I've done a little realignment over the past month with my gun collection. I sold off my SKS and my M44, along with one of my M91/30s. In exchange for that I just picked up these two this week, from a vendor who's becoming a favorite of mine: Family Firearms and Finishes. As I've mentioned before, he sells only the best of military surplus firearms, plus he's a very nice person to chat with on the phone.
Anyways, onto the pics. First one here is a 1944 Tula M44. Tula M44s are highly valued by collectors, because so few of them were made. While its counterpart Izhevsk made close to 4 million M44s over the course of several years, Tula made less than 100,000 M44s for a couple months in 1944. So, it's great to have one like this in such a great condition (and with a wartime stock). Tula had an excess of older receivers on hand in 1944, since it had to suspend production and evacuate eastward in the face of the German invasion. As such, this piece has a 1942-dated receiver.
Second one here is a 1943 Tula M91/30 ex-sniper. After the war the Soviets had an excess of sniper rifles, so they converted many of them back into standard rifles. This involved removing the scope and filling in the scope mounting holes on the receiver (3 on this rifle), replacing the bent bolt handle with a straight one, and fitting a non-modified stock (a wartime one, in this case). Also, the "C H" initials on the receiver note its original designation as a sniper rifle. As was seen on other rifles, due to the demands of wartime production this rifle has no date on the receiver. Curiously, this rifle looks like it was not fired much, as the bore is practically flawless.
Tula ex-snipers are not all that common, so this one is another especially nice one to add to the collection. I can't wait to see how it does on the range.
