what to do with 43 Tula

[La Riviere Du Plain]

I have a question about the finish on this rifle. Would it harm any resale value to use some mineral spirits on this to take of the shellac? Bor would you guys leave it as is with the spotty finish?. I would not restain it. Just put some orange oil and beeswax on it afterwards.

[RickyG]

You have two problems here... obviously resale is your concern. While shellac is not original to the rifle it is orignal to the russian rifle... they did not issue and serve with the shellac originally but got shellaced when they went into storage. Unfortunately anything you do to remove the shellac will alter the rifle and likely lower resale. The good news is unless you have a matching sniper it wont generally be a high dollar rifle regardless.

[La Riviere Du Plain]

I'm not actually planning on selling it anytime soon! Hopefully a bunch of people have opinions about what they would do with it. (Pretend you would have the gun for another 20 years and let me know what you would do in that scenario). Thanks

[butlersrangers]

The finish is already hopelessly damaged. I would remove the remaining shellac and smooth out the scape marks in the wood.

If the resulting wood color and appearance are pleasing, I might then apply a new shellac finish, (using several applications of thinned shellac).

Note - Shellac can always be dissolved and removed with denatured alcohol.

[MooseNugget]

Most average Mosin's are not bringing in huge amounts of money when sold, however, they are appreciating in value. I recently sold a 91/30 for $450. The original finish had been removed and replaced with some clear satin coating. It also had some cracks that had to be dealt with. All in all it was an attractive rifle that someone thought worthy of being purchased.

I've also refurbished two 91's (Westinghouse and Remington) that turned out beautiful and both were sold together for over $1200 a number of years ago.

I do have one Mosin regret... an m44 that was a Vietnam bring back that a friend had given to me. It was in shabby shape and the barrel's bore was in very bad condition. I refinished the whole thing and made it all pretty but I feel I ruined it's historical value by doing so. My bad!

IMHO: It's your rifle so you do what you feel is best and agrees with your particular taste/interest.

Let me leave you with this scenario: I used to like watching Antiques Road Show. Two of the appraisers were named the Keno Brothers who appraised antique furniture. More often than not they would make a statement like "at auction your item would bring a gazillion dollars, however, since it's been refinished it'll only fetch about a hundred bucks!" Or something similar...you get the drift.

[butlersrangers]

To my eye, the OP's stock has already been messed with.
The metal appears nice.
So, I would make the wood look nice, too.
(Strip damaged shellac, maybe stain for nice color, and linseed oil finish or new shellac)

[Culpeper]

To remove or not to remove. That is the question. Whether it be nobler blah blah blah.

The question is how many of these were built for the war? Then How many were dumped in the US when the Soviets needed to rebuild their war machine? How many of that type is for sale on gunbroker? I would say hundreds if not thousands. So not rare.

As for "gaining in value" that is a function of overall inflation. Everything is up in price. Who bought a Garand at 450 when these things were 100? Same deal today. Something with intrinsic worth will always hold value against an inflated money supply. My $15 dollar a box Krag ammo has not changed but the fiat money we call Federal Reserve Notes or Euros or Francs, or anything paper or make believe has.

It's yours. Do with it as you please. But were it me I would strip the gun down and make it as pretty as I wanted. Life is too short for an ugly gun.

Oh and one other thing. Pine tar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgyM-_g6dnU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SD62udn_Lk

[waterman]

To remove or not to remove. That is the question. Whether it be nobler blah blah blah.

The question is how many of these were built for the war? Then How many were dumped in the US when the Soviets needed to rebuild their war machine? How many of that type is for sale on gunbroker? I would say hundreds if not thousands. So not rare.

As for "gaining in value" that is a function of overall inflation. Everything is up in price. Who bought a Garand at 450 when these things were 100? Same deal today. Something with intrinsic worth will always hold value against an inflated money supply. My $15 dollar a box Krag ammo has not changed but the fiat money we call Federal Reserve Notes or Euros or Francs, or anything paper or make believe has.

It's yours. Do with it as you please. But were it me I would strip the gun down and make it as pretty as I wanted. Life is too short for an ugly gun.

Oh and one other thing. Pine tar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgyM-_g6dnU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SD62udn_Lk

AMEN!

[butlersrangers]

The Gentleman's pine tar finish is far more handsome than the blemished Soviet crap finish.

It looks very much like the finish used on Finnish re-built rifle stocks, which can look rather nice.

From prepping my old style Cross-Country Skis, I've had experience with pine tar. It does have a rather pungent smell, that takes getting used to.

I have used pine tar to touch up 'raw wood nicks' on oil finished military stocks. The color and protection it provides is preferable to raw wood.

[todd444]

if it were mine, i'd get Cirti-strip the whole stock off. i'd sand it, 400grit. put on 4 - 5 coats of minwax antique oil and another 2 coats of polyurethane oil and mineral spirits (3:1).