ML marked PU sniper

I bought an IZZY PU sniper dated 1944 from a close friend who made a hefty profit on it (all the more power to him) He got this one as soon as they became available many years ago. It has a very small import mark on the passenger side of the forward end of the barrel typical of early imports. The receiver is a pretty standard marked affair with one oddity. It has ML stamped into it between the date and serial#. I've been through a massive amount of dead tree material and surfed the internet extensively and have found no reference to this marking. Did I over look something? Could any of you fellows help me with this marking? Many thanks for your time-SDH

PS: I realize I have asked other questions regarding this rifle and may have left this one out, please forgive me, the brain cells are leaving faster than they are being renewed:help:

Could it be an MO mark that is not complete?

Attachment 529

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Pics taken from 7.62x54r.net

Naw, its a pretty sharp ML, I just can't figure it out. There may be a very small chance the L may actually be like a squared C, but I do mean square, M/T-SDH

Might be nothing - just an inspection stamp. Can you post a pic?

Could well be my friend, I will post as soon as I can, maybe a day or so. I'm a little puzzled because from what I am told there is no "L" in the Russian alphabet? I wish I knew-SDH

There is an "L" sound in the Russian language, but it looks something like "^" or a lower-case cursive "r". There is no character though that matches the english "L", so it is probably something else mis-stamped.

Ok, I finally got a long enough break to take a few snap's of the ML marked PU. Please take a hard look and share your thoughts-M/T-SDH:D

Hmm.. I'm not sure what to make of it? Perhaps marked by whichever country last owned the rifle?

Could well be, Its not the standard marks you'd find on that type of rifle. I also found a 52 inside a circle on the stock. Maybe year of re-build?-SDH

Just an observation, but there is a serial number on the left of the receiver, and it looks like it starts with an ML (not done on Russian Mosins). Perhaps the country that owned the rifle after Russia, did not use the cyrillic alphabet, so they replaced it with an L (which is what that character translates to in the Latin alphabet), therefore the serial number may be ML5838. They probably superimposed the ML above the Mn so that they could write it down in the books. I'm curious what country would have done this. Poland, Hungary, East Germany and Romania don't use cyrillic characters - they use the Latin characters. Probably one of them.

Here is a link with the cyrillic alphabet and its latin equivelant:

The Russian Alphabet

Here is a link with known serial number variations:

Mosin Nagant Serial Numbers

Here is some text from the above link that may help:

Receivers used by Finland were apparently numbered in some cases. Because of the use of different sizes and fonts of stamps used by Finland and importers it is difficult to be certain if a Finnish receiver number is original or not. As with all Mosin Nagants, if it is a dot matrix type stamp it is not original.

The lack of an SA stamp would (usually) dictate that it was not used by the Finns. Also, by 1944, the Finns and Russians were at peace (I think). Perhaps the Rifle was restamped to comply with importation. Maybe the country it was originally destined to required a serial number on the receiver, and required it using the Latin alphabet.

Again, I'm not an expert, just speculation.

It's not finnish. Finland captured so few PU rifles in 1944 that for it to be one would be like hitting the lotto. Also, it would be Finn marked in some way or have evidence of their use of it.

I've had very many Finn capture 91/30's and never saw one with a restamped serial number. Most Finn of that era spoke and wrote Russian fluently.

Sounds plausible, it appears to have been re-built at some point a long time ago. Perhaps it was done as you suggested by the country of receipt. M/T-SDH

The importer had to place a serial number upon the receiver and that was the closest that they could come to the Cyrllic serial number/lettering system.I would guess the importer to be Century Arms.Will

Yes I agree, an importer's restamp to match Cyrilic letters.

This was out of the first batch of imports and all the marking was done on the barrel end of the gun. I've looked at the strike under high magnification and it is original. I've been a gunsmith since the mid 1980's, so I have a good idea of what it should look like, it may have been done during rebuild, which was most likely done in the 1950's. Thanks for all your input-SDH

I've been doing a lot of reading on codes and such and came across what could mean something with this gun. If it at sometime in its life span ended up in German arsenals it would mean "Munitions Reserve" The stamping was done prior to rebuild so I don't believe it to be importers marks, besides they didn't do things in that fashion as far as I've seen. There is no DDR marks, so, maybe a war thing? SDH