So I decided to order one of the $110-125 mosin shooter grades that are all over the place these days. Mostly I was just curious to see what I'd get.
I've seen a few lately on websites and in person, and to be honest, MANY of the recent imports look to have been recently renumbered - that is to say, EP S/N's scrubbed off the bolts and the bolts re-numbered with stamps in a more modern arial font than what was available to the soviets in the 1970's and earlier. Don't mean to wear a tinfoil hat, but... reminds me of the recent 1949 SKS's imported with faked stock markings.
I was going to order from Westrifle, his prices are by far the best right now and he shows pics of every rifle on his website so there should be few surprises, BUT, the ordering process with an order form and no online credit card, etc. got me frustrated so I gave up and ordered one from SFRC instead. Nice smooth online transaction with a credit card and 5 minutes later I was in business. To be fair, I could have just called Westrifle and sorted it out, but I ordered on Canada Day and Westrifle wasn't open. I think it cost me an extra $15 to order from SFRC - peanuts.
Now the downside of ordering from SFRC is that you cannot specify very much - according to their description you can ask for a specific year and they promise to try to do their best, but no promises - make sense? I don't think you can even pick Izhevsk or Tula. I guess that's a function of how cheap they are and to be fair I haven't seen Mosins this cheap since Century brought them in back in 1997 or so. To be clear though, if you order from Westrifle, you will see pics of the exact rifle you are ordering, but then it would not be Mosin Roulette, now would it? The suspense is so much fun...
So when I ordered I had two minor request in the comments field in lieu of specifying a year. First I asked for a bolt with stamped matching numbers and WITH a cyrillic prefix. I asked for this because I have not seen a rifle with a potentially recent re-number with cyrillic letters on it. I also asked for as nice a bore as possible. I told them I didn't care what year it was or what factory it was made in.
Clearly SFRC really means it when they state you can only specify year since my rifle arrived with a bolt that has no cyrillic prefix and the bore was completely plugged with cosmolene. I've collected mosins for years and I'm thankfully certain that the bolt I got is in a proper Soviet 1950-1970 era font so despite it being renumbered and missing a cyrillic prefix, I believe it was a renumbered replacement from the Soviet refurb era and not some more recent tomfoolery.
The gun that arrived was a 1943 Izhevsk. In 1943, Izhevsk and Tula combined made 1,833,506 rifles. That's the seond-highest year of production exceeded only by 1942 when 2,873,697 were produced. It retains an original 1942 or 1943 era Izhevsk-made stock, which is more desirable to me than a post-war refurb replacement. It also retains what looks like darker wartime-era shellac on much of it. The only part with a lined-out previous number is the buttplate. The floorplate does not appear to be renumbered and has the cyrillic prefix, so I suspect it is not a replacement. Also the barrelled receiver does not appear to have been re-blued. There is wear on it on all the high points and most of it is sloppily dabbed in cheap black soviet paint. I do not believe it got re-blued at refurb. The bolt, as mentioned, is a scrubbed and re-numbered replacement but is era-appropriate with rough machining and it's all izhevsk. The rifle must be a late-1943 as the exposed parts of the receiver are not beaver-chewed meaning the pressure of the war had to have lessened for the Soviets to bother polishing the receiver.
Now for the best part. I was debating calling to ask why I didn't get a Cyrillic prefixed bolt, but I decided to run a patch through the bore to check it out first. I pushed out a LOOOOONG cosmolene worm to reveal what is at least the equal of the best mosin bore I have ever seen. It's pristine and looks nearly unfired. I have owned probably 35 or 40 mosins and this is the nicest bore I've ever owned on a Mosin, perhaps equalled only by a Finnish B-barrel M91 I have which is unissued. Must have guarded a bakery or something.
