Ex-PEM thoughts

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Webley No.5

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Rural Alberta/Calgary
Recently I got a mosin in a package deal. Sold as an ex PEM. I know a bit about mosins and googling but there are a few oddities about this rifle. I was told it came here in the crate without the screw holes plugged, which is not weird in itself but on closer inspection it has the 4 holes and two plugged holes (one pictured, the other is half covered by the wood at the forward end of the cut out (tried to picture it but doesn’t really show up). The plugged holes look the proper distance apart for a Pem as well the drilled holes are proper distance. The weird thing is the front plugged hole is partially covered by the stock. So one of two things happened. One someone bought this rifle and decided to make a Faux Pem sniper and re-drilled it but missed the plugs by like 1/2in. Also the front two holes (for screw and pin) are the same size I’m guessing accidentally drilled with the same bit and they go all the way through is this normal for a PEM(The bolt head is visible when locked through the holes)My issue with this theory is the reliefs in the stock don’t look recent to me so I believe it to be a true PEM stock but that means it should match the plugged holes and it doesn’t. Option two during the rush to build rifles in 1942 the gun was miss drilled and the plugged and re drilled to be a sniper. Looking for thoughts from people who know more about PEMs then me.

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I know of a rare Tula 42 PEM ex-sniper with plugged holes .Shoots 3/4" with irons at 100 yards with Chinese ball.Only a few thousand made and the real year and model used by the famous Russian sniper.
 
55recce said:
The edges of the holes look too new to me to be original. I am voting for bubba not Ivan on this one.
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Or they could have had the threads cleaned up with a tap after eh weld was cleared up. The ex sniper rifles I've come across, including one in my safe, all have the remnants of screws, with the tops ground off and welded lightly.

I've removed some of these screws by very carefully and painfully using a carbide peen around the holes and drilling the screws as close to the threads as possible, while still leaving enough material for an easy out to be applied. Once the hole has been drilled through the screws, it's relatively easy to remove the left over weld material on the outside of the receiver. Then the holes need to have a tap run through them to clean them up.

Or, as you say, maybe someone tried to add an aftermarket PE scope and mount.
 
I agree the holes look fresh. What I’m trying to decide is if the drilled holes are in the correct location and why there is still two plugged holes in the gun. It seems strange to me to go to the work of drilling holes (which are correctly spaced) but to completely miss the plugs by that much. If someone drilled holes for a PU mount in it I could dismiss it as ignorance. So I’m wondering if this gun was miss drilled when made, plugged and redrilled properly, sent out as a sniper, refurbed with the holes plugged before coming over here where someone drilled out the correct plugs. I’m just wondering if anyone has seen an ex sniper or a true sniper that has plugged holes in the wrong location. At this point I’m more just interested in this rifles story then the value.
 
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