1944 Tula - Check out the receiver, pretty unusual font for "44"? I have not seen one like this and none of my other Mosins use this font
1945 Tula - Check out the sanding/scrubbing on the bolt knob. Pretty weird, I have not seen this before either.
1945 Izhevsk - Little bit of rust on the trigger guard, or that could be dried cosmo? I will find out when I clean it.
1945 Izhevsk - Little bit of a rusted front barrel band. No big deal to me, but I am going to pull these from the stocks to look for rust and pitting underneath the stock. Interesting fore end repair
1945 Izhevsk - Lots of arsenal marks on the stock on this one, really, they appear everywhere. Wish I knew what all of them meant.
Overall, I am very happy with both of these. First Tula Mosin I have had, lots of interesting marks and history with both of these. The bolt on the Izhevsk is super smooth, almost loose, like many of my other M44s, the bolt on the Tula is a bit sticker and may require a cosmoline hunt once the barrel heats up.
Neither rifle has much in the way of cosmoline, just traces of it and some waxy storage grease that doesn't feel like cosmo.
Trigger on the Tula is gritty and has a lot of take up, trigger on the Izhevsk has a little less take up and is a lot smoother. Both rifles came with cleaning rod, oil can, Mosin tool and cleaning rod attachment. No slings or ammo pouches. Both came with the Molot little brochure.
Both rifles have what I think is the Molot stamp near the tang?
While both rifles are interesting, the Tula, in particular, with it's Hungarian stock and rear sight, weird font on the "44" on the receiver and the unusual symbol underneath it, seems to be a bit out of the ordinary. Anyone have any interesting knowledge or observations about either rifle?
So I paid $179.00 for the Izhevsk and $229.00 for the Tula. I feel as if these rifles were an excellent buy and I am happy and proud to add them to my collection.
Hope all of you who ordered do just as well.