Sometimes... You just get lucky..

[Gsragtop]

Sometimes you just get lucky... I bid on a GB Mosin the other day at $99, I got outbid and kept watching it. The description was literally one line, and about 10 bad pics.. None of the reciver, none that really mattered..

Something told me not to let the riffle go so cheap, so with 20 min left I dropped in a $5 and one change bid, and I became the high bidder. For the next twenty min, I sat there hoping someone would out bid me.. I kept asking myself, why did I bid?? I don't even know what it was that I bid on... No one outbid me and I won the rifle at $114 and some change.. Total in with shipping and FFL puts me at around $150.. All well I thought, if its nothing I want I can always we sell it.. Then I looked very closely at the pics.. One of the pics below caught my attention, and now I had a hunch what it was..I was not sure, maybe I just wanted to see it... Now I could not wait to see it in person.. Was I right??? Was my hunch correct???

Lets play a game.. Can you tell me why I got excited ?? I will post the answer in a bit..

[Dan4good]

i see it has the red writing

[Lee-online]

/25\ red numbers. Molot?

[desdem12]

IT is not a molot. Has a century import mark. Must be a red number rifle?

[catcracker]

Life is like a box of chocolates: You never know what you're gonna get. Forrest Gump - Forrest Gump

[S 854]

I'm new at this... I (maybe) passed up a 'red number' rifle for the hex I bought... I thought maybe the previous owner had colored in the engraving on the receiver... no big deal... I saw another with white "engraving"...

What am I missing?

[Junk Yard Dog]

Nothing, some Mosins have red highlighting in the numbers, this is way too easy fake so never pay extra just to get that.

Good deal on the rifle

[Gsragtop]

Ding ding ding, you guys are good... I did not notice till I won it, maybe because I saw it on my ipad.. Any way, its a /25\ red letter, numbers match all around... Bonus, its a Tula !!!

Some quick pics I took while in my trunk..











I know we talked about the number two on the stock, what does it mean??



Any way I can fix this?? It was in he pics when I got it, but I would love to fix it if possible..

[tiberium51]

I kinda got the same feeling when I went through a few rifles at the Gander I got mine from, aside from the bolt on mine feeling the smoothest I got a feeling about the red paint.

Is there any sort of guess of the percentage of red rifles to the non red ones?

I wanna get a Tula next

[redspoon]

Nice and a very good price.

[Dan4good]

my 31 izhevsk is red writing i also have anoth 91/30 with white but cant remember which but i berlive its my 32 izhevsk

[bunkysdad]

I have a all force matched yellow letter 91/30 that shoots really nice. I need to post it up here some time. I was experimenting with a few different colors and the yellow works well when taking pictures.

[Gsragtop]

You guys have any suggestions to restore the stock damage?? Or at least make it less noticeable?? It goes with out saying, IM NOT GOING TO RE-STAIN it.

Do I have any options that is purist friendly??

Thanks as always.

[daveshady]

all depends on what color Ivan had in his crayon box that day?

I got a Red sight only butt plate used to be red 1938/49 Tula MO
marked last week at a local shot was a century import also. recent
import to the gun shop. It is very easy to fake and lots of folks
use crayola, testors paint for more perm coloration. is different
now if we find one that glows in the dark we got sumthing.

[soylentblue]

I've got red numbers on my bayonet - that's it though.

[Gsragtop]

It's not a fake if it has the /25\ stamp on it.. This one does. Who knows what it means, but it's not fake

[Junk Yard Dog]

It's not a fake if it has the /25\ stamp on it.. This one does. Who knows what it means, but it's not fake

The stamp is not faked, not yet anyway, but red numbers would be child's play to fake if someone wanted to, and you can bet someone has. I have highlighted markings with both white, and yellow color to bring them out for pics, I never thought about using red, but I can think of at least three ways I could do it with material I have on hand. ( no, that information will stay with me)

[hoshow]

Nice find and at a great price . Congratulations

[zeebill]

I kinda got the same feeling when I went through a few rifles at the Gander I got mine from, aside from the bolt on mine feeling the smoothest I got a feeling about the red paint.

Is there any sort of guess of the percentage of red rifles to the non red ones?

I wanna get a Tula next

Ivan ran out of yellow crayon so he used the extra special red one! Is that a cracked stock rifle or it it just the photo? Bill

[bunkysdad]

I stopped in Cabelas yesterday and there was the usual rack full of refurb 91/30 rifles. 5 of the 30 or so rifles were red letter. All of the red letters had the large 2 on the stock, but I did not see a single /25\ mark on any of them. The date and the rear sights were red paint, and the years were either 42 or 43, and some war-time stocks and a couple of post-war. All Izhevsk. All Molot. All 169.99 marked "on sale". Nothing was speaking to me.