The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

I thought you guys would be interested in seeing this. An all original, non refurbed, billboard stamped recent import has surfaced. Many of have never seen one, many believed that one did not exist, but low and behold one has surfaced. Pictures are from photobucket, so everyone should be able to view them.
http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread. ... -the-hunt)

I was looking at that. I wonder what it's story is.

Nobody knows exactly were Molot is getting these rifles from except that they are from inside Russia. This could be one that slipped through without getting a makeover first. As for the parts matching, that is not unusual considering the tens of millions of rifles Izhevsk made, I have more than one with all Izhevsk parts, even one with all Tula, and they were that way right out of the box.

I would like to see the stamp on the tang myself.

Doesn't the rear sight being pinned mean it went through at least some refurbishment program?

bcposton wrote:Doesn't the rear sight being pinned mean it went through at least some refurbishment program?

I think by 43 the pins were standard operating procedure on new rifles.

A lot of guys in that thread are saying that they have or have seen/passed on rifles like that. I think there is some confusion as to exactly how uncommon this rifle is. Once again, IMO people may be mistaking non-lined out or non-EP'd forced matched numbers on refurbs for original matching.

Possibly because the serial numbers are analyzed by collectors so heavily that the tiniest variation in font styles determines whether it matches, or really matches, or really really really matches. In the case of this rifle even the timing of the stock stamps in relation to the application of the shellac appears to be known.

I love that serial number font examination business, Bubba Ivan is stamping a rifle, he leaves to take a piss, comes back and picks up a different stamp from the one he set down, finished stamping the rifle, and a mystery is born 70 years later

Junk Yard Dog wrote:I love that serial number font examination business, Bubba Ivan is stamping a rifle, he leaves to take a piss, comes back and picks up a different stamp from the one he set down, finished stamping the rifle, and a mystery is born 70 years later

Problem is on 99% of them, they have a font that was not even made until either the 50's of 60's. I guess Ivan could have gone out for a drink and went on a binder and came back in the 60's and finished stamping the rifle! ...Mystery solved!

Could be the rifle just rattled around in the armory until he came back. That would explain the minor bangs and bumps from it being moved around for 20 plus years!

This rifle looks like it have very little uses (or was far away from the war?) and didn't need to be refurbished. But that would only be a guess, just like the rest of them are.

Dolk

Thanks for sharing... This is how us new Guys learn...