And No, The stamped B.O. does not stand for who you think it does































































It isn't a refurb because of that square looking stamping on the bolt carrier, that's just some inspection mark, but it does look to have been lightly reshellac'd, as evidenced by the darker "fill" inside of all of the cartouches and buttstock stampings. If I am right about it being reshellac'd and I may be wrong, I wonder if it was done by the Russians or by a previous owner. By the color of the shellac, I'm guessing the Russians, but if so, why did they not sand everything, as would be more common.Bareassmeagain wrote:Are you guys talking about the bolt carrier and or the dust cover ? I can take better pics if needed. I do believe it is a light referb do to the bolt carrier. Right ? The only thing is ive never seen a 53 with differant stampings on either. But I really dont know what im looking for in a 53 non referb either
Drago wrote:It isn't a refurb because of that square looking stamping on the bolt carrier, that's just some inspection mark, but it does look to have been lightly reshellac'd, as evidenced by the darker "fill" inside of all of the cartouches and buttstock stampings. If I am right about it being reshellac'd and I may be wrong, I wonder if it was done by the Russians or by a previous owner. By the color of the shellac, I'm guessing the Russians, but if so, why did they not sand everything, as would be more common.Bareassmeagain wrote:Are you guys talking about the bolt carrier and or the dust cover ? I can take better pics if needed. I do believe it is a light referb do to the bolt carrier. Right ? The only thing is ive never seen a 53 with differant stampings on either. But I really dont know what im looking for in a 53 non referb either
I think it's a wonderful specimen, refurb or not. My feelings on refurb vs non-refurb have evolved to the point where, personally, I'd rather have a nice refurb. Of course, that's coming from someone who recently sold all his refurbs, save one Izhevsk.

