"Dipped" guns
- Thread starter Light Infantry
- Start date
Claven
I understand they were marked with an "x" and then dipped. Why the x and why the dip? I mean the pistols already had blueing/parkerizing etc. Was it because some had very little finish left and they decided to dip them all? I also understand that some collector's attempted and have succeeded in getting the dip finish off. Is that correct?
BTW what is RC?
Thanks
LI
I understand they were marked with an "x" and then dipped. Why the x and why the dip? I mean the pistols already had blueing/parkerizing etc. Was it because some had very little finish left and they decided to dip them all? I also understand that some collector's attempted and have succeeded in getting the dip finish off. Is that correct?
BTW what is RC?
Thanks
LI
- Location
- Downtown Vancouver, BC
Learn something everyday.Stevo said:RC is short for "Russian Capture". It's milsurpspeak.
Light Infantry said:
The X represents two stacked rifles - it's a mark Russians used to accept captured weapons. You see it on all sorts of stuff.
After WW2, captured arms were inventoried and stacked outdoors for sometimes many months before being oiled, cleaned, and stored. We're talking MILLIONS of rifles and pistols here - no small task. The Russians also had to demobilize their own troops and put millions of Mosins and SVT's into storage as well. These primary issue guns were dealt with first. By the time the Rooskies got around to the German kit, alot of it had started to degrade in the weather.
Russian capture stuff ran the gammut from rusted out POS to pristine rifle/handgun. Whatever the case, everythign was quickly cleaned oiled and stored. By the 1950's the cold was was heating up and some commie decided it might be good to employ thousands of Ukrainians, build up the war reserve of arms, and at the same time have a great source of sheap guns to send to emerging communist countries like Vietnam. The gov't ordered all captured german arms to be made seviceable.
In the case of rifles, this means total disassembly. Useable parts were often scrubbed with coarse wire wheel brushes to get the rust bloom off and then hot dip blued (basically a modern chemical bath blue). Rifles re-assembled from all serviceable barrelled receivers, and parts electropencilled to match. Unserviceable parts were scrapped to make Laddas and other useless stuff, I imagine. With pistols, the vast makority are also mismatched quiltworks of parts, but some batches seem to have remained matching. I imagine matching examples would be valued higher.
As for removing the dip blue - that's poppycock. If the gun was painted which often was the case - you can remove it. (these refurbs took YEARS - later refurbs seem to have favored black paint to dip blueing). If it was "dip blued", you can't remove it and still retain any original finish. The original guns were caustic blued, the dip blue would just have blended with it. The guys who claim to have removed it have probably jsut removed blueing from the high points and stupidly convinced themselves they've somehow brought up the original worn finish
That about summs it up
It was nice of the commie's to restore and preserve all those WW2 weapons. I am pretty sure the people involved would have never guessed that they would be sold to western gunnutz to make some money for capitalist goodie's like cell phone's and MP3 players.
- Location
- Downtown Vancouver, BC
They also never would have thought that they'd collapse as soon as 1991.
