SVT40 ?

[echo1]

Hi Gun Nuts,

Looks like I'm on a roll. I got a line on an SVT40. Don't know squat about, them except that X54 milsurp is all but gone. He's had it for some time and we've done business more than a few times. I made him a offer of 2 early SKSs and 2 late 91/30s, and he's interested. We're meeting manana to look at the rigs. He's an in home FFL and no money has to change hands for the transfer. What to look for particular to an SVT40?

Across town, an LGS has a 91/38 that he'll take one of my M44s toward it. That one could end up me adding a few ducats, if he'll throw in the DROS.

Another fella responded to a WTT Rossi 92 for the right SKS. Said he had some kind of Euro model NIB. Came back and said he was mistaken, NIB but Chinese with factory scope and no bayo. 

And then, I've got Alfred's 2 SKS waiting in Kali jail.  PAX

[Luke2236]

Wheelin' and dealin', variety is the spice of life. Love my SVT40, shoot it occasionally with handloads. x54 milsurp is still available up here, but not near so common as it used to be and price is steadily climbing.

[running-man]

Man Pax, that's some good horse trading there.  The SVT won't be an every weekend shooter for you in the best of times, so I wouldn't sweat the scarcity of x54R.  Make sure you look over the handguard really well as I've read they are prone to splitting.  I'm sure some of the WWII milsurp gurus can chime in with their 2 cents on common pitfalls with these. 

Aside from that, I'd treat it just like if you were getting a really expensive SKS.  Arsenal, S/N matching on the various components, refurb marks, etc. should all be pretty familiar to you with your Mosin and SKS experience.  Good luck on this one! 

[echo1]

Thanks,

RM, I've got an FN49 that I found garage sailing, actually my DIL gave me a heads up, as everybody in my crew knows to do.

I've had it for a couple years and haven't shot it yet, but I have scrounged over 1K in boolits 

With playing musical scopes, and various new acquisitions, I'm about 20 rifles and pistols behind in range time, mainly because my bud with shootin dirt close by, passed away.  PAX

[Justin Hell]

I would give the adjustable gas system a look...to make sure it works...I have heard over gassing the system is what causes the hand guard splitting problem.

SO cool...I want one of those badly. Hope the trade works out...I wanna see.

[John Galt]

I was in a similar situation as you Pax.  I got a SVY 40 without knowing anything about it.  I really like mine.  Refurb signs are (as far as I know):  Purple bolt carrier and a safety cutout on both sides of the stock.  The safety cutout on both sides of the stock indicate that the stock was from an AVT  automatic cousin of the SVT. 

Some SVT's have grooves along the top of the receiver just below the receiver cover to receive a scope mount.  Some don't have these grooves.  The real hard ones to find are the ones with the grooves along the sides of the receiver and a notch in the top of the receiver for the scope mount keeper. 

I have actually handled a real Russian SVT 40 scope and mount but could not (would not) bring myself to pay what the guy wants...$3000. 

The top hand guard does crack so if you plan on shooting it, either remove the guard or buy an eBay guard as your shooter.

Aslo, there were two different types of muzzle devices on these, a 6 slot and a 4 slot IIRC. 

That is about all I know.

[Power Surge]

The SVT-40 is a great rifle and I regret selling mine. Check out my post about my gun in the Soviet non-SKS section.

The biggest issue with SVT-40s is the gas system. It's got an adjustable gas block. Original ammo (and surplus) was corrosive, so very often the gas system is pretty corroded up (check the bore condition as well!!). There is a guy online that makes a stainless steel gas valve for the SVT-40, I definitely suggest getting one. You will need a gas system adjusting tool as well.

The trick with the SVT-40 gas system is you need the adjustment set to where the gun will cycle properly, but not be too powerful. If you don't have enough gas pressure, it won't cycle in semi-auto. If you have TOO much gas pressure, it will rip the head off the round casing and then you will need a casing extractor tool to get it out. They were pretty smart about it when they build it, as they use a fluted chamber to help bleed off some chamber pressure to help stop the case ripping issues. The "perfect" setup for an SVT-40, is where the rifle will cycle and eject the spent case about 3 ft away.

[echo1]

Again thanks. Was about to go over there with my trade fodder, when he called to reschedule for tomorrow, but I've got a funeral to attend, so it's Friday. 

I'm going to lose sleep over this delay, but the fact that he showed interest is good. PAX

[running-man]

Thanks,

RM, I've got an FN49 that I found garage sailing, actually my DIL gave me a heads up, as everybody in my crew knows to do.

I've had it for a couple years and haven't shot it yet, but I have scrounged over 1K in boolits 

With playing musical scopes, and various new acquisitions, I'm about 20 rifles and pistols behind in range time, mainly because my bud with shootin dirt close by, passed away.  PAX

Hate to hear that about your shooting pal Pax.  Everybody's gotta go I guess.  Hopefully he lived a full & happy life in God's friendship.

I'll be interested to see what you think of the FN (I assume an Egyptian in 8mm mauser?) vs the SVT.  I'm highly biased towards the FN as I actually have one of those and zero SVTs, but from the horror stories of how hard the SVT is to breakdown and clean I think I'm on the right side of the argument!   

As far as accumulating rounds you haven't fired, I was pulling some boxes out from under the guest bed in a seldom used part of the house a while back and found a large 'missing' box of Turkish 8mm in 10 bandoleers I had meant to store away for longer term storage but never got around to.  Original receipt from AIM said I paid something like $70 shipped for them back in early 2000s.  Gotta love finding things you didn't even know you had lost! 

