Stock Repairs - The Best, Worst, Most Numerous, Beautiful

[gregsteb]

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[SA1911a1]

I have one with the wooden pins that look like Frankensteins stitching, much like the first you posted. It was the only one I had ever seen. Thanks for posting.

[SA1911a1]

I am just weird enough to be willing to pay a premium price for a rifle with a really nice repair. As a very amateurish wood worker, I appreciate the skill and imagination for some of those fixes.

[gregsteb]

I am just weird enough to be willing to pay a premium price for a rifle with a really nice repair. As a very amateurish wood worker, I appreciate the skill and imagination for some of those fixes.

I couldn't agree with you more. The repairs really add character and make the rifle unique. The rifle I posted above is such a cobbled mess, it is awesome. Splice at the handgrip. Stock splice and fingerjoint at the nose. Screwed escrutchions front, pressed in the rear. All with a pre war stock. I'd have sure thought they would have thrown in the towel, but they kept plugging away. In our disposeable society, it really makes you appreciate the time and effort.

[Crackerbrown]

gregsteb,that IS awesome!!

[MarksmanTim]

Here is one of my M28's with a cool stock repair in the "usual" place.

I don't have pictures of my M39 on this computer or I would post mine, but I'm surprised no-one posted up the typcial M39 round plug repair yet! I'll leave that torch for the next poster...

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[one finger john]

Dare I add that most repairs were made with a hand saw and chisel. And a drill.

John

[Crackerbrown]

This is the best thread ever! Keep 'em coming please.

[one finger john]

I was also thinking who did the repairs? Wood workers, of course. Also prisoners conscripted into the repairs. Young children? 12 year old girls who were taught how to do one particular repair. Off to the reman factory after the house work was finished. Most of us here seem to be older, so a man aged 55 then would be considered old enough that he would not be fit for military service. Too old for service but not too old to serve in the factories. Maybe older women also.
How 'bout the factories themselves. Dark, noisy, accidents waiting to occur. Little Mom & Pop repair places dispersed through out the forrest. Maybe that little 12 year old girl nipped off a finger in the repair of that stock you now covet. Call 911? EMTs there in 4 minutes? Sew the digit back on and live happily ever after? Nope.

As Crackerbrown has said, this is a very organic part of the Mosin Nagant heritage. I would like to see more examples.

There are lots of heavy hitters here that have not contributed. Please, contribute.

John

[Junk Yard Dog]

The Romanian ones look like field level repairs, field armorers fixing things as needed and sending the rifles back out the door. The repairs show a higher level of skill than some kid or drunken old fart hauled in to work. They also show a uniformity of style that suggests standard military field repair. Something trained to those who would be armorers attached to company's in the field. Medical care was guaranteed to all under the commie system and paid for by the state, what kind of care that might have been I do not know. Field or arsenal, there would have been no tiny mom and pop operations , not under the commies who embraced centralized control of everything. Mom and Pop operations would be hard to control, and it would mean weapons in hands outside of the system, and state supervision.

[one finger john]

My post was perhaps romanticized, part conjecture, part educated guess.
With the work force depleted by the war and economics it would only make sense to use what ever skilled or semi-skilled labor that was available. Including old drunks and children above a certain age. As long as they got the job done. Munitions were made by younger women (I've seen pictures). Bombers, fighters, rifles, and munitions were made here in the USA by women. I can not see it being different in another industrialized country that is at war. Workplace injuries happen all the time. Having a ready replacement who is young (they learn quicker), motivated (there's a war on), hard working (young, work longer, with better return rates etc.) is called having a backup plan. Plan B. Plan B being more old men (remember that 55 or 60 was towards the end of life for a lot of people back then) (drunk or otherwise) or women & children. In a sense, we truly live in a different world today. 55 is the new 40.
Most of the time recent history can be found if one looks hard enough. It is how well this history is documented and how much effort is used to find it. A trip to Google will sometime suffice. Sometimes Wikipedia. But there will always be times when it wont be enough or the information provided "just" wont be what is asked for. This is one of those times. And what do we use when we don't have solid proof? Educated guesses, conjecture, and romance. If someone here has knowledge of the life in an armory, or the ways factories were organized and run after the 1900s in the Russia, please share.

John


John

[Junk Yard Dog]

Romania would have started using these rifles just after WW2, what you see are what the rifles looked like when the last group of soldiers training with them in the early 1980's turned them in. These rifle saw use during the 1960's and 1970's. lots of skilled labor around, but no money, the big cheese over there was using it all to construct a new capital building that you could fit ours in and still have room. I have spoken to some Romanian immigrants who's fathers were part of that army ( conscripts) they remember using bolt rifles, only the crack troops had the Ak"s ( read most loyal to the party)

[one finger john]

Back to stock repairs !

[Alsky]

I'm not sure what the Finns were thinking when they used plywood to repair this stock. But it was a bad idea - soft & spongy too.

[airbornetrooper]

Alsky, believe you have the first M28/76 in the thread!

Sadly this one is no longer in my collection... 1943 Hex receiver Tikka M91/30

[one finger john]

Bump, Bump, Bump - don't be a chump. We need more stock repairs

Last one was on Feb. 12, 2015.

Also, blonds, brunettes, and my fave, redheads. Also tiger stripes, grainy, knarly walnuts, and any other stock oddities on stock stocks.

Let's see em.

John

[ffeng31]

Romanian spliced PTG M91 ...

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[one finger john]

Thank you ffeng31!

Wonder what M-53s were like. Again, from pristine to god awful. Or interesting.

Taking my 35lb Mac G4 into the doctor today at 2:30. For some repair work by the Mac Genius. Might be a quick fix or it may stay awhile. It's 14 years old (don't know what that is in either dog years or human years), hope it can be repaired.

Anyway, KEEP those stock repairs coming in and I will communicate with y'all soon.

John

[sapishka]

of course out of these great repair pics ,those FINN splices are as built ,not repairs. 3 versions early middle and late war "if you will" lack of a better term. Round ,pointed and square Finnish stock joints . amazing quality of precision having them so precisely , you can gage time frame by the type of joint in the Finn stock ,round finger joint version is my personal favorite .


sapishka

[clayshooter2]

SCW 1916 Peter The Great.