What is the best way top get the cosmoline off of the rifle?  I want to be careful not to damage the wood stock either.  This rifle is literally smoothered in it.  

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My M59 didn't have much cosmo on it, so I cleaned it normally.  Make sure you take the bolt completely apart and clean the heck out of the firing pin and firing pin channel in order to prevent a slam-fire.

Elbow grease.........

Let the whole rifle sit in a black garbage bag outside on a hot day. Wrap it in terry cloth towels and repeat as neccesary. Or you can bake the stock in the oven and pour boiling water over the metal parts in your bath tub. Just be careful if your going to bake the stock. Turn the oven to about 150 degrees and place it on a large cookie sheet with lots of tinfoil wrapped over the pan. If you think cosmoline is hard to clean out of a rifle, it's much harder to clean out of a hot oven. I know through personal experience

All cleaned.  Found a gallon of  "Krud Kutter" at Home Depot.  Soaked it in a 1 part crud and 3 part hot hot water and took a soft brisseled bruth to it.  The cosmoline react to the solution and started to clump up.  Brushed it right off.  Cooked all the separated parts and then him them with a spray degreaser.  Lubricated all the parts and reassembled.  Actually was not that bad of an expreience, but I do not want to have to do it again anytime soon................

Thanks,

I once got a 15 gallon drum, cut it lengthwise and soaked a rifle in gasoline.

Ate the cosmoline off pretty good, that and a bristle brush and I was good to go.

boling water is all you need to remove csmoline that is still soft. Once cosomo becomes like a brick you need the petro solvents.

My buddy bought an SKS at the same time too, but not nearly as cake with the stuff as mine.  Although I did not mind putting up with the extra mess since all parts on my SKS have a matching serial number and his does not (tells me his is a parts build).  I told him what I had to do to the rifle to get it cleaned and his jaw just dropped to the floor.   He offered me $25 to clean it for him, so I said sure.  Took me all of 10 minutes to do it.  4 minutes to drive to work, 2 minutes to put the components in the industrial dishwasher and 4 minutes to drive home.  Still slapping myself in to head for not thinking about the dishwasher at work for cleaning my rifle!