That's kind of what I thought, that there were so many of them dumped on the market. On the other hand, I have a camera made in Ukraine made after the fall of USSR and mechanically it is pretty bad. Optics are fine though. So I thought perhaps the rifles had mechanical problems. However, yours was made in 1943, and many seem to be from The Great War, so quality had to be good back then. What do you do to get the cosmolineicon off? I have a mauser that I need to clean that is all syruped up with the stuff. I was going to try the steam cleaning method, but wasn't sure if it was good for the wood and/or metal. Your opinion?