I recently acquired a sporting rifle conversion of a Remington Mosin Nagant with the letters A.S.N. stamped neatly on the receiver. The guys on the MN forums tell me that it isn't an arsenal or unit marking and confirmed my suspicions that these are the initials of the converter. A S N appears also on the top and underside of the bolt handle that has been bent from the standard straight to a more conventional ninety degree American bend and formed into a butter knife handle with the underside "checked". The stock has had it comb raised with a graft, and the joint is virtually undetectable. Too, a pistol grip has been neatly grafted on and nicely checkered. The sling holes have been expertly closed with grain and color matching diamond inlays. I had to hunt for them. For a MN, this is nice work. The rear sight is the period Cadillac of MN sights, the swing arm Lyman #36.
My Gun Digest article for 1999 (THOSE RUSSIAN SPORTERS) was about the 1920's trend to "sporterize" these buck and a half guns and the American sportmen's methods of getting it done on the cheap. Craftsmanship varied in degree, but some guys spent some real money on them. A minor cottage industry grew out of the demand. Alvin Linden restocked a number of them. I had been looking for a decent specimen of one of the better one for some time, and when I saw this, I thought "this'd be the one". I have some pictures if anyone would care to post them - it's over my head.
Anyone have an inkling who A.S.N. might be?
