My possible non refurbs (thoughts)

[srtjeeplover95]

Hello,

I have a 1943 Izhevsk I bought last year that I paid $200 for. Seems to be all matching except the floorplate. Has the stock stamp as well.

I also have a 1946 m44 I bought last year that I paid $300 for. Seems to be all matching expect the bolt. Has a nice patina to it as well. It has the date 1946 stamped on very faint. Number is also stamped on the stock?

Can anyone shed some light on these guys if they are non refurbs or refurbs?

Thanks alot! Hope you all are having an amazing week!

-Chris

[Rongo]

Nice Rifles!

The Soviet Union was a Communist Country... They had plenty of "Make Work" programs & one of them was Arsenal refurbishment. So yes; Yours mine, his, hers & them Thar Mosin Nagants saw at least one refurb along the way.

The guns were disassembled, parts were put in piles, parts were "RE-furbished" & went back together on the other end of the plant. Some small parts were RE-Stamped to match, sometimes they were elecrto-penciled & sometimes they were re-assembled with no effort to match parts whatsoever.

So there it is; Your rifles have a 96.73487% chance they are NOT wearing the parts they were born with & they Were Re-Furbished. That's how it is & there is nothing wrong with that.

Enjoy them!

[cleanneon98]

Agree with above. The chances of finding a non refurb Russian Mosin are very slim, I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve never actually seen or held one in the flesh. Nearly all of these rifles were serviced/refurbished in some capacity

[srtjeeplover95]

Nice Rifles!

The Soviet Union was a Communist Country... They had plenty of "Make Work" programs & one of them was Arsenal refurbishment. So yes; Yours mine, his, hers & them Thar Mosin Nagants saw at least one refurb along the way.

The guns were disassembled, parts were put in piles, parts were "RE-furbished" & went back together on the other end of the plant. Some small parts were RE-Stamped to match, sometimes they were elecrto-penciled & sometimes they were re-assembled with no effort to match parts whatsoever.

So there it is; Your rifles have a 96.73487% chance they are NOT wearing the parts they were born with & they Were Re-Furbished. That's how it is & there is nothing wrong with that.

Enjoy them!

I sure will! I love all vintage German, Soviet, Japanese and US firearms.

I wonder if there is any world war 2 bring backs that are original... Like ones that a USGI got off of a German who took it off of a Soviet fighting in Berlin in the final days??

[Junk Yard Dog]

The only way I can think of that you might get a Mosin that hasn't been refurbished is if you got it from the Finland batch. This is because when the USSR attacked Finland in the winter of 1939 some of the Soviet troops would have had newly issued rifles, or slightly older rifles that hadn't yet seen way. During the three month war that followed tiny Finland would hand the Soviets their asses reputedly, and then police up all the dropped rifles and other weapons. Sometimes due to the huge volume of captured weapons not all saw a major refurb by the Finn's, or maybe saw no use at all before being sold for surplus many years later. Maybe only the SA stamp got on them, or a minor sight blade upgrade, but not a major overhaul, many rifles did get the full treatment of course. Then we have Spain, and the lovely few years of savagery the call their civil war. During these exciting times to be in Spain the USSR provided military aid to the Nationalist side who encompassed the Spanish communists. They very decisively lost , and the winning Fascist side picked up all these dropped Mosins and while they did use some, most ended up being sold as surplus here in the 1950's and 60's . Sometimes not a lot was done to these rifles despite their badly needing attention. These would be the 1936, 1937 dated Mosins that came right from the factory's. Some might mention North Korea, North Vietnam, and various other garden spots that received Mosins as Soviet aid during the Cold War, but these would have mostly been refurbished WW2 arms.

More information on your rifles is needed, do they have import marks on them? These would be up by the muzzle in tiny letters, or in a big banner on the receiver, assuming you are in the USA were such is required. Any SA stamps, D stamps on the receiver or barrel shank? How about " made in ussr" or " made in URRS" stamps? Something looks off about that M44 stock, the shine, the color, has this been refinished on this side of the pond? I am noting thin, possibly worn bluing on at least one of the others, the one with the little repair in front of the magazine housing. It's hard for me to tell much from these pictures, cell phone camera? I just can't make out detail.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I can see the dates are 40's, not the Winter War or Spain. It is possible that they were captured during the Continuation war 1941-44, but remote unless clearly marked with Finnish property stamps and typical Finn style refurbishment.

[srtjeeplover95]

The only way I can think of that you might get a Mosin that hasn't been refurbished is if you got it from the Finland batch. This is because when the USSR attacked Finland in the winter of 1939 some of the Soviet troops would have had newly issued rifles, or slightly older rifles that hadn't yet seen way. During the three month war that followed tiny Finland would hand the Soviets their asses reputedly, and then police up all the dropped rifles and other weapons. Sometimes due to the huge volume of captured weapons not all saw a major refurb by the Finn's, or maybe saw no use at all before being sold for surplus many years later. Maybe only the SA stamp got on them, or a minor sight blade upgrade, but not a major overhaul, many rifles did get the full treatment of course. Then we have Spain, and the lovely few years of savagery the call their civil war. During these exciting times to be in Spain the USSR provided military aid to the Nationalist side who encompassed the Spanish communists. They very decisively lost , and the winning Fascist side picked up all these dropped Mosins and while they did use some, most ended up being sold as surplus here in the 1950's and 60's . Sometimes not a lot was done to these rifles despite their badly needing attention. These would be the 1936, 1937 dated Mosins that came right from the factory's. Some might mention North Korea, North Vietnam, and various other garden spots that received Mosins as Soviet aid during the Cold War, but these would have mostly been refurbished WW2 arms.

More information on your rifles is needed, do they have import marks on them? These would be up by the muzzle in tiny letters, or in a big banner on the receiver, assuming you are in the USA were such is required. Any SA stamps, D stamps on the receiver or barrel shank? How about " made in ussr" or " made in URRS" stamps? Something looks off about that M44 stock, the shine, the color, has this been refinished on this side of the pond? I am noting thin, possibly worn bluing on at least one of the others, the one with the little repair in front of the magazine housing. It's hard for me to tell much from these pictures, cell phone camera? I just can't make out detail.

Those are amazing things to know! Thank you so much for the info! I learned alot! And yes it's a phone camera. Let me take some photos in the next few days with my nice camcorder I have.

They are both import marked on the end of the barrel. No SA marks and I don't see the typical square refurb mark on either. The m44 has something weird on the other side of the stock. Like looks like a Russian newspaper on it??? Also the number is stamped on the other side

The 91/30 is a 1943

And the m44 is a 1946

[Longcolt44]

You have a nice start to a collection there.

[srtjeeplover95]

You have a nice start to a collection there.

Thank you! I stepped away from the hobby a while. Getting back into it. Sold a lot of things but still have a lot of my good stuff

[Hesus]

Some nice looking rifles you have there.

[bunkysdad]

I agree jeeplover, you do have some nice rifles. Good to see you investigating them and learning what you can. They are very often great shooters so I hope you get the chance to shoot them soon.