43 Izhevsk PU sniper w/ Kossuth Crest

The Kossuth crest is a Hungarian coat of arms that is best remembered as the symbol used by Hungarians during the 1956 Revolt. There are some that believe all captured Russian weapons recieved this stamping, but due to the short duration of the conflict this is somewhat pure speculation. There is also a line of thinking that this was a stamp applied to Soviet weapons issued out to the Hungarian Army post WW2, and was removed after the 56 uprising since the Kossuth Crest was the symbol of the uprising. Either way what is known is there are only about 6-8 such stamped weapons that have turned up in collections in the US and Europe. ( a 2nd such sniper from the same manufacturing block has recently turned up in the US) The rifle is all stamped matching and all Izhevsk marked parts, this rifle appears to have gone through an arsenal inspection in 1950 since the scope documentation and the sling are both dated 1950.

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