[Phosphorus32]

I don't have one yet either, so I can't speak from experience about their reputation for being challenging to disassemble/assemble.  From a collectibility standpoint, Tula is the most common arsenal by far, followed by Izhevsk and Podolsk. Podolsk has an arrow in a oval rather than an arrow in a triangle for Izhevsk. 1941 is the most common year with a total of about 1.1 million made, followed by 1940 at 20% of that total and 1942 with just 10% of the 1941 number. The scarcer SA (Suomi Armeija, Finnish Army) property marked examples are of greater interest to the Finn collectors. The vast majority of the SVT-40s are post-war refurbished Soviet examples, with force-matched parts (stamped with a different font or electropenciled). Mis-matched examples are common.

[newchi]

Theres something odd about how you get the receiver cover on/off and every time i have to do it, usually a year after i last did it, i have to resort to youtube to remember.
It is my very favorite.  It also is loud and just a tad short in length of pull for me so usually how sore my shoulder gets is what decides how long i shoot it.
Every svt was refurbished, it just depends with how many bits.  I will look see if i have pictures handy.

[newchi]

All i have available.
Pretty standard, something doesnt match, cant remeber what.  Mag isnt the same number either.
Makes no difference to its shooting ability.
They say there are ones with silver bolts that were never refurbished, so dont buy one of those, its been over 70 years since its last check up!
More likely its been stripped of the purple rebluing to rip some sucker off.

[Greasemonkey]

One thing to look for is a seized gas adjuster..very common to find, another is a corroded gas piston and cup, you think a Yugo with a leaky gas valve is a pain in the arse... if this part is leaking, adjustment is futile, your pissing away your life, alot of time and ammo. Now, replacements are available.. http://www.ppsh41.com/SVTitems.html  This is what is in mine...courtesy of a lack of cleaning and attention in the past to the gas system. Also, a gas adjuster wrench will come in handy...I plucked one off the Fleabay.


When you go to adjust, start on the lowest setting, 1.1..the scribe lines must line up on each setting, what your after is the minimum amount of gas to cycle without issues, you want absolute consistency on ejection, that is it's happy place. You do "NOT" want to over gas it and make it sling empties in to the next county, all your doing is beating the rifle to death at that point and might even destroy things like the extractor, recoil springs, and back of the action. Mine will drop the empties about 5-7ft away, I've seen some chuck them 10+ ft, thats a bit much. Mine is happy with Czech ammo on the 1.3 setting If you change ammo, brands, countries of mfg, bullet weights, anything, start over and readjust it, it's yours, do what you want, but your better safe than sorry in the end.

Another thing, if you have dummy test rounds, make sure it feeds from the mag, it's not designed to do mag swaps like an Ak, it was primarily designed to be loaded with strippers. If someone ever dropped the mag on the feed lips and bent them, you will have some fun readjusting them. This is why they are serial marked, each was adjusted to the specific rifle, it may or may not work in another.

It's a cool rifle with a great history...but I would be damned if I'd carry the thing in a war, heck, I don't care much to shoot it, much less clean it.. it is a bastard to clean compared to most weapons, finicky, heavy and lots of little parts and crap to go wrong. Actually I find most of my Mosins are more accurate than the SVT, but that could be anything causing that. But, hey it sure looks cool... Mine is actually one like P32 was talking about, the Finnish capture and the Finns refurbed it.

Cleaning rods are ungodly expensive and beware of crappy bores, ones with purple bolts are usually Russian refurbs, Finnish are usually in the natural white and stamped [SA]...that about sums it up 

[newchi]

a silver one

[Power Surge]

They say there are ones with silver bolts that were never refurbished, so dont buy one of those, its been over 70 years since its last check up!

SVTs were refurbed within 2 years of manufacture. So a refurbed SVT is just as old as a non-refurb (if you can find one).

Many SVTs were also captured and refurbed by the Finnish. These are pretty desirable as well. They will have special Finnish markings if they are a Finn capture (an "SA" stamp if memory serves?).

One of the main things you need to make SURE with an SVT, is that you have an ORIGINAL magazine. It doesn't have to be matching, just original manufacture. The aftermarket ones have a lot of issues.

[Greasemonkey]

You can get away with using aftermarket mags....just beware it 9 time outta 10 will need adjustment of the feed lips. It takes alot of trial and error and more of your life and ammo is wasted. They were serialized, because they were adjusted to the specific rifle, even the spares the troops carried were adjusted to that rifle, they may or may not have worked in another rifle, especially a rifle from one of the other manufactures.

Like I said...Russians I've seen have the purple bolt, the Finnish are the only ones in the white I've seen.

[Power Surge]

So.... the finish, on a Finnish, is white?   

[newchi]

considering svts were issued with 2 spare mags and a bayonet, its ridiculous how hard to find either are.

[Greasemonkey]

considering svts were issued with 2 spare mags and a bayonet, its ridiculous how hard to find either are.

I've seen the mags for sale, you can almost buy a M91/30 for what an original sells for .. Heck, you can almost buy a Finnish M39 for what the bayonet costs...which is probably why I have a few M39s, and no SVT bayonet.    

I almost had a coronary buying a bayonet for my M47 Madsen....that much for a dull knife

[newchi]

Oh, you better hold on to your camouflage panties then....