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Posted: 5/26/2013 10:56:38 AM EDT
| I am looking to take a 1934 Izhevsk Mosin with a hex receiver off of my friend's hands. I noticed that it has an engraved S/N on the bolt and the butt plate. Does that mean that the parts were force matched? |
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I believe that if they were force-matched, there would be an old S/N that would be stricken over, and the new one stamped by it. If it's just engraved then It may be original. I'm not 100% about when the Soviets used electro-pencil instead of stamping. You may have a point. The normal places where the stamped S/N would normally be (on the bolt, magazine floor plate, and butt plate), that's where it is engraved and matches the stamped S/N on the barrel. I do not see a stricken over "original" S/N in those 3 locations. [Edit] Just found this - see Electropenciled numbering is another method of renumbering secondary parts during a refurbishment which was done freehand rather than with a stamping die #41-44 about halfway down the page: http://62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinSerial.htm |
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Quoted:
So basically, that's nothing to shy away from?
Replacement parts were blank and often electro-pencilled when installed as a refurb. Very few surplus rifles that saw action or were used in training have the original parts. A force match would be if the parts were overstamped or struck and redone. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
So basically, that's nothing to shy away from?
Replacement parts were blank and often electro-pencilled when installed as a refurb. Very few surplus rifles that saw action or were used in training have the original parts. A force match would be if the parts were overstamped or struck and redone. No. The vast majority of refurbished 91/30s are actually "force matched". Even if the rifle has matching numbers that are stamped, chances are that they were restamped to match. Some will have line outs, overstamps, or electro-penciled numbers, so the stamped numbers are preferred for their appearance, but having stamped numbers certainly does not guarantee that all the parts on that rifle are the ones that it originally left the factory with (which is usually not the case). |
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Serial numbers on my 91/30 1943 Izhevsk:
-Floorplate, old serial number lined out, new one electropenciled to match the barrel (came off another gun) -Buttplate, electropenciled, no lined-out old serials (definitely an arsenal replacement part) -Bolt, electropenciled, no lined-out old serials (definitely an arsenal replacement part) Electropencilling is a sure sign of a force-match. However, a lot of these rifles had unnumbered arsenal replacement parts put on them. Thus, even though there are no old serial numbers lined-out and it seems like the gun retains the original factory stamped serial numbers, the rifle could still be technically "force-matched", it's just done tastefully to make it look 100% original matching. Think about it. If you are the frugal Russians trying to hoard up and refurbish and rearsenal millions of obsolete guns for the day the west invades, are you going to go through each gun and individually refurbish them, then put the original parts together? No way, you do it in batches. Forget about originality and satisfying the tastes of a collector sometime in the future. |
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