New Owner of Inherited Russian Mosin

[Leanderth]

Hi all,

First time poster here. I inherited a partial Mosin from a dear old friend recently, who inherited it from his WWII veteran father. It includes the stock, barrel (nickel plated?), trigger & spring, handguard & bands, and sights.

This one is a little out of my wheelhouse and I don’t have much experience with Mosins, or older bolt-actions for that matter. I don’t know much about this one other than it appears to be a 1938 Russian stamped model.

I came here in hope that one of you more inloghtened folks would be able to give me the 101 on what have here, or had least point me in the right directions of resources that might inform me.

I would ultimately like to finish it correctly and entirely, but I’m not sure what exactly that looks like, where I might want to start, or if there’s anything I would want to be aware of before just buying replacement parts from Numerich or what not.

Any insight and advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you.

[millman]

It looks pretty shined up. Not what you want. It's not worthless, but it won't bring collector price. Is the stock good?

[steelbuttplate]

You can get parts from Liberty tree (above) and ebay as well. Don't try to refinish that, you can only make it look refinished. It's been rusty and somebody used a steel brush to clean it up. Does it have any import marks ? It will look cool enough put together.

[House Beagle]

Did the Russians ever nickel plate rifles for parade use? To me, it does have a nickel plated look to it, but I am far from an expert on the topic.

[steelbuttplate]

Did the Russians ever nickel plate rifles for parade use? To me, it does have a nickel plated look to it, but I am far from an expert on the topic.

I couldn't decide either but it's not into the date or serial number. Or it might have dirt over the nickel. If there are no import marks, then yea a bring back parade rifle could be.

[qz2026]

Doesn't look like nickel plating to me. It looks like someone has removed all the bluing, and used a wire wheel and buffer on it, at least the shank. The only way you can determine the finish on the metal is to test a cold blue on it. If nickel the blue won't take. And cold blue can be easily removed so as not to kill the history behind the gun. Anyway, this could be one of the Balkan rifles that was later "refurbished" by the Romanians in Cugir, Romania. Many of these rifles, for some reason, had the metal finish removed where ever they were used. This seems like a pretty extreme example of that though. I would have to see the entire rifle put together. By the looks of the s/n's (non matching) this is likely a Cugir refurb. But, for sure, they did not polish the metal as it appears to have been done with this one. That was done here I think. I am not recommending that you blue it though. For sure, don't mess with the stock. Leave it as it is. What is the bore condition?

[Darryl]

agree. Looks "polished".

Darryl

[Leanderth]

It looks pretty shined up. Not what you want. It's not worthless, but it won't bring collector price. Is the stock good?

Not too concerned about it monetary worth I suppose, just thought I would be neat to complete it for my own keepsake.

The stock seems good. It’s relatively clean with no cracks or apparent damage.

[House Beagle]

This is the only photo that has me possibly leaning towards some type of plated finish. You can see an area by the action screw hole where the “finish” looks to have been chipped away. And if you look at the handguard endcaps, there looks to be remnants of a shiny finish where it meets the wood.

This could just be the camera angle playing games with my mind, wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened lol.

OP, would you be able to confirm my second statement? Is there a shiny finish on the handguard endcaps?

[tomaustin]

just think about what it might have looked like before it was de-blued.....could have been a horror show.....may not be a collectable, but it was a gift and FREE.........................

[tomaustin]

and another thought--------not created for beauty------if it will shoot and kill you, that is exactly what it was designed to do......

[SA1911a1]

Doesn't look like nickel plating to me. It looks like someone has removed all the bluing, and used a wire wheel and buffer on it, at least the shank. The only way you can determine the finish on the metal is to test a cold blue on it. If nickel the blue won't take. And cold blue can be easily removed so as not to kill the history behind the gun. Anyway, this could be one of the Balkan rifles that was later "refurbished" by the Romanians in Cugir, Romania. Many of these rifles, for some reason, had the metal finish removed where ever they were used. This seems like a pretty extreme example of that though. I would have to see the entire rifle put together. By the looks of the s/n's (non matching) this is likely a Cugir refurb. But, for sure, they did not polish the metal as it appears to have been done with this one. That was done here I think. I am not recommending that you blue it though. For sure, don't mess with the stock. Leave it as it is. What is the bore condition?

I am glad that you mentioned the refurbished rifles. Somewhere around here I have an M-44 that had all of the bluing removed on the parts that showed, but under the stock the blue was still intact. It was to consistent to have been caused by normal wear, unless the rifle had been deployed inside a sand blaster.

[qz2026]

Doesn't look like nickel plating to me. It looks like someone has removed all the bluing, and used a wire wheel and buffer on it, at least the shank. The only way you can determine the finish on the metal is to test a cold blue on it. If nickel the blue won't take. And cold blue can be easily removed so as not to kill the history behind the gun. Anyway, this could be one of the Balkan rifles that was later "refurbished" by the Romanians in Cugir, Romania. Many of these rifles, for some reason, had the metal finish removed where ever they were used. This seems like a pretty extreme example of that though. I would have to see the entire rifle put together. By the looks of the s/n's (non matching) this is likely a Cugir refurb. But, for sure, they did not polish the metal as it appears to have been done with this one. That was done here I think. I am not recommending that you blue it though. For sure, don't mess with the stock. Leave it as it is. What is the bore condition?

I am glad that you mentioned the refurbished rifles. Somewhere around here I have an M-44 that had all of the bluing removed on the parts that showed, but under the stock the blue was still intact. It was to consistent to have been caused by normal wear, unless the rifle had been deployed inside a sand blaster.

Yeah, I've had a few of those in the past and still have one. That was the earmark of a Cugir "special" along with a non shellacked stock, non matching bolt and a lack of a cleaning rod. Many of them were not touched under the wood line like you say. And many of them had excellent bores.