Stainless M44

[Lar22]

I bought this M44 years back but haven't been able to find another one like it. Any information will be greatly appreciated.

[Junk Yard Dog]

OK, the Soviets never made a stainless steel M44. ever. What this is would be a chrome plated M44 done by a bunch of Bubba's over at Classic arms a decade or more ago. The outfit changed hands at some point so the current owners are not responsible for this sort of crap. They took a perfectly good Soviet refurbished M44 and had it chrome plated to sell to the Bubbas who just love bling. They did hundreds of them like this so you will see others like it from time to time. No collector would pay M44 price for this of course as this sort of modification can't be undone. Maybe someone who wants a rifle for a boat, or who lives in a high humidity and salt environment would use one. There was a stink about these at the time, and many negative comments on collector boards like this one. I am sure it cost Classic some business from Mosin purists and other milsurp collectors, many of whom would frown on this sort of behavior from a milsurp dealer. So far as I know it was only Classic who did it, even Mitchel's Mausers didn't go this far.

[WeldonHunter]

OK, the Soviets never made a stainless steel M44. ever. What this is would be a chrome plated M44 done by a bunch of Bubba's over at Classic arms a decade or more ago. The outfit changed hands at some point so the current owners are not responsible for this sort of crap. They took a perfectly good Soviet refurbished M44 and had it chrome plated to sell to the Bubbas who just love bling. They did hundreds of them like this so you will see others like it from time to time. No collector would pay M44 price for this of course as this sort of modification can't be undone. Maybe someone who wants a rifle for a boat, or who lives in a high humidity and salt environment would use one. There was a stink about these at the time, and many negative comments on collector boards like this one. I am sure it cost Classic some business from Mosin purists and other milsurp collectors, many of whom would frown on this sort of behavior from a milsurp dealer. So far as I know it was only Classic who did it, even Mitchel's Mausers didn't go this far.

Jim I remember those days back when Classic had all their inventory on the front page and used to have wrestling updates and sold pink lawn flamingos and did this type of crap. They were chroming all kinds of stuff. They also had mystery shipping if you remember. They wouldn't tell how much it was to ship something until you bought it. Here's a few AK's that got listed on our site back before my time.
https://gun-deals.com/deals/5151-romani ... pup-chrome
https://gun-deals.com/deals/5186-hard-c ... r-10-ak-47

[tomaustin]

Lar 22,

sorry for the rain dumped on your parade....
with the history of millions or so mosins that were produced, it is no wonder that many got bubba'd by people who should have known better....

it is unique....it has a history....enjoy it for what it is.....

[steelbuttplate]

$ 250

[Lar22]

Thanks for the information guys. They did a pretty good job. It's scratched at the tip of the barrel where the bayonet latches on and you can't see different metal below. Crap or not, now I know. I just bought it because it caught my eye.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Thanks for the information guys. They did a pretty good job. It's scratched at the tip of the barrel where the bayonet latches on and you can't see different metal below. Crap or not, now I know. I just bought it because it caught my eye.

One of the things we thought would happen years back was that one day these would be bought by new collectors who would think they found an honor guard rifle or something. Hopefully you didn't overpay for it , but it still is a functional firearm, at least I think so. We never had anyone who bought one on the board to report back on it's performance. Check the headspace, the plating process, if done properly, will have added a measurable layer of plating to the bolt face and the locking area inside the receiver. This may have tightened up the headspace a bit. Also a layer of chrome inside the chamber may complicate things. The cheap price they sold for back then has me suspecting the chrome plate is a fly by night special job, like the plating on Korean war era car bumpers in 1950. Thin with little to no preparation done to the steel under it, lets hope so, you will at least then have an M44 you can reliably fire.

[Lar22]

I started looking at the barrel to see the "chrome" and discovered TGI Knox TN M44 7.62x54 RUSSIA stamped on it. I did a little googling and discovered the article below.

https://archive.knoxnews.com/business/f ... 4981.html/

[Junk Yard Dog]

2011, yes, they were the original outfit that imported this batch of M44's in from Ukraine, probably around 9-10 years or more before that article was written. They would then have sold them to outfits like Classic Arms, Aim, and so on. It was Classic that decided to chrome them at a time when a regular blued M44 Soviet refurbished carbine was around a hundred bucks or less. There was also a huge number of them available on the surplus market at the time, Classic was probably looking for a way to move some out quicker. Had they known one day these M44's without the chrome would be selling for 400-600 each I am sure they would have sat on more of them to sell unmolested at a later date.

[tomaustin]

hindsight being what it is, it is called marketing.....

it pisses off the purists, but when 25,000 of them come through your door, moving them to your customers becomes a serious motive......free up your $$$ and move them out the door........

