The last Mosin

[Junk Yard Dog]

For now anyway. I did most of my Mosin buying back when the refurbished Soviet 91/30 could be had for as little as $55, lowest I ever paid was $45, but that wasn't a refurb, the $55 one was. For the 91/30's anyway, carbines were slightly more, and I have gotten some, type 53, for free in the long ago days. I hadn't planned to buy anymore Mosins, I have a lot of them, and I am way to cheap to pay $350-$500 or more for rifles I already have a good selection of. That changed about six months ago when I ended up with this 1939 Izhevsk, part of a buy it all or nothing deal to get another gun I wanted badly. That gun is a Remington 870 Magnum 12 gauge with 20" slug barrel, high grade blue and wood, brand new in the box from 1984. This was bought for home defense, and never even test fired by the owner, it wasn't even together as these are shipped with the barrel off to use a smaller box, or were in 1984 anyway. The price for the four guns was what I was willing to pay for the 870 and a deal was made. The other two are some 1950's and 60's Winchester .22's. The .22's had been fired, but by the looks of it this 91/30 wasn't, at least not since import. He had a good eye, real nice wood, spotless bore, tight crown and sharp lands. The only fault is a missing front band, I have one someplace, in two or three years I will find it. No sign of heat bubbling on the handguard as often happens with these when the barrel heats up the wood and forces the oils out of it lifting the shellac. Excellent trigger, passed headspace, the bolt head is Tula, but the rest seems to be Izhevsk of various era's. Why did this guy buy it? Because he could get it cheap, he never even bought ammo for it, or got the sling and kit with it. A lot of gunshops did that, kept the extra stuff to be sold individually. Not the small import mark of the earliest imports, but not the largest of the banner marks either, CAI in this case. What will I do with it? Put it in storage with all the others to be sold at the eventual estate sale unless I go Egyptian and take it all with me.

[Tula44]

That is one beautiful rifle! I was thinking this morning how I wanted another Mosin 91/30.

[Junk Yard Dog]

The Soviets spent a lot of money and time refurbishing all these rifles, millions of weapons from the war. Then they wondered how it is they went broke. Most other governments only refurbished weapons if they were still using them, and were going to reissue them. Some, like Argentina, refurbished rifles because they intended to sell them and wanted to maximize profits by making well used rifles look good again. We refurbished our WW2 weapons when we were handing them over to South Korea, or The Republic of Vietnam. It's been 25+ years since the refurb Soviet rifles started to appear on store shelves, and catalogs. Many are now starting to look like issued rifles again since they have seen countless trips to the range, hunting expeditions, or years up on the wall. Not many will still look like they did coming out of the crate like this rifles does.

[Tula44]

It was definitely a massive undertaking refurbishing all those rifles. Even the Mauser K98 rifles they captured after WW2 were refurbed, lol. I have a Russian Captured K98 and it's one of my favorite rifles. I kept it with the red shellac and all. I didn't want to "restore" the rifle - being captured is part of its history so I left the rifle as is. I'm glad that I did too. With so many RC rifles being "restored" in the future trying to find a good example of one might prove difficult for collectors who wish to fill a hole in their collection with one.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I have four or five K98k's, but only one of them is a Soviet refurb. Bought back before prices went up. These were never cheap like the 91/30's, not even in the 90's when I first started seeing them pop up. In '94 I spotted five of them on a gunshop shelf with that distinctive red shellac, but back then we had no idea what that was all about. I bought mine years later when they were more understood, no plans to do anything to it. The refurb program was massive, but it was spread out over many decades, and countless facilities, generations of Soviet workers were part of it at one time or another.

[Rongo]

Nice! I miss buying guns... It's been a while.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Nice! I miss buying guns... It's been a while.

I don't buy even a fraction of what I used to. Mostly I have all I wanted, and now it's just an odd bit here and there like the 870, or the LC Smith I just acquired. It gave me something to do for many years.

[Billy Bones]

I did most of my Mosin buying back when the refurbished Soviet 91/30 could be had for as little as $55

$55 what a deal! Best I ever saw in my neck of the woods was $89 back in 2010.

[Junk Yard Dog]

That would have been around 2006-2007, a time when Soviet refurb 91/30's as well as well issued examples from the Romanian hoard were plentiful, and cheap. $55 for any working firearm is a good deal, for a .30 rifle that's been refurbished to near new spec that uses easily obtainable ammo is a very good deal.

[Darryl]

Well, the last MOSIN I bough was in 2013.

It was a Tika M39 and I paid $217 including tax! I had to buy it! LOL
It came all in pieces. The owner was getting ready to refinish the stock!!!!!
He died and his wife sold it to the gun store. I just happened to be there at the time and the gun store guy paid $50 and sold it to me for $175. So, I bought it.
A pretty rare and hard to find Tika M39. Just had to screw it all back together! LOL

M39_tika_full.jpg

Tikka_B.jpg

Last firearm I bough was a Stroger coach shotgun in 20 Ga. this year (2021)

20 ga. Stoeger Supreme coach shotgun.
Blued and stainless steel.
High gloss AA stock with checkered stock and butt pad.
Single trigger
(no external hammers, I hate externals)

coach-gun-supreme-shotgun_3.png

Darryl

[Junk Yard Dog]

He took apart a rare Mosin to refinish it, then died before the act could be done. Seems there is a lesson there someplace.

I picked up a similar shotgun from one of our customers who bought it in the early 80's. Brazil IGA 12 gauge with all blued steel. The gun is in unfired condition, but has history. He owned a truck repair shop and a garbage hauling company back in the 1970's and early 80's, he once stuck the gun in the face of a mobbed up union organizer and offered to remove his head for threatening to cause labor problems if not paid off. He still smiles when he tells that story, especially the part were the man wet himself. He sold it to me when he realized that all the guns internals had locked up from rust and long disuse. No external rust, or bore rust, just a bit on the pins that cleaned up quickly enough once I had it apart.

[steelbuttplate]

Nice! I miss buying guns... It's been a while.

I'll sell you one if it will make you feel better

[millman]

Nice! I miss buying guns... It's been a while.

I'll sell you one if it will make you feel better

You're all heart.