I see gas erosion from the neck crenulation back into the shoulder. This type of wear is pretty much inevitable in the design. The SVTs I have all show this to a greater or lesser extent. They can fired safely in this condition. There is no particular reason to believe that accuracy is seriously compromised.
Crenulation was probably not in the original SVT design but was added as a stop gap measure to aid extraction. At the time an auto loading infantry rifle was a cutting edge (Germany was still using the M98). The design team knew they were sacrificing durability but decided that this was an adequate compromise outweighed by the advantage of an auto loading 10 round rifle.
Or is there something in the picture that I am missing?
Reminds me of the old Disney movie "The Black Hole" from 1979
the patches left a pile of fuss, so it is hard to see the bare metal.
Ya, I basically did that already, I just didn't want to commit to mixing the serial numbers. I was hoping to keep one numbers matching and have a mix and match shooter. Guess I have to buy one more. Oh damn.




























