More Second Crossbolt

[rdmadison]

Since the discussion of a couple of years ago, has anyone collected enough more observations of the second cross-bolt to suggest what decade these repairs were made? Have they now been observed in all 91/30 stock types (early, mid, and late) as well as in laminates? Do they still seem to be more common among carbines, or have they by now been seen among their longer siblings as often?

[jimpierce7]

my '43 91/30 laminate has two.

[racerguy00]

They seem to show up on about every type of soviet refurb stock. A few with a crossbolt just in front of the trigger have also turned up.

[Peadog]

I have a Russian capture K98k that has an added crossbolt in the wrist.

[qz2026]

I have a theory about that. So, don't call me crazy You know I love to speculate without a ton of data and, usually, there isn't a ton of data. I'm not an expert on these things, but here goes. The thought occurred to me the other day that towards the end of WWII that a big chunk of the trees had been used for firewood, blown up or used for rifle stocks and many of those were captured. How many stocks did the German's acquire/destroy at Tula? My thoughts were that the traditional birch, seasoned birch, was just not available in the quantities it had been at one time. Plus, who's chopping them down and processing them? How many millions of Russians were killed? I really think that period of time was the advent of the laminated stocks - even see that in Germany. But, what birch was left was probably not seasoned/dried very well in addition to being relatively young trees (assuming many were used up during the first war and in the 30's) which probably caused some warping and cracking to occur. Hence a wrist bolt and sometimes a bolt further up below the receiver - sometimes both of them. I've got one with three stock bolts. Even with the M-44's, especially the later ones (46-48) you see those beautiful Czech stocks make an appearance and also find their way into the 91/38 and 91/59 programs. Out of birch? Now Europe has about 70 years of hardwood growth. Time for another war? Just a SWAG

[rdmadison]

A shortage of trees would account for splicing and laminating, but wouldn't account for wrist bolts in earlier-style stocks. Do they occur in all stock versions or only the latest? I have seen too few mosins to know . . .

[qz2026]

A shortage of trees would account for splicing and laminating, but wouldn't account for wrist bolts in earlier-style stocks. Do they occur in all stock versions or only the latest? I have seen too few mosins to know . . .

Earlier stocks didn't get the additional crossover bolts. At least I haven't seen any. And, no, a shortage of trees would not account for splicing. Broken and/or damaged stocks caused splicing but you don't see many Russian stocks so spliced. The majority of splices occurred in the Finn rifles which was done for strength vs. repairing damage although I'm sure a fair number of their captured rifles had damage of one kind or another. A shortage of "adult" and seasoned trees would require some reinforcement.