Beekeeper
10-26-2012, 09:58 PM
Where we lived before my wife got sick one of our neighbors was a Russiam imigrant.
When his Granmother died his Grandfather came from Russia to live with them.
I was a beekeeper and the grandfather wanted to see a beekeeping operation so the Grandson brought him down to see me.
As I kept all of my guns in a guncabinet in my office he saw them and the 91/30 rifles I had with the red shellac on them.
He told me the story of the red shellac and I thought I would tell you as many of us have 91/30's.
All and I mean All Russian rifles comming out of an arsenal are painted with red shellac.
All rifles comming out of an arsenal are issued to new recruits.
The red shellac is like a red flag to the seasoned troops.
"STAY AWAY FROM THIS GUY HE WILL GET YOU KILLED"
So the troops with red rifles were always the first sent into battle.
If you survived and got to go to a rest area the seasoned troops bought you a bottle of vodka, got you half drunk ,
and send you to get rid of the red shellac with your bottle of vodka.
You went to the motor pool and got an oily rag to coat your now clean rifle and were considered part of
the unit.
Kind of a rite of passage.
As he told me the story he was fondly holding a 91/30, red shellac and all.
Hey they were $59 each so it went home with him.
He died 5 years later but during that time we had a lot of conversations, it turned out he spoke respectfully good english.
We had a good laugh about that as he said he wanted his Grandson to never forget his birth language.
When they returned from taking his body back to Russia to be burried alongside his wife the Grandson returned the 91/30.
I still have it today and it is not for sale.
It is a work of art. all cleaned up and as smooth as butter.
Grandson told me he had fired it almost every week he lived with them.
Anyway that is the story of the red Shellac on a Mosin Nagant rifle.So if you don't have red shellac on your mosin I guess you are one of the seasoned troops
beekeeper
When his Granmother died his Grandfather came from Russia to live with them.
I was a beekeeper and the grandfather wanted to see a beekeeping operation so the Grandson brought him down to see me.
As I kept all of my guns in a guncabinet in my office he saw them and the 91/30 rifles I had with the red shellac on them.
He told me the story of the red shellac and I thought I would tell you as many of us have 91/30's.
All and I mean All Russian rifles comming out of an arsenal are painted with red shellac.
All rifles comming out of an arsenal are issued to new recruits.
The red shellac is like a red flag to the seasoned troops.
"STAY AWAY FROM THIS GUY HE WILL GET YOU KILLED"
So the troops with red rifles were always the first sent into battle.
If you survived and got to go to a rest area the seasoned troops bought you a bottle of vodka, got you half drunk ,
and send you to get rid of the red shellac with your bottle of vodka.
You went to the motor pool and got an oily rag to coat your now clean rifle and were considered part of
the unit.
Kind of a rite of passage.
As he told me the story he was fondly holding a 91/30, red shellac and all.
Hey they were $59 each so it went home with him.
He died 5 years later but during that time we had a lot of conversations, it turned out he spoke respectfully good english.
We had a good laugh about that as he said he wanted his Grandson to never forget his birth language.
When they returned from taking his body back to Russia to be burried alongside his wife the Grandson returned the 91/30.
I still have it today and it is not for sale.
It is a work of art. all cleaned up and as smooth as butter.
Grandson told me he had fired it almost every week he lived with them.
Anyway that is the story of the red Shellac on a Mosin Nagant rifle.So if you don't have red shellac on your mosin I guess you are one of the seasoned troops
beekeeper