To buy or not to buy

[Micheal Doyne]

So based on the photos, would I be fair to say the rifle probably was an actual PU sniper, with a nasty refinish. Still, the scope is a post-war Ukrainian reproduction built in a factory that made the originals?

Or is the rifle made up sniper?

[Micheal Doyne]

My found thus thread interesting, it has some better photos and some discussion. https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/world...sniper-284349/

[Gil Boyd]

Micheal,
The word Composite, written by those who know better, ALWAYS worries me. Just tread carefully and be guided by the words of those on here and elsewhere, which you have listened to as part of your evaluation of the rifle.
Looks square to me with the exception of the scope as already identified, but thats no great shakes if you get the "well varnished" and treasured rifle by a previous owner, for the right price!!

[Singer B]

So based on the photos, would I be fair to say the rifle probably was an actual PU sniper, with a nasty refinish. Still, the scope is a post-war Ukrainian reproduction built in a factory that made the originals?

Or is the rifle made up sniper?

Based upon what you can see in some pretty bad pictures, it is difficult to tell. If you could see a scope serial # stamped on the left side of the barrel/receiver, then I would postulate that it is a PU sniper with a reproduction scope. Otherwise, it is kind of a crap shoot. The refinishing of the stock and metal are of some concern but the poor pictures make it difficult to tell if it is the standard Russian refurb black finish or something else. Same with the stock.

For the right price, it might be worth a roll of the dice. For me, it would have to be significantly discounted due to the reproduction scope. Hope that helps!

[Micheal Doyne]

Cheers, I will probably roll the dice. I found an old thread discussing the same rifle, and have had a few more photos. Seller believes it is a real sniper rifle, are kitted with a real scope and mount. Another thread on another board from some time back seem to think it is a made up rifle using a real scope that was refurbished post war. There are a few more detailed pictures of the scope now up showing some of the original markings. Assuming I can get it for an ok price it might make an nice starting point to decided weather to branch out to a true all matching rifle.

[Surpmil]

Early on in the flood of Mosin's, a company in Ukraine who manufactured PU scopes in WW2 unmothbolled its equipment and made new production PU scopes. The distinguishing differences are the screw heads, as was already mentioned, and the serial numbers all started with "N". The bases can be recognized by a combination of milling marks that remained where they should have been smoothed out, and the rear "tabs" that would have been filed down in fitting providing the initial windage zero.

The two tapered rails on the back of the bracket were filed down until the base, mounts and rifle were collimated in the horizontal plane and square to each other in the vertical place. Once that was done, the vertical collimation was set with those two grub screws.

Without a doubt the most brilliant design for a scope mounting system in the WWII era, or perhaps any era.

The rifle and mounts could be collimated after the base was fitted to the rifle, with simple tools and moderate skills; unlike the complex and expensive fittings used elsewhere which either required machining in situ or skilled hand-fitting to achieve collimation.

And of course the detachable mount was easily replaced and re-collimated if lost or damaged.

[Gil Boyd]

..............................and rarely missed to!!