A tale of two Russians...

[Stoned_Oli]

Last week I was all agush about a K letter Tula I received as a trade. Poor little girl was carried by at least two, perhaps three or more soldiers that were into personalization and possibly one being related to another, maybe father and son...



















I cleaned that one up and discovered a bulge in the bore under the front sight... still looks cool though.

Today, I think I hit the other end of the spectrum.









Both are matching numbers except for the replacement stock on the, well I guess they both have replacement stocks...
My only Russian up to this point had been one with a matching mag and enough Chinese parts to fool IO... 

[running-man]

That Izhevsk is a dandy Oli, even with the replacement stock.  '53s aren't too easy to come by.  Was it a funshow buy or a GB roll of the dice?  What about it caught your eye such that you bought it?


Do you think the Ruso-Banian is salvageable?  Maybe make a paratrooper out of it to remove the bulge (though MrC tried that on one of his, and after all the work to shorten the barrel and get the FSB back on it simply bulged again)  That's a neat looking carbine, would be a shame for it to become a permanent wall hanger.

[Stoned_Oli]

The Izhevsk was at a pawn shop on the way to work and I stopped in to see if there was anything interesting. I looked at all the Mosins first of course, and having decided on an M38 I asked to see the SKS just in case. It was facing me with a thirty round mag stuck in it, I thought it was Chinese at first. The guy handed it to me and I flipped it over and saw triangle and a $499 price tag. He negotiated down to $450 + tax... and still has his M38.
As far as Bajraktar goes, the bulge is about from 1-1/4"-1-3/4" from the muzzle. It would seem there would be plenty of good rifling left allowing for 16"+. Still, that's over my tool ownership status to do, although I have pondered a possible counterbore.

[Worm]

Wow $450 ey? Nice score..

Both are cool, congrats 

[Crazyone]

Neat combination, noticed the stamps to the left of the serial number--looks like the recently seen hex andddddddddd a possible triangle !  Where's LC--he has the eyeballs on this board,  seems that a few Russians have started showing up with new stamps on the receivers and so far no data or idea except it may be an arsenal stamp.---Not to ignore the horizontal on the hand guard !!

[Loose}{Cannon]

Neat combination, noticed the stamps to the left of the serial number--looks like the recently seen hex andddddddddd a possible triangle !  Where's LC--he has the eyeballs on this board,  seems that a few Russians have started showing up with new stamps on the receivers and so far no data or idea except it may be an arsenal stamp.---Not to ignore the horizontal on the hand guard !!

Kinda looks like a triangle to me.....  any better pics Oli?   Great rifles by the way.   

[CARBINE]

Nice finds, the carvings are super cool!! What a lucky catch with the Izhevsk 
Congrats

[Stoned_Oli]

Neat combination, noticed the stamps to the left of the serial number--looks like the recently seen hex andddddddddd a possible triangle !  Where's LC--he has the eyeballs on this board,  seems that a few Russians have started showing up with new stamps on the receivers and so far no data or idea except it may be an arsenal stamp.---Not to ignore the horizontal on the hand guard !!

You are correct! There is both a faint triangle and a hexagon, and a nice triangle 1 on the forward portion of the receiver near the barrel with other misc. marks.
I think these pics suck a bit but I have to get to work. I will try to better them later.







The piston face and the bolt face both look like it may not have been fired since refurb; if it has it was VERY few times.

[Loose}{Cannon]

Very interesting...   that rifle is marked both Serbdosk and Liski.

[Stoned_Oli]

Better shot of the misc. stamps on the barrel end of receiver.

[Dannyboy53]

This is just awesome Oli.

[Loose}{Cannon]

Holy crap...  also has the [X]…  tripple furb.  This one saw service, no doubt.

[Justin Hell]

How does one go about bulging a barrel like that, tripping and firing directly into some dense dirt?  I also wonder if it is triple refurbed because nobody noticed that and it just bounced around from arsenal to arsenal until it got mothballed.

Either way, nice scores...hope a cut down can bring the Tula back into service....the trench art is very nice...in a trenchy way.