Buying first SVT40 What to look for?

gusamoto

gusamoto

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Hello all Im going to be purchasing my first svt40! yay! I already own a mosin nagant so I'm a little familiar with red rifles. I just have some first time buyers questions for those that have experience with them.

1) Are they covered in cosmoline? Guessing they are..which isnt a problem I thoroughly cleaned and refinished the stock on my nosin (shes a beauty.)

2) Can you find any sv40s that were not issued? ie not abused and fired to living hell?

3) What years/manufacturing are most prized?

4) Lastly, anything I should look out for when purchasing one? I'm going to be heading down to one of my local stores that has some in stock so I will be looking at them in person.

Thank you
 
gusamoto: Don't even try to find a non-refurb to shoot. With the refurbs, you might as well try to find one with a great bore but it may take some digging. I've manged to acquire two with new-ish looking bores, both from Weimejack on EE. If you're looking at uncleaned examples right out of a crate it may be difficult to judge the bore. The other thing you might do is avoid examples with huge and numerous stock patches. They are done nicely but if you plan to shoot it a lot why not start with one nicely fit into a good solid later (thick) AVT stock? They are great rifles and you'll enjoy the experience. Interestingly one of my best shooters so far is my $200.00 Lever Arms rifle! I've had fun using it as a test bed for different bedding and shimming techniques and regularly get 2 inch 5 shot groups at 100 yards using the open sights.

milsurpo
 
Congrats on your decision to purchase an SVT-40. I have had for almost a year now and I have fun every time I shoot !!

Answers to your questions are under each one.

1) Are they covered in cosmoline? Guessing they are..

Not necessarily. The two I bought from Lever Arms were basically ready to go when I opened the box, although my son and I stripped them, cleaned them some more and oiled them prior to shooting them for the first time. Canadian Tire sells SVT-40s that are cleaned, oiled and ready to shoot. The condition will vary according to the seller.

2) Can you find any SVT-40s that were not issued? ie not abused and fired to living hell?

Good luck with that!

SVT-40s available for sale in Canada were refurbished by Comrade Ivan, Piotr or Dimitri prior to being tucked away in arsenals, awaiting another Great Patriotic War... or being sold to “dirty capitalists”. LOL

3) What years/manufacturing are most prized?

I would say 1945 since that is the last year of manufacture. However, they stopped making SVT-40s really early in 1945 so those will be as rare as honest politicians or used car salesmen. LOL

4) Lastly, anything I should look out for when purchasing one?

Check the bore, excessive rattling and stock repairs.

Both my SVT-40s are former AVT stocks. One has the groove for the safety when flipped to automatic fire while the other has a repair were that groove was located. Otherwise the stocks have the usual cartouches, etc...

Good luck with your purchase and please post pics once you’ve picked out your boom stick !!
 
Bore condition.

Take a cleaning rod, a light, and several patches with you and give the bore a good wipe to get the oily dirt out. It's still filthy, but at least you'll get an idea of how badly frosted it is or isn't
 
dimeN said:
are there any pics on the net to show what a frosted bore looks like ?
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probably, but it's pretty much as stated - the grooves are dull and frosty looking, rather than smooth and bright, because they are rough with fine pits. Too much corrosive ammo and too little cleaning.

It's not a deal breaker, especially if you're shooting surplus, so long as the rifling itself is sharp. I just like to have a nice bore in case I want to reload for a rifle.

My buddy has a Mosin and the bore is a real sewer pipe - dark and rough. But he shoots surplus, cleans when he remembers, and is more than happy with it for the blasting he does.
 
3) What years/manufacturing are most prized?
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1945 are the rarest/most valuable.

1940/early '41 with the "sniper notch" are also highly sought after, but be careful, because there's a ton of faked sniper notches out there.

1940/41 are the only ones that will have the grooved receiver for mounting optics.

I bought a 1940 because I wanted the original style muzzle brake (looks nicer/more refined to me) and also wanted the grooved receiver, so I would have the option of mounting a scope at a later time without having to D&T it.

