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you stated #2 thru #10 were Russians so was Vassili Zaitsev in that group

Keith B wrote:

The Annoyed Man wrote:BTW, the bolt handle on that rifle looks like it came off of a Remington.

From the blog

...a GPC universal bolt handle was welded on....

I stand corrected.

JSThane wrote:

wheelgun1958 wrote:

Beiruty wrote:Again, Other than its collectible value. Any new $300 bolt rifle from Rem, Rug, Savage would outperform this bolt rifle.

There is no longer any collector value as it has been modified (aka Bubba'd).

I have to take slight issue here. That is not a "bubba" work. I can't see hacksaw marks or grooves from 20-grit sandpaper. The work on the bolt handle looks good, and that's obviously a "custom" stock. The sights have been changed out, and I'd imagine it's probably been recrowned. It actually looks good (I've seen some truly atrocious bubba-works, so I nit-pick when something looks like it's done right).

It IS a "sporterization," however, and as such, it holds absolutely zero collector's value now, but probably has quite a bit of personal value to the fellow that modified it. I don't want it, but it is a nice example of what can be done with these old workhorses.

I do wonder, though, how the bent bolt handle affects use of the 2x4?

Never said Bubba wasn't a good gunsmith.

patterson wrote:you stated #2 thru #10 were Russians so was Vassili Zaitsev in that group

No, he doesn't make the list. As good as he was, there were some even better: http://www.militaryeducation.org/10-dea ... rld-war-2/

10. Stepan Vasilievich Petrenko: 422 kills
9. Vasilij Ivanovich Golosov: 422 kills
8. Fyodor Trofimovich Dyachenko: 425 kills
7. Fyodor Matveyevich Okhlopkov: 429 kills
6. Mikhail Ivanovich Budenkov: 437 kills
5. Vladimir Nikolaevich Pchelintsev: 456 kills
4. Ivan Nikolayevich Kulbertinov: 489 kills
3. Nikolay Yakovlevich Ilyin: 494 kills
2. Ivan Mihailovich Sidorenko: around 500 kills
1. Simo Häyhä: 542 Kills (705 unconfirmed) - with his sniper rifle. Simo Häyhä ALSO has an additional several hundred kills with a submachine gun.

Zaitsev had "only" 400 kills as a sniper—not enough to put him in the top 10 (prior to being made a sniper, he was credited with 32 enemy dead, using a standard issue Mosin Nagant.). What made Zaitsev so remarkable is that he got those 400 between October 1942 and January 1943...... just 3-4 months..... 225 alone at the Battle of Stalingrad. You might say that he had a target-rich environment.

where would Ed Eaton rank on the list

I believe a large number of his were unconfirmed

patterson wrote:where would Ed Eaton rank on the list

I don't know. This is a list of the top ten snipers in WW2. I tried googling "Ed eaton sniper number of kills" and the only reference I was able to find in the time I had said "twenty-something" confirmed kills. It seems that Eaton is better known for his personal heroism in one specific battle—which is beyond dispute—than he was for his kill count. It is a given for probably most snipers that including unconfirmed kills will probably double the known number. But even if you double Eaton's confirmed number, it still isn't that high of a number. On the other hand, it probably reflects the numbers recorded by most snipers. Those with confirmed kills numbering above 100 and higher are the exception rather than the rule, which is why they stand out as sniping legends....even in the sniping community. Chris Kyle always maintained that he regarded Carlos Hathcock as the ultimate sniper, and that the only reason his own count was higher than Hathcock's was that he had had more opportunity in an urban environment than Hathcock had in the jungle.

Eaton may have indeed been a talented sniper, but he apparently didn't have the same opportunity to run his count up that other snipers had. It is even arguable that Semo Häyhä's confirmed number is the result of russian infantry tactics during the Winter War, providing him with greater opportunities.

Now, back to this beauty of a rifle......

Thanks for the info, I thought maybe where you were getting your info might have included more than the top ten and more than from WW2 like the Vietnam War which Hathcock and Eaton fought

Pretty good looking rifle . . . but not really "cost effective" unless the owner did the work himself.

Probably as a hobby, because, well, just because he felt like it. Which is as good a reason as any.

And as for "collector value" . . . unless there was something special about this particular Mosin - condition, manufacturer, etc., I don't think there's much to worry about; I paid $99 for my 1939 Izhevsk, and in my estimation, considering the condition, that's about what it's worth.

Collector premium included.

patterson wrote:Thanks for the info, I thought maybe where you were getting your info might have included more than the top ten and more than from WW2 like the Vietnam War which Hathcock and Eaton fought

This is the link I got the info from: http://www.militaryeducation.org/10-dea ... rld-war-2/. The thread is about a WW1/WW2 Era rifle being customized, not about Vietnam Era snipers. It just so happens that the rifle that was customized for this thread is also the the same rifle used by the top 10 snipers of WW2.......which is why I didn't include information about Vietnam era snipers, or even about American WW2 snipers.

The whole thing reminds me of Col. Jeff Cooper's quest for the perfect rifle.....according to his definitions.