The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

When I was buying the lastest M44 from my friend, I dropped some hints about this one. He decided he was a seller. It's got some cool trench art, like the Serbian Cross, and I assume the artist's signature Nenad. I looked up Nenad, and it is a boys name, that means "Surprise". Apparently the younger of twins is often named this. Who knew? I didn't.
I do hope that Nenad was not injured when that bullet or shrapnel went through the butt stock.
I have to fix the mag release pin, but beyond that it looks pretty good. I also got 4 30 round mags, mag pouch, and 175 rds of ammo.

I also got a replacement butt stock, but I'll not be using it.

Awesome on so many levels and so much to like.....Trench art, battle damage, the rifle itself, etc. Awesome catch there....!

That is a very interesting rifle. Congrats on becoming the custodian! The name Nenad is a Serbian name meaning "unexpected." It was common to give to the second born (surprise) twin. Of course, it could be referring to an "unexpected threat." We can assume that the rifle was used by "irregular" forces, because, in any army in the world, defacing a "gu'ment" rifle like that would get a trooper in more trouble than he could get out of. Personalizing equipment seemed to be a big thing during the recent Balkin wars.

I have an M-44 that, attributed to the Balkins wars, a Polish rifle, that has been "decorated" in a couple of ways; the bluing was carefully removed from all of the exposed surfaces leaving the rifle "in the white" The name "Yael" was carved on both sides (along with three strong hash marks and some other unknown to me symbols.) As it turns out, Yael is a heroine from the Hebrew bible. A rather tough broad who drove a tent spike through a sleeping tyrant's head, thus saving the tribe. (You got to hate it when that happens) While most of us, at least I, don't think of the Balkins wars in terms of Jewish conflict, there is a strong Jewish population in the region. In fact, some claim that Serbia is the lost 13th tribe of the Jews.

These kinds of pieces, while not appealing to the more sophisticated collectors who want NIB pieces, bring color to the black and white world of weapons collecting. While I do like my pristine, unissued, Polish M-44, this one has a more interesting history:

Great looking rifle, congrats!

I made a new mag release pin and finally got that silly thing back together, so I took it out for a test run. It works great. Big fun.