Question Original Mosin Nagant snipers being offered in the UK

[meyerse]

Just found these photos of my sniper variant, no serial number on the left of the receiver.........a few of these in our club and I dont recall seeing the serial number on the left of the receiver on any of them, the caliber is a common mark here along with other stampings.............bit of a mystery to me..........is the stamping in the same Cyrillic script or is it western/Roman numerals style....?

You'll notice the rifle serial number stamped on the scope mount, is this where you are seeing it ??

Is this rifle pictured a Tula or Izhevsk?
Is it a 3 or 4 number serial ( along with two characters)
What year is it?

[popeye]

I know here is the USA we have been flooded with "Soviet Snipers" for the last 10 years or so. When they flooded the market with Nagants I was buying them in bulk for as cheap as $25 for 10 or more. Folks at the gun shows were not buying them anymore. Suddenly they were coming in with refinished stocks, new blueing or paint (but the same sewer pipe barrels) and folks started buying them again. Then the snipers poured in all in the same condition. Not a single one of those were real. The barrels had little to no rifling left int them. Many of the scopes had the same serial numbers (they figures no one would ever notice). I even think Sarco and some others are importing reproduction scopes for them.
I have a feeling you guys are getting the same Russian recreations of what a USSR sniper should look like. Don't get me wrong I love Nagants that was the first military surplus rifle I ever bought when I was 15 and now 30 plus rifles later I still enjoy their history.

[MarkV]

There is a big difference between the repro snipers that came/come in and the refurbished rifles. The same holds with the standard 91/30s. Many of the recent imports (within the past 5 years) have come out of Ukraine and its storage facilities. Most of those rifles are refurbished - just like the M1 Carbines and Garands of the US - after the war and then bulk stored. Most are in good condition - but of course there are still bad bores to be found. That isn't the norm, though.

The repros are easy to spot - scopes are close to original but not exact; they use flathead screws on the scopes, not rounded, etc. And they are many times built on pre-PU rifles.

[Lugerlout]

Is this rifle pictured a Tula or Izhevsk?
Is it a 3 or 4 number serial ( along with two characters)
What year is it?

Izhevsk, 1942, two cyrillic characters followed by four numbers.........serial is repeated on several places on the rifle including the bayonet...!!

[meyerse]

Izhevsk, 1942, two cyrillic characters followed by four numbers.........serial is repeated on several places on the rifle including the bayonet...!!

I suspect your rifle may not be an original sniper given this info and your picture.
Scope is okay, would need better pictures to say on the mount and base.
But of course there are exceptions to my notes.

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Izhevsk, 1942, two cyrillic characters followed by four numbers.........serial is repeated on several places on the rifle including the bayonet...!!

I suspect your rifle may not be an original sniper given this info and your picture.
Scope is okay, would need better pictures to say on the mount and base.
But of course there are exceptions to my notes.