I found it on Gunbroker, had to wait a week for it to run its course. Only one other late bidder who might have been thinking it was a "Nam bring back" which the seller alluded to. (No, I don't think it is) Bad pics probably cost the seller as the Kossuth Crest was not very visible at a glance unless you knew what and where to look.
There are 2 lines of thought on the Kossuth Crest, the 1st is it is a firearm used by the anti-communist forces during the 56 Hungarian Revolution since the crest was their symbol. Personally, I don't buy it as the last thing anyone would have had time to do is stamp rifle receivers with their crest.
The 2nd line of thought, and the one I subscribe to is it is a sort of "Lease Lend" style marking applied by the Hungarian Army to small arms the Russians supplied to them. It is thought that this marking was scrubbed after the 56 Revolt since it was the symbol used by the opposition, which would explain why so few have surfaced.
This is the 4th so marked PU sniper found to date in the US (I own 2 of them) 3 of the 4 are all parts matching except for the scopes, but all 4 are 43 Izhevsk's and all are from the same S/N block. There is also a 45 Izhevsk M44 that is also stamped with the Kossuth Crest and it to resides in my collection.
This rifle itself is a beautiful mixmaster of Russian and Hungarian parts, like my 1945 M44 stamped rifle and has a pristine bore.
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