Got my first SVT40 in the mail, is lots of pitting normal for these things?(big pics)

KNO3-

KNO3-

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Got my first SVT40 in the mail, ordered from a sponsor on here. Just wondering what type of shape your SVT40s are in to know if this is normal or not. I posted some pics below, there is quite a bit of pitting, especially on the bolt carrier cover and magazine. I had a look down the barrel with a light and im a bit worried about what its going to look like after iv cleaned it. Im hoping that most of what im seeing is just dirt in the bore and that it will look a lot better once its all cleaned up but obviously the pitting wont be going away. I have two referb SKSs...the bore is perfect and no pitting anywhere so i was surprised to see this. There is very little cosomline on it at all compared to the hords of it i had to clean of my sks.

Ill be honest im a little bit disappointed but if there all like that then i can live with it. What do you guys think?

Edit: upon further inspection all the numbers seem to be matching (with the exception of the magazine), including the stock, carrier and receiver. Hopefully the internal stuff matches too so +1 for that. Also a 1941.

Update: I disassembled it as far as i could go without tools and found the pitting is limited to the bolt cover and magazine only. The rest of it looks like its in excellent shape...although the bore looks questionable, like i said above i hope its mostly dirt. I think i will simply try to source a new bolt cover and magazine to solve the problems, simple fix and it doesn’t permanently modify the rifle.

I have also decided to just leave the bolt bluing the way it is and have read through the SVT40 in the milsurp section. Thanks for all the advice!

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Should i try to refinish this rifle at all or just leave as is?
 
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I would advise against refinishing that rifle as it appears to be a Kovrov arsenal (The arrow in the oval on the receiver) which makes in quite rare as those were only produced for a brief period of time. (6 months IIRC)

Your rifle almost certainly saw action on the Eastern Front in World War two and as such has the conditions of service during that period forever etched on to it. The pitting looks to have been stabilized during the Russian refurbishment process so there should be no risks of further damage to the existing finish because of this. The fact that it has/had pitting should be regarded as normal given the type of rifle that it is - If it was my rifle I'd leave it be (I might remove the purple finish on the bolt and bolt carrier however)

Some might describe getting this arsenal and year with a correct stock and flash hider as winning the refurb SVT lottery, but it all depends if you are more geared to collecting or shooting.
 
haretrigger said:
I would advise against refinishing that rifle as it appears to be a Kovrov arsenal (The arrow in the oval on the receiver) which makes in quite rare as those were only produced for a brief period of time. (6 months IIRC)

Your rifle almost certainly saw action on the Eastern Front in World War two and as such has the conditions of service during that period forever etched on to it. The pitting looks to have been stabilized during the Russian refurbishment process so there should be no risks of further damage to the existing finish because of this. The fact that it has/had pitting should be regarded as normal given the type of rifle that it is - If it was my rifle I'd leave it be (I might remove the purple finish on the bolt and bolt carrier however)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response, im almost liking it more now that i read your post...cool to know it has some history. Although now that you say its rare i almost feel guilty putting corrosive ammo through it or shooting it for that matter. Looking forward to hearing some more response.

I agree with you on the purple finish...it looks weird, how would i go about removing it? And then wouldnt the bare metal rust...or would i have to blue it?

I think I will leave the rifle the way it is, I was into modern stuff that I could shoot, wear out and replace. I just got into the milsurp and im not sure how I feel about shooting/wearing out these pieces of history yet. Although I will never mod one…I got into the milsurp buying an sks and turning it into a plastic, scoped piece of junk. Ended up selling it and buying another un-modded…the look of these old milsurps is growing on me, i fear i have a new addiction.
 
haretrigger said:
Some might describe getting this arsenal and year with a correct stock and flash hider as winning the refurb SVT lottery, but it all depends if you are more geared to collecting or shooting.
Click to expand...

More into shooting so when i saw your post i was thinking...great now i feel guilty shooting this. I recently bought a polish TT33 and it was in such nice new shape i didnt want to use it so i bought another referb russian one to shoot instead.
 
I wouldn't feel too guilty about shooting it at all, but just take care in keeping it from suffering more pitting by cleaning and oiling it after you use it as it was intended. Although these rifles are plentiful right now, the value of them is bound to increase in the future (even as refurbs) as they simply aren't made anymore. When I joined the forum in 2009 I ended up paying 425 dollars for one off the EE because I couldn't get one from a dealer.
 
KNO3- said:
I agree with you on the purple finish...it looks weird, how would i go about removing it? And then wouldnt the bare metal rust...or would i have to blue it?
Click to expand...

Believe it or not the purple finish is actually bluing that didn't take properly to the metal of the bolt/ carrier - apparently some SVT 40's had reddish coloured bolt carriers from the factory however, so you might want to do a bit of research on that before proceeding. The ones that weren't red were simply issued "in the white" which means that they were bare polished steel. To remove the purple coloured bluing on my SVT 40 I removed the carrier from the rifle and soaked it in plain old white vinegar and scrubbed it with a small fingernail brush until the silver finish was completely exposed again.

Be sure to rinse the heck out of the bolt after with hot water to get rid of the vinegar that will cause the metal to start to rust almost instantly, dry it out really good, and then re oil.
 
When you say i might want to do a bit of research on the bluing are you saying i might take away from the value of the rifle is i remove it? Guess ill start with Google...
 
^^^ Potentially yes, you could harm the value of your rifle. In milsurp purist speak you would be comitting an act of "bubba" - Which is basically to destroy any interest of future purist milsurp collectors from desiring YOUR rifle.(ie. value)

If you never intend on this rifle leaving your hands down the road do whatever makes you happiest - but rest assured that whatever time or money spent doing things to it will be time and money lost when it comes time to sell should that be your decision.

I'd recommend browsing through the sticky in the Milsurp forum on this site. It was created by CGN's own member svt1940, who has spent many hours researching and preparing field stripping guides etc. for Tokarev rifles.

Although I know a bit about these rifles, I am by no means an expert. The milsurp forum is the one place I seldom post because I am too busy reading and learning trying to soak up as much free knowledge as possible. The SVT 40 was originally a topic of discussion in the milsurp category of this site, but for some reason the powers that be moved it into the red rifle category, which I suppose is correct depending on how you look at it. There is good information about these fine rifles in both categories.
 
Don't change a thing on it. Leave the bolt purple, leave the finish on the stock and don't mess with it.

Alterations of any type, even de-blueing the purple bolt will negatively impact the collector value of your rifle. You can not in any way improve the value by messing with it.
 
Its normal

Unlike the SKSs the SVTs where used in heavy combat during WWII. You would be lucky to find one in perfect shape.
 
That amount of pitting is totally common and normal for an SVT.

Almost all of them were sent out to the lines during the war.

The ones that survived enough to be refurbed are the ones that are sitting in our gun safes :D

It's a Kovrov man! Don't refinish it!

Did you pay regular price for her? That's one of the more rare SVT's aside from the fabled '45 stamped receiver.
 
Its got a beautiful stock, its a KOVROV, and some normal pitting for a milsurp that has definitely seen combat. To "refinish" or "improve" on it would be ridiculous. Leave it as is, or sell it to somebody who will appreciate it for what it is and find another more common SVT variant to victimize.
 
Is that a 4 port or 12 muzzle brake?

Like others here have said don't mess with it. Shoot it but be gentle. Use around 148 gr ammo as the heavier gr stuff in the 185 and up gets hard on the old girl IMHO. Clean it and oil it well and it will retain its value but most likely go up
 
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