At one point, I was thinking of getting several, but the one I have is a great shooter with a really good bore, and I ended up deciding I'd invest in diversity, rather than focus on one rifle. The SVT is easily in my top 3 favorite milsurps to shoot. I can get 4-5" groups at 100 meters fairly consistently with the right ammo, and the occasional flyer (SVT's are known for having a problem with a 1 or 2 in 10 flyer ratio), and anything in that full powered cartridge class of rifle, in semi auto, is just plain fun.

Even if you end up with one that's not particularly accurate, so long as you pay attention to cleaning and maintenance, you can get them to be really reliable and a helluva fun range toy/blaster.
 
if you want to ever mount a scope get one with the grooved receiver, the material on the receiver is to thin to mount a scope to on the SVT's without the machined grooves.
 
I wouldn't worry about the bore being dark or frosty like others have mentioned, a little frosting or darkness rarely impedes accuracy. It just means it was used and I like the idea of a used battle rifle. Just make sure it has strong rifling from chamber to muzzle and has no deep pits.

Warning: dark bores do take far longer to clean.
 
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Update! So I purchased one last evening and I'm currently in the progress of completely disassembling the entire rifle, so no pictures yet. What I can tell you is that its 1942 Tula with a ATV stock and the bore is in good condition. I haven't cleaned the bore yet but after I removed the barrel from the stock I looked down the bore and it didn't look very dirty and the rifling looked in good shape. However I am disappointed with myself that I didn't choose one that had the 6 port muzzle brake! I don't hate the 4 port that's on mine but I definitely would have preferred the 6 port version. This leads me to my question: Can I simply find a 6 port muzzle brake and switch it out for my 4 port? Please let me know.
 
milsurpo said:
gusamoto: Don't even try to find a non-refurb to shoot. With the refurbs, you might as well try to find one with a great bore but it may take some digging. I've manged to acquire two with new-ish looking bores, both from Weimejack on EE. If you're looking at uncleaned examples right out of a crate it may be difficult to judge the bore. The other thing you might do is avoid examples with huge and numerous stock patches. They are done nicely but if you plan to shoot it a lot why not start with one nicely fit into a good solid later (thick) AVT stock? They are great rifles and you'll enjoy the experience. Interestingly one of my best shooters so far is my $200.00 Lever Arms rifle! I've had fun using it as a test bed for different bedding and shimming techniques and regularly get 2 inch 5 shot groups at 100 yards using the open sights.

milsurpo
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I'm curious about your shimming techniques. Mine is shooting way low. I could file down the front sight but it isn't all that tall to start with. Can you suggest any shimming that might help, like maybe under the barrel at the front of the forestock?
 
The 4 port is much easier to clean overall. Based on the description my SVT-40 is almost the exact same configuration as yours (except mine is a 41 not 42). It is a blast to shoot and cleaning might suck a bit it is worth it in the end.
 
gusamoto said:
Update! So I purchased one last evening and I'm currently in the progress of completely disassembling the entire rifle, so no pictures yet. What I can tell you is that its 1942 Tula with a ATV stock and the bore is in good condition. I haven't cleaned the bore yet but after I removed the barrel from the stock I looked down the bore and it didn't look very dirty and the rifling looked in good shape. However I am disappointed with myself that I didn't choose one that had the 6 port muzzle brake! I don't hate the 4 port that's on mine but I definitely would have preferred the 6 port version. This leads me to my question: Can I simply find a 6 port muzzle brake and switch it out for my 4 port? Please let me know.
Click to expand...

To be quite honest, the amount of work involved in switching out the muzzle brake, don't even think about it. What you should think about is buying a second one with the 6 port brake, they are still cheap and you will have parts down the road to keep at least one running until your too old to shoot anymore.

They won't be cheap for much longer, food for thought.
 
Tyockell18 said:
To be quite honest, the amount of work involved in switching out the muzzle brake, don't even think about it. What you should think about is buying a second one with the 6 port brake, they are still cheap and you will have parts down the road to keep at least one running until your too old to shoot anymore.

