I recently saw a Mosin Nagant that somebody did some 'sporterizing' on.
- Cut down the barrel a few inches
- Added a new front sight
- Cut down the stock to remove most of the upper and lower handguards
- Refinished the wood in a grilled chicken sandwich pattern (best description I can think of that it resembled)
- He also might have moly-coated the metal
For all I know, it was rusting and counterbored before, and the wood was peeling. It might have been excellent condition and he just figured it would suit him better as a shooter that way. He probably had $100-150 in work in it.
It's up on Gunbroker right now, in fact. It was made by Remington in 1917, and similar unhacked guns have sold for over $1000 in the last year. He might get $100 out of it.
Before you go hacking up something that might hold substantial monetary value, you might want to check and see what you have before writing it off as old Russian trash. There are plenty of Mosin Nagants that are might need some work to get in better shooting condition. But if I stood to make double or triple my money back on one of them, you can bet I'd check it out before I whipped out the hacksaw.
jm
