*** January 2007 Purchases ***

[BRAMEL]

This arrived yesterday.....1942 Sako M39, matching numbers.

[Stevo]

Bramel,
You're giving Claven a run for his Mosin money.

[sailorjosh]

My first milsurp!

[Claven2]

Bramel,
You're giving Claven a run for his Mosin money.

Is it a competition?

[tiriaq]

sailorjosh - over at CGN you were wondering about what you should do with respect to the appearance. Don't refinish. By all means gently clean it, but don't do any refinishing, hard scrubbing, sanding, wire wheeling, etc.
A couple of points. The magazine looks like a later Australian Lithgow, from the colour. If it is, you might want to eventually swap it for one contemporary with the rifle. Also, the nosecap appears to be one for a SMLE Mk. I rifle, not a III. What is written on the right side of the buttsocket, underneath the bolthandle?
Claven2 has said that he is not a Mosin collector; he therefore cannot be competing with Bramel.

[Oatmeal Savage]

I have a new,to me, 1945 Ishy No.1Mk.III* that I will post pics of in the next day or two. Is it weird to collect Ishy's?

Josh, nice SMLE

tiriaq, are Mk.I nose caps the same as the Ishy flat-siders?

[sailorjosh]

sailorjosh - over at CGN you were wondering about what you should do with respect to the appearance. Don't refinish. By all means gently clean it, but don't do any refinishing, hard scrubbing, sanding, wire wheeling, etc.
A couple of points. The magazine looks like a later Australian Lithgow, from the colour. If it is, you might want to eventually swap it for one contemporary with the rifle. Also, the nosecap appears to be one for a SMLE Mk. I rifle, not a III. What is written on the right side of the buttsocket, underneath the bolthandle?
Claven2 has said that he is not a Mosin collector; he therefore cannot be competing with Bramel.

The only reason I was really contemplating refinishing was because there are two patches where it looks like the finish came right off. The magazine isn't the one that came on the rifle, I got that off another SMLE sporter I have, the one that came with the rifle has pretty much no finish left so I slapped in the other one for the sake of the pictures. I'll get back to you on the other questions, I'm not at home right now.

[Claven2]

sailorjosh,

As soon as you refinish that rifle it will lose most of its value. Is the nosecap matching? If so, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest maybe it's a Con'd MkII or similar rifle made out of an earlier MkI SMLE or Long Lee.

Those nosecaps can bring $100 by themselves on the bay They are RARE.

[sailorjosh]

Here are some closeups of the markings and nosecap - thanks for the help everyone.







Also the bolt does not match. How do I tell if the nosecap matches? I don't see any numbers on it.

[tiriaq]

OK, the body looks to be Enfield 1917. BSA barrel, so it got rebarrelled at some time. The nosecap 15 years older than the body. The nosecap certainly looks as if it belongs on the stock. Front handguard looks to be a replacement. Its an interesting rifle.