The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

This past weekend I found a Hungarian M44 on line that intrigued me, it appeared to be well used and showed signs of possibly having seen Romanian Military service. What really caught my attention was the shield painted on L/H side of the butt stock with the letters PTTR in the center. A little research showed that PTTR in Rom
ania stood for Posta Telefon Telegraf Radio, ( Postal, Telephone, Telegraph, Radio, the former name of the Romanian Postal services). The reserve was very reasonable so I decided to go ahead and buy it.

It arrived today and so far everything I have seen about this rifle appears to bear out my conclusion that this rifle made it’s way to Romania. The rifle is a mixture of Hungarian , ( stock barreled action, stock trim), and Polish ( bolt & mag housing) parts. The bolt & mag housing have been lined out with an EP, the mag housing was EP’ed to match the rifle, while the cocking knob was EP’ed to another rifle. The stock has been heavly sanded and coated with a heavy layer of shellac similar to another Romanian M44 in my collection. I am still working on trying to find out if the PTTR on the stock any connection to the Romanian Posta Telefon Telegraf Radio.

If anyone has seen this mark before and has any info on it they care to share feel free to post it up.

That's a unique mark so if there are more out there they should be easy to find. That said, I have never seen any that look even close to that.

Are there any other things that stand out?

keep us updated on what you find, the obscure use of these rifles is very interesting.

I was watching that one and really digging it's unique look. Very cool Mosin to say the least.

Very nice and very unique too.

That's awesome. Congratulations.

I almost bid on that because of the mark on it I really liked it too. But I wasn't 100 percent sure that it wasn't the work of bubba or something (It absolutely didn't really look like it and you seem to have found a great explanation that I couldn't from my googling when it was still for auction) and I also just really didn't have the money to spare. If it does mean what you've found and I'm sure it does it may be a real gem. It's a nice rifle and enjoy.

Hey is the circle 88 on the magazine pictured a hungarian marking? I have a magazine with a circle 88 on it and have never found where it's from. Also my polish m44 has the mk prefix...perhaps the bolt is polish?

Ok my bad you said the bolt already and mag housing, so circle 88 is polish?

Unique and interesting piece Miller. The Romanian connection might be further understood by looking at the "line out", actual scribbling out of the old s/n on the magazine floor plate. Haven't seen that one before, thus I, for no other reason than speculation, blame it on the Romanians. I've seen the heavy shellac coatings on more than one Romanian M-44 too.

Imagine arming the postal service here Ughhhhhh Of course, virtually every other government agency is armed to the teeth, perhaps the Postal Inspectors are too

Nice find, mailing a letter must be an interesting experience in Romania.

qz2026 wrote:Unique and interesting piece Miller. The Romanian connection might be further understood by looking at the "line out", actual scribbling out of the old s/n on the magazine floor plate. Haven't seen that one before, thus I, for no other reason than speculation, blame it on the Romanians. I've seen the heavy shellac coatings on more than one Romanian M-44 too.

Imagine arming the postal service here Ughhhhhh Of course, virtually every other government agency is armed to the teeth, perhaps the Postal Inspectors are too

US postal inspectors are fully armed law enforcement officers, they investigate crimes involving the postal service , it's facilities and employees.

That is very interesting. That is a "fun" thing to have for sure. Great find!

Very neat extra on that one.

Could you imagine issuing rifles to our Post Office employees!

Very interesting rifle for sure! You'll have to let us know if you find out anything more about the PTTR shield logo. I tried doing some searches last night, image matching etc but didn't wind up with anything other than what you already said. Have to love a good mystery!

Gives new meaning to the phrase "going postal".

Interesting rifle!

Looks like another one has surfaced with the PTTR logo on the butt stock, this one a abused Polish M44.