Hungarian M44 with a twist

[Miller Tyme]

This past weekend I found a Hungarian M44 on line that intrigued me, it appeared to be well used and showed signs of possibly having seen Romanian Military service. What really caught my attention was the shield painted on L/H side of the butt stock with the letters PTTR in the center. A little research showed that PTTR in Romania stood for Posta Telefon Telegraf Radio, ( Postal, Telephone, Telegraph, Radio, the former name of the Romanian Postal services). The reserve was very reasonable so I decided to go ahead and buy it.

It arrived today and so far everything I have seen about this rifle appears to bear out my conclusion that this rifle made it’s way to Romania. The rifle is a mixture of Hungarian , ( stock barreled action, stock trim), and Polish ( bolt & mag housing) parts. The bolt & mag housing have been lined out with an EP, the mag housing was EP’ed to match the rifle, while the cocking knob was EP’ed to another rifle. The stock has been heavly sanded and coated with a heavy layer of shellac similar to another Romanian M44 in my collection. I am still working on trying to find out if the PTTR on the stock any connection to the Romanian Posta Telefon Telegraf Radio.

If anyone has seen this mark before and has any info on it they care to share feel free to post it up.