They won't be cheap for much longer, food for thought.
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I'm no expert, but it doesn't seem like it would be that much work? If you skip to 21 minutes in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYiKIHMAeD8 you can see the guy take it out simple enough by punching out the muzzle extension key. Seems like I would just have to take out that key and swap my 4 port for the 6 port version. Take a look at these two photos: the 6 port http://www.gunpartscorp.com/Products/1332510.htm and the 4 port: http://www.gunpartscorp.com/Products/1286490.htm . Again I have no idea but it looks as if it would just be a matter of replacing the 4 port unit for the 6 port.
 
gusamoto said:
I'm no expert, but it doesn't seem like it would be that much work? If you skip to 21 minutes in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYiKIHMAeD8 you can see the guy take it out simple enough by punching out the muzzle extension key. Seems like I would just have to take out that key and swap my 4 port for the 6 port version. Take a look at these two photos: the 6 port http://www.gunpartscorp.com/Products/1332510.htm and the 4 port: http://www.gunpartscorp.com/Products/1286490.htm . Again I have no idea but it looks as if it would just be a matter of replacing the 4 port unit for the 6 port.
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What I mean though is that I don't know of any sources for muzzle brakes for these, after cost of parts, trying to locate them ect.

For part's with the SVT, you basically buy another one for the most part. I know they were making aftermarket mags "which suck" and stainless gas system components but they seem to be sold out everywhere.

You may as well just buy another rifle for 250-$300 and have a another complete gun already in the configuration you want.
 
gusamoto said:
Update! So I purchased one last evening and I'm currently in the progress of completely disassembling the entire rifle, so no pictures yet. What I can tell you is that its 1942 Tula with a ATV stock and the bore is in good condition. I haven't cleaned the bore yet but after I removed the barrel from the stock I looked down the bore and it didn't look very dirty and the rifling looked in good shape. However I am disappointed with myself that I didn't choose one that had the 6 port muzzle brake! I don't hate the 4 port that's on mine but I definitely would have preferred the 6 port version. This leads me to my question: Can I simply find a 6 port muzzle brake and switch it out for my 4 port? Please let me know.
Click to expand...
4 port brake is correct historically for 1942 rifle. 12 port is not correct with probably few exceptions. Changing it could be really hard, believe me, I did it many times. If you don't have skills and experience you can damage the parts. Sometime though they do come off easily. If you have oval with arrow on your muzzle brake PM me I'll get you 12 port brake.
 
Horilka said:
4 port brake is correct historically for 1942 rifle. 12 port is not correct with probably few exceptions. Changing it could be really hard, believe me, I did it many times. If you don't have skills and experience you can damage the parts. Sometime though they do come off easily. If you have oval with arrow on your muzzle brake PM me I'll get you 12 port brake.
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I took off the muzzle brake fairly easily by using a punch and hammer to take out the key that holds it in place. The 4 port muzzle brake didn't have any marking on it at all. Now I'm looking around to see if I cant find the 12 port version. I found one on numrich's website, however they have a $35 dollar charge for international shipping. If I cant find one up here in the great white north Ill may bite the bullet and just order one.
 
762shooter said:
I'm curious about your shimming techniques. Mine is shooting way low. I could file down the front sight but it isn't all that tall to start with. Can you suggest any shimming that might help, like maybe under the barrel at the front of the forestock?
Click to expand...

762shooter: So yours is shooting low with the post screwed all the way in? Many things seem to affect the point of impact with these rifles, including, I think, the gas regulator setting. Strong up-pressure at the forend tip would probably make a difference and one easy way to do that is to add material to the inside of the lower guard ring (the barrel is supposed to rest on this and it is perfectly sized to fit the barrel). If yours is loose try building up the surface with that muffler repair epoxy (Steely). Shape it to the barrel by putting a layer of saran wrap around the barrel and squeezing it into the steely. You want it to conform nicely to the barrel so that it returns to exactly the same position after each shot. Aim for 7 or 8 lbs up-pressure. Worked well on one of mine and you can easily file out the steely if you want to change back. Since the lower guard usually is a poor fit on the forend tip I've also used a carefully shaped wood shim glued into the front of the forend which I believe to be a better approach but more time consuming.

milsurpo
 
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