Need advice on picking out of a crate

[Chrome Moly Vampire]

Something sucks, but I don't think it's a 91/30 refurb.

[Rongo]

What the heck guys!?!?!

Should we go back in time to the arsenals, grab all those fine guns as they are getting packed into crates for the very first time & transport them to 2013 to please you???? there you go... Collect that!

No; the reality is there are a very few examples such as that available in the market today... Let alone available at a price that your average John Q. Public can afford. For the beginning collector a refurb at Gander Mountain is the big time & very special. A good way to sink their teeth into the Milsurp world & then aspire to move on to the real gems if the budget allows. We see a lot of new collectors who get taken with these & they have a budget to match the disease... It helps explain how they have no trouble dropping a Grand on a nice original & yes; NON-REFURB on Gunbroker. I wish I had that kind of budget... But I don't.

This conversation makes no sense... If it were an argument about Bacon, and only the best quality cuts of bacon were proper to eat & that Hormel pack you bought on sale at the local Piggly Wiggly isn't worthy to feed to your Dog. Ludicrous!

A Non-refurb is preferred of course... Everyone can agree on that. But an Arsenal Refurbished rifle in it's unaltered state as it came out of the salt mines is a sensible & affordable alternative to collectors on a budget... Like me.

[Rongo]

90% or better of all US service weapons are refurbished one or many times. Uncle Sam believed in keeping the weapons in top operating condition and spared no expense. The slightest wear and the barrel was replaced, the stock, and any other part that got worn, or banged around. Only the countries that received US rifles as aid did shit like counterboring, or sanding down stocks.

Hate to disagree with you JYD but replacement stocks for M1 carbines, M1 Garands and M14s were made oversized. We were taught at Armorers school and the TMs also stated that it was expected to sand those stocks down three times during refurbishment. During three different rebuilds of course. Sometimes when looking at a forced match I wonder how many rifles went TO the refurb shop with matching numbers. I remember sorting through tubs of solvent filled with M2 parts where the parts of 8-10 M2 Brownings were all dumped together for cleaning.

Is there a disagreement here??? I'm not seeing one.

you state that replacement stocks are made oversized & you sanded them down. As did the aid receiving Countries. Wouldn't it be prudent from the Military's standpoint to make replacement stocks oversized for proper fitting?

[walnut red]

Maybe I misunderstood FYD. I thougth he was saying that dinged up wooden stocks were simply replaced on US rifles. I was pointing out that sanding and refinishing was an acceptable part of repair at Ordnance level.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Our side sanded wood when the damage was superficial, but we didn't go to the sort of extent that the commies did. Extensive wood repairs, sanding stocks down to a tooth pick, splicing stocks together. No country on earth had the repair budgets or facilities as was available to the US military in the 20th century. The commies had labor to spare, part of the commie system is a job for everybody, even if it pays two cents an hour, so for them endless hours spend patching stocks together was acceptable. Their system of government simply didn't generate the financial resources that ours did, we could afford things like new barrels, and stocks, or any other part deemed needing replacement. How many Soviet refurb 91/30's have been spotted with a brand new replacement barrel? You do sometimes find new stocks on a Soviet refurb, but repaired older stocks are far more common. The matching numbers crap is a European thing we never adopted, some purist ( anal retentive) Garand collectors can be seen combing parts bins trying to find part drawing numbers that would be of the same month as the one on their Garands receiver. The arsenals never built them that way in the first place, no matter when the part was made it was used when it was needed, right then, or a year later. No matching numbers made the job of rebuilding the rifles easier, and faster, all that mattered was that everything was in spec.

[soylentblue]

Here's the story: only one hex in the crate and I pulled the #2 pick. I grabbed a Tula with a pre-war stock, which is the first Tula for me, so that is something.
Sadly, despite my best efforts to educate others - I think the other rifles are all gonna be bubba'd.

[Junk Yard Dog]

[bunkysdad]

It is sad for sure. One only has to visit other forums, not necessarily milsurp, but rather shooting or hunting forums, and Facebook to see just how alive Bubba is. And Bubba will devour every milsurp he can get ahold of.

[Darryl]

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You can't save every Mosin, just the one you own.

It they are "permanently" altering them:
They are taking a $150 plus rifle (+ or -) and turning it into a $100 (-) rifle with $300 worth of "after market parts" added on.


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