44 Izhevsk Sniper / Yugo rebuild / Showcase submission

[Miller Tyme]

I picked this on up from Samco a couple of years back, it's a 1944 Izhevsk PU sniper that was rebuilt by the Yugoslavian Army at Vojna Radionica 124, (Military Workshop 124) and is stamped /BP124\ on the butstock. It is a mix master but the finish on all the parts is of the high quality the Yugo's are known for. The scope I found for it is a Progress Mfg and the mount and base are Izhevsk. It came with the screws, lense cover, canvas scope cover, and the arsenal inspection paperwork that show in 1957 it was reworked by arsenal # /25\ and was last inspected in 1976.

[desdem12]

Very nice Yes from me

[martin08]

After you have this immortalized in the Showcase, can you sell it to me?

[Junk Yard Dog]

[Miller Tyme]

After you have this immortalized in the Showcase, can you sell it to me?

LMAO. sorry Matt, unless I can find one of the early all matching ones this one will just have to stay here......

[Dan4good]

[Brian the Brit]

NICE

[evildog]

[Three_Dogs]

[Marcus]

Nice looking rifle. The "BP/124" marked ones are particularly scarce and desirable, as only a very few of these Yugo issue PU rifles have this marking. Of the 20 Yugo issue PU rifles, still in their original crates (interestingly, the crates are WW2 German made and marked for the PU sniper rifle, with Croatian paperwork or documentation attached to them) that I bought from Samco when these rifles were first imported, only one had the Yugo arsenal cartouche. I did pick up another exceptionally nice one with the BP/124 marking a few years ago, which I re-scoped using all correct original items. I sold that one to "Vlad" over at Gunboards a year or so back, and another Gunboards member "Father Anderson The Paladin" got it from him several months ago. I think there are about a half-dozen other collectors who were lucky enough to get one of these. There were also a few in with the scopeless Yugo PU snipers Century sold a few years ago, of course these rifles were generally in much lesser condition than the Samco rifles

I wouldn't call this one a "mix master", as technically it is all Yugo issue correct and matching except the floorplate. The bolt has been renumbered to match by the Yugoslavians (which is proper and correct for these rifles), but the buttplate is original matching. Is the stock also stamped matching under the buttplate?

The Izhevsk mount and base are nice touches - many people use incorrect post-war Soviet era bases and mounts on these, or worse yet replica bases and mounts. Of course, original Izhevsk bases are pretty difficult to find, so it is at least understandable why some folks have to resort to post-war Soviet or current replica bases. An additional nice thing about the mount is that it doesn't have any incorrect post-war Soviet refurb electropenciling on it, like many mounts one sees.

The scope, with its Cold War era inspection papers, WW2 SVT-40 canvas scope cover, and WW2 leather lens caps, is also pretty cool. However, a post-war inspected or refurbished scope with the inspection paperwork and the post-war Soviet "triangle/25 with Cyrillic letter L" inspection marking is not really correct or proper for this rifle, but is light years ahead of a current production/replica PU scope. More than 99 out of a hundred people would never notice this anyhow, and the 1943 B-series "Progress" scope is in the same serial number range as the original scope and from the same manufacturer. Still, if a similarly nice scope with no post-war Soviet markings came along at the right price, you might consider picking it up and upgrading this rifle with it.

Now you need a Yugoslavian brown leather Mauser sling with the mushroom head stud buttons on each end to complete returning this rifle to "Yugoslavian as issued and used" condition and configuration. Proper cleaning kit for this would be the Yugo Mauser cleaning kit, either with the Yugo round 2 compartment brass oiler or with a Soviet early style 2 compartment rectangular oiler.

For those who would like to see a completely original and intact Yugo issue PU rifle from around 40 years ago, check out the old Clint Eastwood movie "Kelly's Heros". This film was made in Yugoslavia in the early 1970's, and featured WW2 weapons, uniforms, and vehicles straight out of JNA (Jugoslavian National Army) inventory, with the JNA as the background cast. The real star of this movie is a Yugo issue Mosin PU sniper rifle that is carried by one of the American soldiers in the film. Lots of folks who don't know any better like to point this out as an error in the film (which is set in France), but actually large numbers of captured Mosin sniper rifles were used by elite German Army and Waffen SS forces in Russia, the Balkans, France, and in the Reich itself, and there are a few known and document examples that were captured from German forces in France. So some wheeling-dealing front line U.S. soldier acquiring one of these rifles in the early stages of the U.S. invasion of Europe is totally believable and correct.

[Rongo]

Great looking Submission MT & great info Marcus. While not a complete original Per Se, It is still an excellent completion & about as correct as one could possibly get to putting this back to a correct configuration. Great work! Although I'm not personally into the PU Sniper (Since my budget does not allow it) seeing these fine examples makes me want to take out a loan or something. And great plug on the Movie "Kelly's Heroes"... Just watched it the other day.

[Rongo]

On the Showcase.

[TulaTom]