So what exactly was refurbished on the SVT 40 after the war, sure doesn't seem to be the barrel + some guys not knowing how to properly clean a bore after shooting corrosive ammo. Was it just repairing a few shrapnel diggings in the stock? In my consumer experience it usually means new barrel (possible caliber change) and new or repaired stock.
SVT 40 Define factory Refurbished?
- Thread starter Lebel
- Start date
Russian post-war refurbishment process:
All firearms got stripped down to base components. Parts were sorted, cleaned and inspected. Damaged ones were disposed of or repaired. Stocks were refinished with shellac regardless of what the original finish was (oil and nitrocellulose lacquer usually).
Rifles were assembled from the piles of parts at random and parts were force matched when necessary. Tolerance stacking and poor fitting is the result.
All firearms got stripped down to base components. Parts were sorted, cleaned and inspected. Damaged ones were disposed of or repaired. Stocks were refinished with shellac regardless of what the original finish was (oil and nitrocellulose lacquer usually).
Rifles were assembled from the piles of parts at random and parts were force matched when necessary. Tolerance stacking and poor fitting is the result.
5HoursNorth
CGN Regular
- Location
- Nanaimo,BC
Ya bore condition wasn't top priority most rifles with rough bores will still shoot minute of humen body at 200 yards
I have never read any specific documentation about what the requirements were for throat erosion, crown wear or anything like that. I have a feeling it's what 5HoursNorth eluded to: If it can hit a man at 300m, it's good enough. Even a dark bore with worn rifling is precise enough for hunting four and two legged critters from my experience.
Out of all my refurbs I've only had two that had what I would call excellent bores- one '41 and one '44. Try as I might I can't see anything that tells me the barrels are replacements but we don't have much English reference material to go from. The rest have bores ranging from poor to fair while reblued on the outside, occasionally over quite deep pitting. My guess is that they were stripped down to the barreled action and barrels rarely, if ever, replaced. I agree that the quality of the work in the refurbishment was not great but it isn't all about appearance. I've measured bolt lengths on about 16 of these now and they vary by about 0.0150inch which tells me the arsenal was adjusting headspacing with different length bolts. Chumak mentions in the recent book (at least according to my idiot level translation) that the factories had longer bolts available to allow armourers to fix headspace problems which (according to the same author) were the rifles biggest serious mechanical problem initially. I should note that amongst my own SVT 40's I've had some with pretty weak bores that still shoot surprisingly well. My $200.00 Lever Arms Christmas special has a bore with very worn rifling and dark grooves but, after shimming the receiver-stock, it does 2 inch groups with milsurp ammo.
milsurpo
milsurpo
I would agree that the barrels were not removed from the action. I'm sure there were exceptions, because of damage or what have you. This is true with Mosins as well, it's not very common to have a rifle that has a mismatched barrel. Headspace was obviously adjusted for, yes.
I had an SVT-40 with a perfect bore that shot 8" groups and I have one with a very worn bore that does 2-3". I think stock fit and bedding is more important for these old refurbs. Shimming goes a long way.
- Location
- Algoma, ON
I would also be interested in seeing this if such a document exists.
