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Hi all, came across an interesting specimen. I have seen some pitting in my time, but nothing quite like this. Anyone else ever seen anything like it or know anything about it?? One of the "sea-salvaged" myths people used to talk about?
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I once had an 1873 Winchester "wall hanger" like that. It had been found in a barn in Wisconsin or Minnesota (or someplace like that). That's what it looked like after I cleaned the caked rust with Naval jelly.
Is the bore that bad or is it just outside?
I once had a Norwegian Krag that was similar. Same type of story, except the one I had was apparently used for sealing. The bore was mint, however I only fired one shot out of it. The chamber was corroded, but you couldn't tell. When I fired the one round, the brass expanded, however it wasn't able to be extracted. It took a cleaning rod and mallet to get it out. I quickly sold it as a parts gun (still even had the full length stock) afterwards. The one shot I did shoot, did hit the x at 100m though, so it was certainly accurate.
Sea salvage? I've never heard that, can you please shed some light?Quote:
Originally Posted by Krieger82
It was a term someone came up with years ago. The finns apparently had a habit of taking guns that had been through the ringer, stripping them, rebluing them and pressing them back into service. Someone coined the term "sea salvage" as an explanation (the thought being that they drudged up rifles from sunken transport ships and reconditioned them). There is a small snippet about it over on mosinnagant.net, or at least there used to be. I was curious if anyone on here has encountered one of these and if it is what they looked like. I have never seen anything quite like it before.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fjordforder
Very, very interesting, I've never heard of that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Krieger82
A visitor to Finland in the post war years once asked ,"Why do the Finns all change their motor oil in the garden?"
The Finn replied."So the guns won't rust." :cheers:
I had a M 39 that shot like a house afire, but one side of the action and barrel in places had been very rusty, and had a texture like material. You could see the weave marks it left behind.
I might have been a bit macabre, but to me it looked like a former custodian had rotted (or his clothes had! ) on to it. Cloth had obviously been in contact with that side for a prolonged wet period.
Bore was beautiful.
Hadn't been re-blued, it was more in the white.
Wondered sometimes why I sold it. I do a lot of wondering about things like that!
krieger82 your finn is marked SK.Y, indicating that it is one issued to the home guard. it is one of only 10,500 ever made in that configuration. a rare bird. you will find more info on this site. jrboon.
I had a metallurgist friend look at these photos. He's spent years forging and treating metals and says the "Dredged up" story is total BS. He pointed out that there are only two "layers" visible in the metal, and said that seawater and brine wouldn't leave marks that shallow. He showed an example of what the metal *would* look like, an old chain he pulled out of some beach. He also says that the metal's looking like that is most consistant with someone quickly dunking the rifle in some sort of acid, just for a moment before pulling it out. If he's right (and I have no reason to doubt him), there's much more to this mystery. It's a longshot and a bit dramatic but maybe the story of sunken ships was just a lie used to sell acid-dunked rifles to the unwary? If so it'd be a serious operation I suspect, not unlike that auctioneer selling "U-Boat ignition keys" years ago. Improbable? Yes. Impossible? No.
Is that also the Sako logo as well?