Ottawa, September 4th 2008
Object: Feared Bubba'ed Mosin-Nagant M44
Dear Mr. Skirsons,
I recently read your post in which you expressed your dissatisfaction with the sadly too common Bubbafication of military surplus rifles.
You will be glad to learn that the Russian rifle I was referring too in a post preceeding yours (dated September 4th at noon, proof that I was taking full advantage of my luch hour to indulge in some well-deserved firearms-related leisure), is in no way permanently modified. I would even go as far as stating that it is not worthy of being qualified as "Bubba'ed".
When I prepared that rifle with the admitted intention of taking it out this fall for some deer hunting, I carefully used a punch to remove the rear sight leaf pin (or, as the British would say, the "pin, leaf, sight, rear" or something weird like that, but this ain't a Lee Enfield so God knows why I'm even mentioning it), then removed the rear sight leaf, placed both the leaf and the pin in a Ziploc bag, and placed these precious parts in a box under my workbench.
Thus, the scope mount (which, I reiterate, is of the "cheap" variety, since this is a rifle for a hunter on a tight budget) can be removed at any time and the rifle returned to its full military, historically-accurate status, with little effort.
I am sure that you will believe me when I mention that I have the upmost respect for the historical value of military surplus and consider the curatorial needs of such artifacts as a definite sign of respect and admiration for our veterans and all those who sacrificed so much in order to ensure that I would live free, able to use tongue-in-cheek humour to pass the time between two coats of BLO on a 1915 No1 Mk3* forend.
Respectfully yours,
Pou, The, Lou