I'll be keeping it to use as a range shooter - the bore is just too nice to let it go, so for the el-cheapo price I paid, I really cannot complain AT ALL. I have no idea if the other guns at SFRC are as nice as this one, but it certainly worked out for me. It probably also helped that I didn;t specify a pre-war Tula like everyone else does
Sorry, but no pics tonight. It's disassembled and I forgot to take pics first. I'll snap some once it's de-cosmolened and back together when I'm back from a business trip on Friday or Saturday
I've seen a few lately on websites and in person, and to be honest, MANY of the recent imports look to have been recently renumbered - that is to say, EP S/N's scrubbed off the bolts and the bolts re-numbered with stamps in a more modern arial font than what was available to the soviets in the 1970's and earlier. Don't mean to wear a tinfoil hat, but... reminds me of the recent 1949 SKS's imported with faked stock markings.
I was going to order from Westrifle, his prices are by far the best right now and he shows pics of every rifle on his website so there should be few surprises, BUT, the ordering process with an order form and no online credit card, etc. got me frustrated so I gave up and ordered one from SFRC instead. Nice smooth online transaction with a credit card and 5 minutes later I was in business. To be fair, I could have just called Westrifle and sorted it out, but I ordered on Canada Day and Westrifle wasn't open. I think it cost me an extra $15 to order from SFRC - peanuts.
Now the downside of ordering from SFRC is that you cannot specify very much - according to their description you can ask for a specific year and they promise to try to do their best, but no promises - make sense? I don't think you can even pick Izhevsk or Tula. I guess that's a function of how cheap they are and to be fair I haven't seen Mosins this cheap since Century brought them in back in 1997 or so. To be clear though, if you order from Westrifle, you will see pics of the exact rifle you are ordering, but then it would not be Mosin Roulette, now would it? The suspense is so much fun...
So when I ordered I had two minor request in the comments field in lieu of specifying a year. First I asked for a bolt with stamped matching numbers and WITH a cyrillic prefix. I asked for this because I have not seen a rifle with a potentially recent re-number with cyrillic letters on it. I also asked for as nice a bore as possible. I told them I didn't care what year it was or what factory it was made in.
Clearly SFRC really means it when they state you can only specify year since my rifle arrived with a bolt that has no cyrillic prefix and the bore was completely plugged with cosmolene. I've collected mosins for years and I'm thankfully certain that the bolt I got is in a proper Soviet 1950-1970 era font so despite it being renumbered and missing a cyrillic prefix, I believe it was a renumbered replacement from the Soviet refurb era and not some more recent tomfoolery.
The gun that arrived was a 1943 Izhevsk. In 1943, Izhevsk and Tula combined made 1,833,506 rifles. That's the seond-highest year of production exceeded only by 1942 when 2,873,697 were produced. It retains an original 1942 or 1943 era Izhevsk-made stock, which is more desirable to me than a post-war refurb replacement. It also retains what looks like darker wartime-era shellac on much of it. The only part with a lined-out previous number is the buttplate. The floorplate does not appear to be renumbered and has the cyrillic prefix, so I suspect it is not a replacement. Also the barrelled receiver does not appear to have been re-blued. There is wear on it on all the high points and most of it is sloppily dabbed in cheap black soviet paint. I do not believe it got re-blued at refurb. The bolt, as mentioned, is a scrubbed and re-numbered replacement but is era-appropriate with rough machining and it's all izhevsk. The rifle must be a late-1943 as the exposed parts of the receiver are not beaver-chewed meaning the pressure of the war had to have lessened for the Soviets to bother polishing the receiver.
Now for the best part. I was debating calling to ask why I didn't get a Cyrillic prefixed bolt, but I decided to run a patch through the bore to check it out first. I pushed out a LOOOOONG cosmolene worm to reveal what is at least the equal of the best mosin bore I have ever seen. It's pristine and looks nearly unfired. I have owned probably 35 or 40 mosins and this is the nicest bore I've ever owned on a Mosin, perhaps equalled only by a Finnish B-barrel M91 I have which is unissued. Must have guarded a bakery or something.
I'll be keeping it to use as a range shooter - the bore is just too nice to let it go, so for the el-cheapo price I paid, I really cannot complain AT ALL. I have no idea if the other guns at SFRC are as nice as this one, but it certainly worked out for me. It probably also helped that I didn;t specify a pre-war Tula like everyone else does
Sorry, but no pics tonight. It's disassembled and I forgot to take pics first. I'll snap some once it's de-cosmolened and back together when I'm back from a business trip on Friday or Saturday
