I have a 91/30 Mosin Nagant Rifle. I ordered some stripper clips that came in looking like brand new. I loaded them with 5 rounds. Draw the bolt back, try to shove the 5 rounds into the mag, and the bullets will not budge! So I think, maybe the stripper is too tight. I try to bend the sides out slightly to loosen it, and it is still very hard to get the bullets to slide out.
Anyway, after I finally loosen them to the point where the bullets will slide out, then they start to "wobble" in the stripper. I load the rifle, and when I try to chamber the round it will not come out of the mag because the rim of the cartridge is stuck behind the one beneath it. Then I have to drop all the cartridges out the bottom, and start again. I am very frustrated. I have used sks strippers many times without a hitch.
I was wondering if any one else had experienced this in their Mosin Nagant, or if they have any suggestions on where my problem may lie. I simply cannot seem to make them work in my rifle.

Thanks

The first, and most obvious, thought is are they really the correct clips for the cartridge? Just because someone sold them as such doesn't make it so. So far as the second problem, rounds being loaded with the rims of the higher (in the magazine) cartridge being behind the lower ones and being difficult or impossible to feed, welcome to the world of rimmed cartridges in a box magazine. This is a common occurrence with many rifles using a rimmed cartridge in this type of magazine. Even the flaunted Lee-Enfields had the same problem.

If you look at the back of the rim of the cartridges you will see a deep bevel. The purpose of this is to defeat the "rim locking". It is only marginally successful.

I know it is fun to use many of the accessories available for old guns. I have several stripper clips for the Model 8 Remington in .35 Rem. From a practical standpoint, it takes the same time and effort to load the clip as to load directly into the magazine, why not just skip a step? Manually loading the magazine also eliminates the "rim locking" problem.

Fine cut needle files or even small thin sticks (easy to whittle out of skewers) with emory paper glued to them...need to polish the RIM recess rather than decrease the spring tension of the sides. Willing to bet the part the rims actaully rubs on is pretty rough...make it smooth. While you are at it, can smooth the other contact points, but the rim seems to be the key point.

Have to mention, the origianl round, and most Russian made ammo, have a rather larger rim bevel...that's a help....some other types of ammo have less of a rim bevel, and they tend to stick.

I thought those rifles had a mechanism to hold down the rest of the rounds in the magazine so the top one would feed without interference. Then again, it's surplus.... so could be in any condition.

What are your strippers made of? I have never been able to make the brass strippers work. The steel ones are better, IME. I load my MNs with single cartridges, and forget the strippers. Too much trouble.

The strippers do appear to be the ones for a mosin nagant. They are steel (Maybe stainless?), and shaped like all the ones I have seen in catalogs. The strippers do fit in the slot in my receiver perfectly.
The magazine does have some type of mechanism to hold the other shells in the magazine down while the top one is loaded. Due to this, when you hit the trap door on the bottom of the magazine, all of the bullets drop out except for the top one which can either be pushed through to the bottom or removed from the top. However, the top round still does not clear the rim of the rounds beneath it despite this feature on my rifle.
When I hand load the bullets, everything works perfectly due to the fact that I am placing the rim in front of the one beneath it. When you slide them in via the strippers however, it appears that the rims go where they want to.
I just thought that it was funny that I have read on so many websites that it had a "reliable stripper clip system", because mine is anything but reliable. Maybe I'll take a look at some other mosin nagants at the gun show tommorow and see if I notice any mechanical difference in the magazine.
Thanks

I've got some for mine, but for the life of me I can't remember if I tried them out yet or not. They are definitely NOT stainless steel, as I just went to look at them and they are beginning to rust (I just sprayed some oil in the bag).

I'll try them out tomorrow and post the results here.

The American Rifleman has printed responses to this problem posed by owners of the SMLE. Also large rims. They included a picture of a loaded clip.
This shows a distinct loading procedure. The SMLE
clip allows the rims to be placed on either side of the next rim. It is up to the loader to be aware of the top rim being in front of the subsequent rims.
Initially, this made common sense to me but,the picture in the article showed the rounds in an alternating pattern. It was explaned that this was necessary because the clip could be loaded "upside down".
I know it works for the SMLE. Maybe its the answer for the Russian. Pepe Ray