12 Comments

  1. They guys fixing the spare Sokolov mount wheel are both in Suojeluskunta (Civil Guard). Judging from the very early uniforms we’re looking at the first half of the 1920ies. That means Arisakas and Winchester M1895’s would be more likely than Mauser 1896s. But mostly Mosins, of course…

    • Hi Richard,
      they don’ t fix a Sokholov mount, but that they are fixing a bent barrel.To me it seems that they put a warped barrel into a barrel adjustment fixture.
      I guess this is a staged photograph, because normally you put the barrel into the fixture pointing slightly upwards and peep through the bore. When the reflection of the light source on the inner walls of the rifling isn’t prefect, you apply force by the knurled Wheel and the attached ‘hook’ together with the two adjustable points of support on the bar on both sides to the ‘hook’, until the reflection looks right. Since no one is looking, I guess it’s a fake. Or a seriously warped barrel they prepare for ‘fine tuning’.
      A job that needs a lot I experience, a delicate hand and is very strenuous on the eyes, nowadays computers and optics do the job (albeit not that good).
      The German word for the machine is “Laufrichtmaschine”, like the one in this auction: http://www.egun.de/market/item.php?id=4581234#img (see lower right corner of the picture for the characteristic wheel…)

      • Jep, saw a machine like that in action at the Krieghoff-Factory. But that one was hanging from the ceiling tog get it on eye-height. They still do it by (experienced) hand and eye.

  2. I assume this could be Finland… Every gun counts, and so does every bullet. Do the Finns run out of ammo before the Soviets run out of cannon fodder? I hope not.

  3. Sorry everyone, those are the “Hand Pick” guys from Century. Cool to see what 1000 rifles look like. They take up a lot less space than you would think.

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