Everyone knows the two-part Finn stock splices done for cold weather service, but an interesting area of Mosins to me is Soviet stock repair, particularly the refurb repairs of wartime damage.
I have bought several stocks just because I liked the repairs.
When I was in Ukraine I was told that wartime wood refurb was done by skilled woodworkers from Eastern Ukraine who used to make boxes and toys. Some of the repairs on my stocks are yacht-quality woodworking, doing what sailors call "Dutchman" wood splices inlaid into cut out damaged areas very precisely. One of my stocks has 4 separate repairs on one stock.
The repairs show a " let nothing go to waste" attitude, plus the skilled work of some of the war effort that has been forgotten. The stock shown still has frag imbedded in it, but was made servicable again.
Here are a few repairs:
Well, the photos didn't download too well...
The repair under/behind the nose cap is a very common one..not sure why this area seemed to need the repair..weak?? anyway I see it in that place over and over so I wonder if it was due to some practice of the individual soldier..perhaps stowing the reversed bay
In defense of my argument I'll put forward the Enfield rifle... the almost mandatory stock repair at the top of buttplate was I believe due to the English practice of slamming the but down when coming to attention(sorry do not know the correct Empire terminology)
I love cool stock repairs too..not a Mosin but the seller never mentioned this one and the guys in the store thought I was losing it I was so pleased..Great seller, it was an auction.. $50 with fair descrip of Junk wall hanger
The repair under/behind the nose cap is a very common one..not sure why this area seemed to need the repair..weak?? anyway I see it in that place over and over so I wonder if it was due to some practice of the individual soldier..perhaps stowing the reversed bay
In defense of my argument I'll put forward the Enfield rifle... the almost mandatory stock repair at the top of buttplate was I believe due to the English practice of slamming the but down when coming to attention(sorry do not know the correct Empire terminology)
I love cool stock repairs too..not a Mosin but the seller never mentioned this one and the guys in the store thought I was losing it I was so pleased..Great seller, it was an auction.. $50 with fair descrip of Junk wall hanger
Here are three T53s with stock repairs. Two are copper with tiny tacks spaced very closely around the perimeter. It must have taken a long time to do. The third is a steel strap which is also nailed with tacks. I unfortunately do not know any of the history of these rifles. I got them in a pawn shop lot with several other beat up T53s. The patches are surprisingly sturdy.
Tom
Looks like they used a tool called a plug saw to cut out frag damage from imbedded metal in the stock. I have two "battlefield" rifles that still have small bits of iron frag imbedded in the stock with small black oxidation around it.
Here is a New England Westinghouse on a multi-recycled stock. The experts got together and figured that is was a Dragoon/Cossack stock that was used on an M91rv and then later repaired and spliced to create an M91 stock. Also repaired around the receiver.
One of my 91/30 refurbs have some stock repairs that are really cool, and look like might have been from shrapnel or bullets. I will post as soon as I can get some decent pics tonight.
Here are some cool stock repairs on my 1925 up-dated Dragoon "Katalin"...are these stock repairs typical of shrapnel repairs, or just a weak area on the stock?...
Hard to tell - repairs on the stock's upper surface could be from falling objects, frag or whacking some Nazi over der stahlhelm after blocking his bayonet! (Also, dropping it out of a truck while drunk, but we won't mention that...) Frag repairs usually have an impact point cut out of the main stock body with some fancy inlay work and sometimes you can see smaller discolorations where the imbedded iron has oxidized into little spots.
("French rifle for sale - never fired ,only dropped once..."
Amen to that Mauserhooked! I just enjoy the crap out of threads like this about repairs and after seeing them through the years it never fails to amaze me that everytime this subject is touched on there are a bunch of new never shown before repairs. They sure tried to keep things in one piece one way or the other. It used to be only the Finns were given Kudos for their repairs but now people are starting to show and others are starting to realize it wasn't just the Finns that repaired stock with much ingenuity. Great Pictures folks! Bill
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