New M44 - anything wrong with this please guys?

[sutts]

Looks fine to me and seems to be a wartime stock. Can anyone see anything wrong/out of place with it please?

Thanks!

[Junk Yard Dog]

I see worn blue, oil finished stock, no huge side receiver import mark banner, looks correct for one of the early import Romanian hoard rifles. Lucky find, I suspect there's maybe one of these for every 20 Soviet refurb M44's. Some of that lot can be pretty beat up, yours isn't, looks similar to a couple I have from that lot. Good find.

[sutts]

Thanks for the quick information. Can I confirm this is a Russian manufactured weapon and not Romanian? I see on the Romanian info page they have the same triangle mark on the receiver.

Cheers

[millman]

Thanks for the quick information. Can I confirm this is a Russian manufactured weapon and not Romanian? I see on the Romanian info page they have the same triangle mark on the receiver.

Cheers

It is Russian. The triangle marks are similar, but not the same.

[sutts]

Thank you, I feel better now. I love this forum.

[bunkysdad]

The triangle on the Romanian has small PRP letters at the triangle. You have a nice carbine. You can be proud of that one

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

[sutts]

Thank you, good to know. Has the shellac been stripped off this at some point or were they sometimes issued with an oil finish?
Most M44 I see are quite a bit darker.

[steelbuttplate]

That's looking like original shellac. Russians were made '43-'48. Romanians , Polish, Hungary not 'til the 50's. Yours was likely used by Romania after Russia had it. Nice one.

[mogunner]

1943-44 barrel used on a 1945, not the usual huge front sight base normally found on 1945 and up. I've run across a few but not that many.

[Longcolt44]

The only thing wrong that I can see is it's not mine.

[qz2026]

Nice rifle. You will like it. How's the bore?

Can I confirm this is a Russian manufactured weapon and not Romanian? I see on the Romanian info page they have the same triangle mark on the receiver.

JYD wasn't saying that the rifle was manufactured in Romania. The Russians sent/sold quite a large number of M-44's (and other rifles) to their satellite countries. Right or wrong I just call these Balkan's... When those folks upgraded their weapons, many if not the majority, went to Romania for a "refurbishment" of sorts (Cugir, Romania) and were then exported. You will see original (non shellacked) stocks, mismatched numbers, a lack of cleaning rods (in many cases), often very worn to no bluing, and a mixture of Russian/Hungarian/Romanian parts - all possible. I've even seen a Chinese bolt. This is what he means when he refers to these as the Romanian hoard. Overall these are pretty nice rifles with some having pristine bores. Until fairly recently, you could find these very cheap I suppose because of the things I mentioned above. Of the ones I purchased, many caused me to be pleasantly surprised...

[sutts]

Thanks for all the help guys, interesting stuff. The bore is clean and bright but I'm not sure about the spec yet - still have to pick it up.
Can anyone point me to an information source on how the woodwork left the wartime Russian factories please? I'd like to educate myself on things like type of wood used, finish applied etc. For instance was shellac just applied during refurbs? Perhaps a lighter colored shellac was used originally and the darker shellac applied post war?

Anyhow, great to know it's not an obvious dud.

[Junk Yard Dog]

The Russians, and later the Soviets used birch for the stock wood, they then applied shellac. Cheap, and effective enough. The Mosin was produced outside of the USSR in various buffer states, China, and even in the USA during the Great War, each had their own woods and finishes. Shellac can be in any shade from red so dark it looks black to the lightest piss yellow, there seemed to be no set standard for color, most post war refurbs are some shade of red. Age also darkens shellac, conditions of storage can impact it, remember the bulk of the refurbs have been in this country in private hands for 15-20 years, the storage they saw during this time can also impact the color, or condition of the shellac.

[sutts]

Thanks JYD, good info.

[Darryl]

To show what JYD is talking about. Here are just a few.

http://www.thedolk.com/junk/Technical/Carbine_colors/




.

[P_mo80]

I'm sold! Thats pretty cool.

[Longcolt44]

I collected one of each year they were issued, does this mean I need to find one of each color too??

[Junk Yard Dog]

I did the same thing, but I didn't think to collect them by color shade, I just grabbed extras.....well, just because.

[Denny-]

I collected one of each year they were issued, does this mean I need to find one of each color too??

Absolutely! Then you need to find one in each type of stock splice . It never ends. Denny

[Matt556]

I would like one with every serial number!