I bought a 1954 Romanian m44 in 2002, I have never shot it. Always kept it oiled up but never cleaned it up. Stock is beat up, all the metal looks good, all numbers match, lots of that nasty cosmoline on it, not counter bored, clean shiny barrel. Before I do anything crazy, I just want to make sure I don't have something special. I plan on stripping the stock, staining it a nice dark color, putting some varnish on it, and cleaning up the metal.

Up close Picture's would help a whole lot

I'll tell you exactly what to do. SELL IT TO ME!

Sorry Vicious, I won't sell anything. I keep everything.

It depends on the person but to me, any modification makes the value go down extremely when talking about milsurp guns. To me there are plenty of people who ruin these rifles and then sell them so why ruin another. Just my opinion. But for a Romanian i wouldn't. Sell it and use the money on a gun that you can mod and not degrade value. I'll buy it too if you want to talk.

I am not too worried about value unless its worth a bunch. I want to keep it, I want to shoot it. I have plenty of ammo fir it. Are Romanians rare?

Not rare, but a lot less common and more valuable than Russian M44's.

 

Leave it alone, you're not going to improving anything by messing with it.

Not rare, but a lot less common and more valuable than Russian M44's.

 

Leave it alone, you're not going to improving anything by messing with it.

+1

Ok, I guess I will get the cosmo and shellac off the stock and use some gunny paste on it.

Sorry Vicious, I won't sell anything. I keep everything.

 

I fully understand. I can't bring myself to sell a few guns that I don't even use anymore. That being said, I really want every gun I buy. I never drop by the gun shop to pick up a random one.

 

If the stock bothers you that much, pick up a restored one, and keep that one original. I'm not really a collector though, more of a shooter. I care more about function than fashion. lol

I would leave as is and just clean the cosmo off of it.  Try to keep it original.

I wouldn't touch the metal.and just buy an extra stock. Redo that stock so you'll have a nice stock on it but also have the original stock on the side. That's what I've done and it works well.

 

But if you really want, screw it. Refinish the whole thing. You said you don't care about value nor keeping it original so none of that matters.

I inspected the stock really good, no factory marks on it. No numbers. Triangles, nothing at all. Think it was replaced? Also the bolt has the serial numbers engraved in it, not stamped, is that considered matching?

electro pencil. yes its considered matching.

Cool, just googled it and got the answer.