91/30 Mosin laminate stocks

Claven2 said:
I think you got that backwards...?
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It's very possible that I do. When I first started to pick up Mosins there wasn't a lot available that I found to be acceptable. When International first started to bring them in, they seemed only able to access Fair to Good condition rifles. Rusty, pitted bores, deep counterbores, heavily worn stocks etc. No markings to indicate it but they looked a lot like drill purpose firearms that had been ridden hard and put away wet.

I was lucky in that I had the opportunity to search through a few thousand and cherry pick the shipment. What it came down to was picking the rifles with the best stocks because that's all there was to really choose from. About 3 years later another shipment came in. These rifles were much better all around and all had very good bores/stocks/finish. Ammo still wasn't readily available but the rifles were nice. No laminates though. I should mention all of these rifles, other than maybe a dozen were M91/30s. The exceptions were M91s. It wasn't until the third shipment arrived that we say any M38s and no M44s. This was over a five year period and this started around 50 years ago.

Since then, we went through several shipments of varying quality. Of course ammo became available albeit commercial and relatively expensive. Sometime in the nineties a lot changed in Canada as far as governments and new legislation/regulations went. International moved its import warehousing to Virginia and basically shut down its Canadian warehouse other than in a very limited manner. Now, everything we get comes through the US first. Most of what we see now is about as good as it gets other than some very specialized stuff.

The stuff I had access to was of course limited by the time laminated stocked Mosins started to show up. I saw a lot of laminated M91/30 rifles. The M38s were never in large supply so I think that is where you're coming from??? The thing is, I saw a larger percentage of M38s with laminated stocks than M91/30s. I don't recall ever seeing M91s with laminated stocks.

I am only commenting on what I have personally seen. I learned a long time ago my knowledge is limited and that just about anything is possible when it comes to milsurps.
 
I agree there are TONS of M38's out there with laminate socks, but the stocks themselves are M44 stocks put an an M38 at refurb. Most M38 stocks I see that are laminate and NOT M44 wood, are made of beech and are wartime - those stocks are quite rare.
 
Cost saving. All SVT refurbished stocks are either sanded and repaired issued stocks or NOS stock manufactured in excess up to and including 1945. That's why so many 1944 stocks and even 1945 marked stocks are more common than 1945 rifles. Also consider when SVT was refurbished in 60x IIRC Soviets already had AK-47 in army, zillions of SKSs for second line troops, so SVTs were of the lowest priority, bottom of the barrel of strategic small arms cache.
 
Thanks Horilka, it makes sense.
Shame.. laminated stock would be nice for SVT :)
Gotta add laminated stocks are heavy. My 91/30 with laminated stock feels almost as heavy as PU sniper with hardwood stock. Laminated stock I have also feels thicker than hardwood.
 
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