The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

I like looking at classic guns on You Tube. I found a video that showed me how to fix my sons SKS and it was real easy and the part was like $5. My post is about the Bubba guns on there and how they love to use the word sniper. I will admit that I saw 1 maybe 2 that seemed to be well built and looked bad ass, some were just a total embarrassment to the MN rifle. One of them the guy added a scope and then cobbled up a stock then painted it with some clay colored textured spray can Rustoleum and then had the stones to call it a MN sniper rifle. What an abortion, made me sick to think that a once proud rifle gave its life for that. They like to say they are a modern version of the MN sniper rifle. I guess if a guy found one that had a very common rifle with a busted stock or unusable or unsafe as is then maybe do what you want just don't call it a MN Sniper because it isn't. Some of these dudes mention how many million of them were built and call it good thinking that makes it OK. I'd post a link to one that would make you toss your cookies but I won't.
I see lots of Bubba comments in the comment sections and figure they are from the good folks that live here.

Here's my ticket to the party and the word sniper can be used with pride and accuracy.
Joe

That's a real sweet looking sniper there Joe. I'd love to eventually be able to afford to pick up a "real" one, but not holding my breath. My favorite shooter is getting to be more and more accurate as I figure out how to shoot it, lol! I had a nice group this last weekend, high but not bad for these old eyes I don't think.

The bubba thing... I have to admit that when I purchased my first Mosin with my brand-spanking new C&R license, my thoughts were that if it was messed up a bit, I could just slap it into an ATI stock, scope it, etc, and have myself a "real" rifle. I wasn't sure if the company I bought it from was reputable, and had read a lot of horror stories on terrible experiences with some people's purchases across the years from all over.

Things changed a bit for me when that long brown box got dropped off. I have pictures of it as I unwrapped it, bubble-wrapped securely along with some really atrocious smelling ammo pouches.

When I picked the 1942 Tula round receiver 91/30 up, it was like it was an old friend, whispering to me of all the stories that it could tell me if only it could speak. The possibilities were unending, what this particular rifle might have gone through before being refurbished. Anything could have happened, from it's owner having been shot and killed before even having a chance to squeeze off a shot, to it's having been the pride and joy of a Russian soldier, who delighted in maintaining it as best he could, since it was his only protection against the enemy. Had there been blood spilled by it, or on it? Had it been dropped and lain forgotten on the battlefield after it's owner had been killed or injured? Was it issued to a clerk somewhere, and never given the privilege to defend it's country of birth? How many lives did it take during it's service? Did it ever save the entire squad from being wiped out, just due to it's unerring accuracy and the ability of it's shooter?

These are the thoughts that I had when I first held it, and not one drop of polyurethane will ever touch it's stock, nor will her barrel ever be shortened, or reblued. I do confess to doing some light stoning on the trigger spring bolt stop and bolt lugs though...

You Tube has a lot of good stuff and a lot of total crap, the trick is to find the good while avoiding the other.

Junk Yard Dog wrote:You Tube has a lot of good stuff and a lot of total crap, the trick is to find the good while avoiding the other.

Sure is, it's nice to look at crap they do just to keep your mind pure. The little SKS video really saved me, from what I was afraid to try to do turned out to be a 5 minute fix so it did good that day. The hedge post that painted the MN stock with the clay textured spray bomb was just about enough to make a guy toss his cookies...

Joe

You Tube is like that. One minute great, one minute dreck.

You have to be careful what you click on when exploring You tube, not everything on there is something you want to see

The true problem (for me anyway) is, the term or definition of "sniper".

They think it is basically any rifle with a scope on it. Or, more tactical stuff screwed on.

For me, it is a rifle designed and set apart by a military for the specific use as a "sniper rifle". That does not include "reproductions" or "fakes". A true sniper rifle was made by that military (or for them) and used, not a rifle taken later by a civilian and made in to something that resembles the original thing.

Their "fakes" are missing the most important thing...."History".
You can't screw on history or spray it from a spray can. It's there or it's not.


I understand their desire to own a "real sniper"....but lacking the funds to own one, they build one. The problem for me is "hacking up" a real piece of history to make a "fake" is a real shame. They say those rifles have no value or history because they are so cheap? Really? What does price have to do with history? Nothing! Every Mosin being imported fought in the same war as a "real Mosin Sniper" did. It has history just like the Mauser, Garand, Enfield...and on and on. You can't spray that on from a can.


