Christmas in July . . .

[jjjxlr8]

Got any pictures of the low cut Izhevsk mounts?

[mike radford]

Got any pictures of the low cut Izhevsk mounts?

I found pictures of 3 such mounts. Two should be enough to post. The only rifle nearby right now also has an Izhevsk mount with the center cut, but it is yet to be photoed making 4 with just a quick check. They vary.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Picture is old. I have added a few since.

Wow. You have cornered the market. Nice looking Mosin family photo.

[fn111557]

Decided to start cleanup of the stock. Removed ALL metal (except stock escutcheons), and started with hot water damped sponge and “Murphy’s Oil Soap”. This worked good getting the cosmoline off the wood, but soon discovered most of the shellac was flaking off. It looked like a BAD Sun Burn peeling off. After I was sure I had removed all the cosmoline, I thought I would try chemical removal of the rest of the shellac. Since the top hand guard looked like the best coated section, with no noticeable markings, I decided to start there. I sprayed Brake Cleaner on to a paper towel until it was saturated. I lightly wiped in short strokes, with the grain, and watched the old shellac disappear. As the paper towel would get full of shellac, or dry out, I would re-spray and continue. Never spray on the wood, and only use light strokes with the grain of the wood. It appears I have managed to get down to a clean wood surface with some highlighting of the old stamps and marks showing.
I hope it is not considered too much of an insult, but I HATE shellac so I’ll just apply several coats of “Tru-Oil” over the wood to preserve it.
Here are some pictures of how the wood looks now. If you can recognize any stamps/markings I would love to know what they are.
Thanks for everyone’s support!
Fred











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MORE PICS.











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MORE PICS.











---------- Post added at 09:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:35 PM ----------

LAST ONES (for now)

[jjjxlr8]

Oh man. You just ruined a nice rifle.

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I feel sick, now, and must look away.

[Aragorn243]

Rifle looks fine.

Some people think that these 91/30's of which 37 million were produced and 36 million of them are currently in the United States (slight sarcasm) are going to be worth money someday with that crap called shellac which was put on them for STORAGE purposes. That stuff wouldn't last three days out in the field.

[Aragorn243]

That's very curious as I did not post the previous message, nor use the quote function.

What I said was:

Don't worry about your rifle, it looks fine and as there were about 37 million of them produced, they are never going to be worth much with or without the shellac put on them for storage purposes that would not last 3 days in the field.

[jjjxlr8]

That's very curious as I did not post the previous message, nor use the quote function.

What I said was:

Don't worry about your rifle, it looks fine and as there were about 37 million of them produced, they are never going to be worth much with or without the shellac put on them for storage purposes that would not last 3 days in the field.

This wasn't a typical M91/30 rifle, it was an original (although refurbished) WWII PU Sniper made by Tula. People who are very much "in the know" when it comes to these rifles estimate that there are between 5000 and 8000 of these rifles imported to the US. Only a very small percentage of those are Tulas.

Shellac is the original finish on these rifles, not something unique for "storage purposes."


Obviously the rifle really isn't ruined, just the resale/collector value.

[Aragorn243]

The resale/collector value is in the eyes of the beholder. The finish on these has been debated endlessly and there is no final word on what is, what was original to a WWII rifle. As the shellac will not hold up under very mild conditions, it most certainly would not hold up under battle conditions and in this instance it was applied during the refurbishment prior to storage. As shellac seems to only appear on the recent wave of imported refurbished rifles and not on the earlier non-import marked rifles, it was most likely not original to the rifle.

[jjjxlr8]

It was certainly a refurbished finish, but the Russians have been using shellac on rifles (not just Mosin Nagants) for MANY years.

What do you mean by "recent wave?" Rifles imported in the last 20 years?