SVT-40 advice and assitance

[david kroning]

Since your bolt appears to be the usual plum color - that story is most likely false. SVT-40's left the arsenals with bolt carriers in the white, they were reblued in European armories during the refurbishing process.

===I am always suspicious of what people who want to sell me something tell me. The little old lady who hardly ever drives her car is always the former owner of every used car.

Ukrainian arsenals seem to have done quite a lot of this. Does the serial number on your bolt carrier match the side of the receiver at the chamber?

===Yes, it is a match. N (backwards) L 1801

Is it stamped on the underside or electropencilled on the top of the handle?

===Both.

What about the trigger guard? If you see any electropencilled serial numbers, that's a dead giveaway it's been refurbished.

===It's stamped onto the bottom of the triggerguard, not electropenciled. The same number has been burned into the stock plus their are some round stamp marks on the side of the chinrest U N C M in little circles.

This is not a bad thing as the rifle leaves in near-new condition, lengthening its service life.

===There seems no doubt it was refirbished...there is a major crack in the stock in the palmwell, but it has been expertly repaired.

Your rifle was made at Izhevsk arsenal in 1941.

===That's interesting, Is this a common year? A nice year to have?

The cleaning rod button looks to be from a later year, though. Nice use of a Vz.58 sling - I used one on my rifle for quite a while.

===It came with it...

I found a Bulgarian RPD sling and have been using that since. It's similar in design to the WWII era slings but is adjustable for length.

===I'm going to use your instructions to try to clean it as soon as I get those tools...so don't go too far away.

[Drake]

Note, a number of photos linked from http://www.mosinnagant.net and http://www.7.62x54r.net. Credit where it's due.


Very interesting. Here's a few pictures to illustrate what I mean about the bolt-

Mine came with a plum bolt when I bought it. This is a side effect of the high nickel content in the steel - it won't take a good blue.

http://imgur.com/pMcQe.jpg[/pic]

You can easily spot the electropencilling on the bolt handle there.

I cold blued it at one point which looked quite nice-

http://imgur.com/unYmF.jpg[/pic]
http://imgur.com/CZM75.jpg[/pic]

When I tried to have it hot blued it came out with the same plum color, despite my friend's attempts at adjusting the temperature of the tank and leaving it in longer. At best it came out with a splotchy blue that turned plum within thirty minutes. I just had it polished instead which came out quite well and is true to the original design.

http://imgur.com/nRenl.jpg[/pic]

At this point I am curious if it's been refurbished or not. I based my predictions on what I could see in your photos. Again, it's not the end of the world either way. Izhevsk made less SVT-40's than Tula, but the rarest by far are Kovrov arsenal guns. From the date of your rifle I'd expect it to have a two-piece barrel band sling swivel rather than the later solid one-piece unit.

Here's a photo of the differences.




Since your rifle was made by Izhevsk you should see the arrow-in-triangle stamp on many of the parts:



If you spot any parts with a star - they were made at Tula. It was very common to have parts mis-matched when the rifles were serviced.



Here are examples of refurbishment stamps.




The early years before production was cut back are the better rifles to have. They were made from late 1940 until 1945 when production was ceased. Due to subpar performance as a sniper rifle the SVT-40 production was scaled back in early 1942 and the Mosin Nagant rifle went back into full production.

Later model SVT's have a much simpler muzzle brake. While it's still effective, its design is far more crude. This was purely a cost-saving measure.



Since we haven't touched on the ammunition, here's a lineup of some commong 7.62x54R cartridges I've got. Expect everything 1-7 to be corrosive and clean accordingly with water to remove the primer salts before regular cleaning.

http://imgur.com/kPiag.jpg[/pic]

Also, the fluted chamber will leave these marks on the case necks. Mine also dings the side of the brass on the charger guides during ejection.

http://imgur.com/9Jd08.jpg[/pic]

Lastly, just a shot of my rifle while I'm at it.

http://imgur.com/ZpLAi.jpg[/pic]

[david kroning]

It does have a 2-piece sling. There aren't any "star" marks anywhere, so I think all the parts are original to this gun. The only thing that doesn't match is the magazine; the serial numbers don't match and it's been modified to make it a 5-round capacity (the legal limit for all semi-automatic rifles (other than .22's) in Canada.)

I can't find any of those refurbishing marks...certainly not squares. There are small circles with letters stamped into the soft wood of the cheek piece, that's all. But, as you noted from the purple color on the bolt, it's clearly been refurbished.

I definitely have the earlier muzzle brake and it would seem I have an early model. I also have the lateral grooves necessary to mount a scope.

For the ammunition, I was sent the (2) Czech stuff. I definately want to find the non-corrosive type if at all possible if you can point me in the right direction. Steel or brass doesn't matter...I don't reload and as you noted, the empty cartridges come out damaged anyway.

I'm pretty happy with my purchase at less than 400 dollars. I took it to show to the armorer today and he said, "ugh, why did you buy that piece of crap? You could have had a Moison-Nugget." I asked him why he called it a piece of crap and he said that it was a bad gun and the Russian's abandoned it. I told him, it was not a "bad gun," it was a "complicated" gun that dumb peasants didn't know how to use or clean. If it was such a bad gun, why are there so many photos of Germans using them?

Anyway, everybody has Moison-Nugget's around here...I've tried them and they kick like stubborn mules and puff out clouds of black powder like a damn musket. I hate guns that kick...that's why I generally prefer to shoot my .223. Now I can add my SVT-40 to my collection of smooth shooting guns.

I'm very happy with my SVT-40...I'm the only one to have one on the range and that's always cool

I'll go shoot off some rounds on Saturday now that I know how to clean it...and I'll take some video.

BTW, what are those bullet strips called? I wonder if they'll even work in my government-modified magazine.

Also, what do you mean wash the gun with water? Very scary. Explain.