Dolk

As time marches on it will become harder & more expensive to obtain a true Russian sniper rifle.

A great example would be a real deal Springfield 1903 Sniper next to a faked 1903 Sniper. Which is more valuable? Desirable? Look how much an unmolested original 1903 goes for these days.... The point is; If we don't preserve the weapons available today what will be available in the future? Leave them be & enjoy them for what they are.

Wish I could have bitch slapped good old Bubba that ruined a Remington MN I saw at a show and brought home. The markings looked like they were brand new, so well made. The wood looked great but of course was cut up as was the barrel. I kept it for a month or so then traded it back to the guy I got it from. He was a dealer but had no idea about Mil Surp stuff other than it was an old gun, he deals mostly with new stuff, AR 15 , handguns etc. I was lucky to get what I paid back in trade for a shotgun. Best markings I have seen on a MN and it was made by Remington here in the good old USA. Damn shame bet it was so pretty pre Bubba.

That is such a shame. You find something that started out as something really nice but ends up a dog turd.

Over and over again I have seen it, and the useless assholes that chop the rifles up think they are doing a good job. IQ's lower than my shoe size.

The Enfield sitting at Cabela's is worst obomination I've seen. The sad part is its standing next to it's untouched brothers and sisters. Every time I go there, I consider buying it just so I can put it back in a real stock. $120 would buy it, but I keep finding other things to spend my money on.

Morons...

MN Fan wrote:The Enfield sitting at Cabela's is worst obomination I've seen. The sad part is its standing next to it's untouched brothers and sisters. Every time I go there, I consider buying it just so I can put it back in a real stock. $120 would buy it, but I keep finding other things to spend my money on.

Morons...

Sometimes you just want to get it, bring it home, dig a hole & give it a proper burial.

Very true. The damn thing looks proud though. It hasn't given up yet. I hope that makes sense

I keep thinking with it sitting on the rack, maybe some bubba wannabe will buy it, therefore saving another from the same fate. Or, even better, he will see what a bubba looks like next to the real thing and suddenly see the light.

I was browsing used guns recently and a high school aged kid and his grandmother (I assume) walked over. He picked the Enfield up (among a hundred non-bubba rifles), shoulder it, aimed towards the ceiling and then set it back down. His grandmother said..."what's that one?". He replied "I don't know, some sort of .22". She replied "How do you know?". He got perturbed and said "I got my hunting license in Billings, Montana!".

I know I first had this face:
Followed by this one:

I know none of that makes any sense. Don't worry, that's how I felt too lol.

If its still sitting there towards summer, I'll bring it home.

I have met that kid a time or two, there used to be one like him standing behind the counter at a local gun shop. I remember the time he insisted that Singer Sewing Machine made the M1 Carbine, and that he had seen carbines with the Singer name on them, they were common. He refused to listen to my explanation about the contractors, and Winchester, or the ten names that are found on carbine receivers, he even got insulted. I offered him a hundred bucks if he could put such a carbine in my hands, I still have the hundred

JYD, the worst part about those kids is that they are related to the owner and know just enough to be dangerous. They can't be fired and are always there when you stop in

Until a rifle has been used to hunt men its not a sniper rifle............. its a long range rifle perhaps but not a sniper ;) These old PU snipers are sniper rifles. They were issued with the intent to hutn and kill the enemy. The RuSavWinREmmy off the walmart shelf is nothing but a loosely accuriZed rifle IE: a scope added etc........... just my 2 cents worth

Noble Sniper wrote:Until a rifle has been used to hunt men its not a sniper rifle............. its a long range rifle perhaps but not a sniper ;) These old PU snipers are sniper rifles. They were issued with the intent to hutn and kill the enemy. The RuSavWinREmmy off the walmart shelf is nothing but a loosely accuriZed rifle IE: a scope added etc........... just my 2 cents worth

+1

Well, it's the business that suffers in the long run because experienced guys like me will not put up with their bullshit and will call them on it making the shop look bad. New guys who listen to them eventually figure out they were given a line of crap and then a customer is lost. A lot of these guys fall into the mall ninja gun "expert" category, many people who want a gun but aren't gun people are put off by them, I never let them get away with bullshit'
You got that right Craig, I got a lot of long range shooters but none of them is a true sniper rifle, only the Hungarian M52 is such a rifle.