I recently picked up some books on old military rifles thinking it would help me make informed purchases, but it has led me to the conclusion that I’m never buying another one again. A lot of what people are selling is probably fake and I think most of them don’t even know it. Imagine a gunsmith in the late 90s takes an interest in the Mosin Sniper, so he buys a few Tula 91/30s for dirt cheap. He goes all out and marks them with a C, mounts a scope, refinishes the rifle, electro stencils the mount and then sells them honestly as reproductions. Now someone buys it, enjoys it as a repro, then dies so his family sells it as part of an estate. The buyer thinks they got the deal of a lifetime and makes no effort to verify where it came from, so now 20 years later we have a nearly indistinguishable clone. There is another Mosin called a “KGB Mosin” thats basically like a 91/59 but with all the distinguishing marks obliterated for clandestine KGB operations. You can see why that is highly desirable, but I’m pretty sure all you would have to do to fake one is take a 38 and remove all of the markings, grind the rear sight then refinish it. I’m rambling a bit, but it seems like it’s practically impossible to know without provenance whether you are buying a fake, but with so many people buying fakes I’m debating if it even matters as long as the price is right.