

If you're loading from strippers be sure to hold the nose of the top round and press with your thumb on its base as you press the rounds into the magazine.

I'm with Pat..many times this is caused by the interrruptor..sometimes ya just have ta pull the action from the stock and do a lil judicious bending..it doesn't take much to correct the problem

I keep 5 dummy rounds on hand for this very problem.

My rifle is correct as well.

Just imagine facing a pack of charging Germans in Stalingrad and you and your fellow comrades are feverishly trying to cycle a round into their Mosin's.....poor bastards! But in the end they persevered!:laugh_sma

I have one that was having a similar problem. I compared it to one that had no problem and noticed the follower was not coming up as high as it should. I think I've fixed it (ran about 30 rounds through with no problem last weekend). I opened the magazine and actually bent the follower outward just a bit so that, when shut, it comes up just a little higher. I also noticed that the magazine has a slight wobble to it, whereas my other one is tight. I don't want to change it out though until I have to since its the original matching serial number.