[Lar22]

I understand where you guys are coming from. And I'm glade you guys take pride in your work. I don't have the answers and that's why I ask. I don't mean to be stubborn but can you look at the pictures I attached and confirm it's been chromed. I have to admit I don't know how things get chromed but I always believed its like paint and if you scratch it it will flake off. To me this looks like polished metal. I'm thinking of finding someone that can test the metal to confirm, or do you think its a waste of time and money? Again I apologize for coming back to this subject.

[WeldonHunter]

I understand where you guys are coming from. And I'm glade you guys take pride in your work. I don't have the answers and that's why I ask. I don't mean to be stubborn but can you look at the pictures I attached and confirm it's been chromed. I have to admit I don't know how things get chromed but I always believed its like paint and if you scratch it it will flake off. To me this looks like polished metal. I'm thinking of finding someone that can test the metal to confirm, or do you think its a waste of time and money? Again I apologize for coming back to this subject.

Looking at the first pictures it's hard to tell if it was chromed or just had the blue removed and or was polished but these pictures look more like it's just had the blue removed and possibly polished. I have an SKS that's a Yugo Serbian Ceremonial M59-66a1 that has chromed parts on it. The bolt, the magazine well, gas tube and bayonet were chromed by either the Yugoslavians or the Serbs. Chroming done right does look different than polished unblued metal. You can see the difference between the M59-66a1 at the top and the M59 below it. the M59 has a bare metal bolt which is polished compared to the M59-66a1.

[Lar22]

The second picture looks really nice. You can see they did a good job on it. If the blueing was removed and polished. Wouldn't it rust? I've had this gun for about 20 yrs and there isn't a speck of rust. I took it out and shot it when I first bought it and it shoots nice won't jam or misfire or anything like that.

[WeldonHunter]

The second picture looks really nice. You can see they did a good job on it. If the blueing was removed and polished. Wouldn't it rust? I've had this gun for about 20 yrs and there isn't a speck of rust. I took it out and shot it when I first bought it and it shoots nice won't jam or misfire or anything like that.

Keep in mind those pictures aren't the best. I took them in a hurry when I got them just to have a record. They're also still covered in grease. Rust is a funny thing. It shows up when you least expect it and other times doesn't. Even though the bluing may have been removed the metal under it still retains some of the properties the bluing affords. If there's even a slight coating of grease on the metal that in itself may stop any rust that's visible to the naked eye from forming. Sometimes there's rust but it can't be seen is my point. I see this taking photos of some of my rifles. They look fine but in certain light when taking pictures you can see there's actually rust there. Plus bluing is essentially a form of rust. I have older rifles that for one reason or another have little to no blue on them and because I wipe everything down with CLP they have no visible rust but it's there. I live in Louisiana where it tends to be fairly humid and for years had all my rifles out on racks on the walls around the house and none of them ever rusted. The humidity in the house could get to 70% or more too. Now they're all in safes with desiccant cans and florescent lights I use to raise the temp slightly. The humidity in them ranges from low 40% to as much as 60% on real humid days and no rust. I attribute this mainly to having them all lightly coated with CLP. The key to stopping rust is not leaving finger prints first and foremost because the oils in fingerprints contain salt which attracts moisture which forms rust. The other thing is wiping them down with a good preservative oil to keep moisture from attaching itself to anything and to stop Oxygen from getting to anything that might cause rust.

This is what the Ceremonial SKS rifles look like cleaned up with no grease on them. Mine still has the grease on it so I don't have to oil it. I've never shot it and don't plan too.

[Lar22]

They look awesome. From the picture I can tell they have a mirror finish while mine has a frosty dull look to it.

[Lar22]

I just came back from visiting a local metal recycler. I took to them since they deal with metals day in and day out. He said it was stainless steal. I told him some friends of mine were thinking it was chromed or polished metal because they don't make this model gun in stainless. He said it was definitely "stainless". I guess I'll add a line to my bucket list and get a metallurgical test done on it for documentation some day. I fell in love with this gun the first time I laid eyes on it. It's not going to change anything since I never planned on selling it being an Ugly Duckling or a Golden Goose. Thanks for all the information provided. It helped me take a closer look at things. I think this is a great forum for beginners like myself and expert collectors!

[millman]

It could be hardchromed or electroless nickel plated. In my experience as a machinist having parts plated, neither of these finishes is as shiny as Decorative Chrome. Stick a magnet to it. If it doesn't stick it is stainless. If it does stick, it could be 400 series stainless, but the fact that it is an M44 tells me it's not stainless.

https://hcsplating.com/resources/hard-c ... ve-chrome/

https://waykenrm.com/blogs/hard-chrome- ... l-plating/

[Lar22]

This is making sense to me now. I liked the part on "How To Polish Chrome Plating?" since the receiver on my gun looks to have been polished. Chromed it is. Thank you!