The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

New member, just wanted to post my new RGUNS Mosin. I lucked out getting this nice an example I think. It'll now sit on my fireplace mantle, waiting to snipe unsuspecting guests who say "what is this?" into having to withstand a lecture on the finer points of sharpshooting during the Great Patriotic War.

Very nice! Welcome to the forum.

Welcome to the forum, nice PU, and background, I see you have been collecting commie relics other than firearms) also

That is a thing of beauty... I really need to get one.

You got a beauty!

very nice example of a PU. And RGUNS seal of approval!

And others say they are out of the good ones and just the bottom of the barrel is left, well, that is a darn nice bottom! I have seen some of the best rifles coming out of there lately. They claim that they open a case and grab the next one and don't pick. I think they have proven that is true.

Welcome to the forum and boy did you start your posts off on a very high note!

Dolk

Welcome mr. Scratch and welcome to your Mosin sniper too.

dolk wrote: And others say they are out of the good ones and just the bottom of the barrel is left, well, that is a darn nice bottom! I have seen some of the best rifles coming out of there lately. They claim that they open a case and grab the next one and don't pick. I think they have proven that is true.

The impression I got from talking to them on the phone (in a futile effort to fanagle myself a Tula) was that they get these into their shop in batches from a warehouse. So it might be possible to hit the "bottom of the barrel" for a number of weeks or months, but that later down the road the supply will be refreshed and a whole new selection of snipers made available.

From my research on the forums, it appears that RGUNS has been offering these fairly steadily since 2007 or so, so there must be a considerable supply they've tapped into, and if they still have beauties like this to offer, they likely have quite a number left to go.

Little history of the RGUN snipers.

Tuco (C0-Gun Boards Owner) heard of the rifles for sale in the Ukraine 2 to 3 years before they went on sale with RGUNS. He understood no one wanted to import them at that time as they felt there was not enough demand for them at the $800 level. When he went to find them he discovered RGUNS had bought them and imported them. He knows the rifles and knows they are real.

They were originally WWII used sniper rifles and later used by the police. After service with the police they were returned to the military and refurbished and stored until RGUNS bought them. Some will say that the story that they were police rifles is just a story made up by those trying to sell them, but as it adds no value to the rifle to have been used by the police, it it generally believed to be true.

Many of the PU snipers on the market (not RGUN snipers) are put together rifles . Century did some of that by buying original PU parts and rifles without scopes on them and putting them together. They carry the Century import mark.

SAMCO sold Yugo PU snipers without the mounts and scopes. Many people bought these and added original PU scopes and mounts. The problem with them is, they were PU snipers sent to Yugoslavia by the Soviets with many M44's and other Mosins. Yugoslavia never used Mosins post war as they were using 8mm. They removed the optics and used them on their rifles until they started producing their own optics. That is why the SAMCO PU snipers have no optics on them. So they are a "put together by someone here in the US" sniper. Not an arsenal rifle. They carry the SAMCO import marks.

RGUNS are the only "known" PU snipers for sale that can be confirmed where they came from. That comfirmation also came from someone other than RGUNS. Yes they are all in a different state of re-refurbishment. Some are rifles that obviously had damage during the war and parts were replaced, and other are almost entirely original. But all the work was done by the arsenals, not a "civilian". They carry the RGUNS stamp on the top of the receiver in a very small font, and RGUNS has never done that with their other imports. They have used a slightly larger font or a very large font and always on the side of the receivers of the other M91/30's (non snipers) that they imported. This is how you can tell if someone took a RGUNS imported M91/30 and turned it into a fake PU sniper. The import marks (which you are not allowed to alter) will be under the mount on on the side of a fake. So the stamp on the top is the "seal of approval" that these rifles are the "real deal". ;)

Dolk

Thanks for the excellent background on the RGUNS mosin snipers, Dolk. That will make useful reference.

What do you think of the ATI snipers? The ones I've seen pics of look good to me and I' feel pretty sure they're legit, though they don't have the same solid provenance as the RGUNS versions.

Mr. Scratch wrote:What do you think of the ATI snipers? The ones I've seen pics of look good to me and I' feel pretty sure they're legit, though they don't have the same solid provenance as the RGUNS versions.

The problem is, there is no information of where these rifles came from. There is speculation that they were put together rifles from ex-snipers and that this work may have been done in Russia, but not in the arsenals. But instead by civilians today. They lend themselves to this theory because they don't match the scope numbers to the rifles and when they do the fonts are wrong indicating someone force matched these, and with the wrong modern fonts.

I don't know, but for what they are getting, why not buy a RGUNS? No point to it. The last of the "known" snipers were sold to RGUNS, so where did they come from? Too many questions. They may end up legit, but only time will tell.

Dolk

That is a very nice looking rifle. Thanks for sharing and Welcome to the Forum