First and foremost, one of my favorite rifles (and the rarest one in my collection, ranking in as one of an estimated less than 100 still in existence), the Yugoslavian ON-52 sniper:
Actually, the scope is the only part known as the ON-52, but it distinguishes it from the other PU sniper in the collection so... meh. Easier to keep them straight in my records that way. These started life as 1944 Ishevsk production PU snipers shipped by Russia to the Yugoslavian Partizans to help them kick Germany out of the country. After the war, Yugoslavian/Soviet relations quickly iced over and by the 1950s they were just shy of openly hostile towards each other. So when Yugoslavia needed to repair/upgrade their current sniper rifles, there was no chance in hell that Russia was going to send them any help (although they were all too happy to send assassins). In light of that, Yugoslavia decided to attempt to produce their own version of the PU scope domestically, naming it the ON-52. Production started in 1952 and was plagued with problems from the start. After a very short time the program was shut down with only 2500 scopes produced in two variants (one, seen here, was cammed for 7.62x54r and was used to refurbish a few wartime PU snipers, and the other, cammed for 7.92x57mm, was used as a scope on a small number of M48 Mausers). Almost all of those scopes were later scrapped and their parts/materials used to produce the much more successful ZRAK ON-72 scope (used on the M72 designated marksmans rifle). Estimates on surviving numbers of ON-52s range from about 10 to about 100. No firm number has been established, but I know of 5 of them in the United States.
This is the other sniper in the collection. A 1944 Tula example with a very rare 1943 recycled receiver... I sold this one back a few years and deeply regret that choice. It had a 1944 Yoshkar Ola scope and was all 1944 except for the receiver which was likely left over from the 1943 batch of Tula rifles.
Finnish captured Dragoon. 1927 Tula production with major blood pitting all over the receiver/barrel shank/rear sight. Probably caused by a hit to the jugular. Not a pleasant rifle to think about the history of.
Serbian trench art on an M44 carbine. No idea what it says, but I've never really studied any of the Balkan languages... really need to get on that one of these days...
Once upon a time, Sergei shot a second model FG-42... it was fun!
More Mosins... you'd be surprised how many of those I've owned in my life. Also, the sniper in the middle was a reproduction one from Century Arms, so nothing valuable was harmed in the shellacking of that rifle. Also... what in Gods name was I thinking when I did that to a Mosin?!
Great Grandpa Heinrich Burfiend was an interesting fellow... one of the accolades on his long list of accomplishments was being an engineer in the Imperial German Army. Never met the man so I never got to ask him how he won an Iron Cross, but I wish I had gotten the chance.
Model 1895 Nagant... not much to say about this one really. RSFSR stamp on the side was relatively interesting... until the importer put a billboard import stamp on the thing.
One German K98K. Unfortunately it was yet another forgery produced by our good friends at Mitchells Mausers. Serial numbers were ground off and force matched, a Turkish Mauser stock (for some god awful reason) was modified to fit the rifle, and I stupidly put an original German bayonet on there and then couldn't get it off (Turkish lugs are slightly wider than German ones). Bad memories with this rifle.
Springfield 03A3. Good memories of that rifle... shot pretty accurately and was a hoot to pull the trigger on. Had a really bad bore though (and yet still had pretty good accuracy... hmmm).
And I'll post some pictures of my PPS-43 when I have some time to take some tomorrow. Very interesting little submachine gun. Makes quite a racket when it fires.
