I "Need" an SVT-40

[mitchstoner]

I've been thinking my WWII portion of my collection can't be complete without an SVT-40.

Cruising GunBroker, looks like the majority are going for $900 and up. Actually, I've seen a couple start around $700 and end up above a grand.

While I am not totally against spending that much, I would rather not. Keep some bucks for the next one, ya know?

Any suggestions?

[Planning]

i agree totally with the idea that i don't want to pay anymore money than i am willing to pay for a gun.

these people should understand this and lower ther prices to what i want to pay for a gun. it is just not fair. :icon_biggrin:

you can do what i do. if it is more than i am willing to pay, then i just don't buy it. it is that easy.

IMHO

ron

note: SVT-40 rifles are nice, sweet shooter. no WWII collection should be without one. good luck.

[mitchstoner]

Well, thanks, Ron (I think)

The "suggestion" I am really hoping for is someone to say "Hey, I've got an extra lying around that you can have for $500. :roflmao:

[Planning]

Well, thanks, Ron (I think)

The "suggestion" I am really hoping for is someone to say "Hey, I've got an extra lying around that you can have for $500. :roflmao:

yep! that is what i got from your first post. i was just messing with you a little.

i was going to sell some more of mine, but i think i am going to wait until they get to around $1500 to $1600 and sell a couple of them. then when they get to $2000 to $2500 sell a couple more of them.:icon_biggrin:

ron

[97th Signalman]

The shop at our local range had an SVT-40 on the for sale rack a few weeks ago. They were asking $800. I was at the shop again yesterday and I guess someone thought that it was a fair price because it's now gone. I looked it over pretty closely and I would say that it was in good to very good condition. Probably arsenal refinished with lots of new red shellack slopped on and the reddish look of fresh russian rebluing on heat treated parts likethe bolt.

I am not familiar enough with these things to know what to look for like I do with CETMEs.

[19Charlie_84]

I need the gas adjustment tool for mine, it always short strokes. I cant get over spending $25 on a little piece of metal with a 5 sided hole in one end. I know Im not the only one who will drop bookoo bucks on a piece then scoff at the piddily accessories. Keep watching gunbroker and other forums, they always pop up. After the first of the year is a great time to find new toys.

[Planning]

I need the gas adjustment tool for mine, it always short strokes. I cant get over spending $25 on a little piece of metal with a 5 sided hole in one end. I know Im not the only one who will drop bookoo bucks on a piece then scoff at the piddily accessories. Keep watching gunbroker and other forums, they always pop up. After the first of the year is a great time to find new toys.

19 charlie, a few years ago one of the machine shops had them for around $15
so i bought up 2 dozen of them and sold them to guys on this site and a few friends. they were well made. i tried one from another company and they didn't fit the gas adjustment very good. i will look and see if i can find the invoice and the name of the company. maybe someone here remember the company name ( it was something like " BLACK IRON MACHINE SHOP")
i only have one left and i need to keep it.
if someone here want to make up a batch of them to sell i will loan mine to them. (hint turbo) for a pattern.
don't use a cresent wrench on it, it screws it up.
everyone that has a svt needs one. different ammo sometimes need a different gas setting.

ron

[FullAssault]

I remember when these were $375..... I wish I would have got one back then.:icon_cry:

[mitchstoner]

i was going to sell some more of mine, but i think i am going to wait until they get to around $1500 to $1600 and sell a couple of them. then when they get to $2000 to $2500 sell a couple more of them.

ron



ouch OUCH OUCH

you're just trying to be mean now.

[oramoc]

i remember when they sold for 300.00 because my friend got one. i later got it from him for 350.00. he made a killing off me didnt he.

[Planning]

i remember when they sold for 300.00 because my friend got one. i later got it from him for 350.00. he made a killing off me didnt he.

memory lane time: the first 10 i bought were $200 each, so were the second 10. they offered me 10 more for $175 each and i got them. when i ordered 10 more they were sold out, so that was it. no more were imported.
i sold enough to pay for the 30 of them and kept the extras. i didn't sell or trade any until a few years ago.
i picked up around 10 more over the years ( under $300), because of the gas adjustment problems ( people could not figure them out) and some people just could not take them apart or put back together to clean them.
most of of them were just really dirty on the inside with lots of carbon build up and would not cycle correctly.
i don't shoot them much because of the parts are hard to find if something breaks.
they always draw a crowd when you take them to the range.
this one that i would like to see imported again, but it is not likely with the political correctness being what it is. i talked to an importer a few years ago that has been thru several armories in russia and he said there are thousands of these still there in storage.

ron

[Planning]

ouch OUCH OUCH

you're just trying to be mean now.

sorry,not mean. unless there are anymore imported, the prices will continue to rise on them. people are amaised that they would be selling for $1000, but they do.

if you really are wanting one, then find one and buy it before the reach $1500+ or you will be in the group posting "i could have bought one for $1000 a few years ago"

IMHO
ron

[oramoc]

i wonder if they let them back in the country how much the value would drop on these if they flooded the market i would think they could drop down to the price of a sks if enough were brought in . i wouldnt like that much. wish i had gotten fn49 when they were cheap and plentyful. i have one but would love to have a bunch of them

[mitchstoner]

if you really are wanting one, then find one and buy it before the reach $1500+ or you will be in the group posting "i could have bought one for $1000 a few years ago"


Yeah, that's pretty much the conclusion I came to on several guns. I've been working a ton of overtime and spending all the extra bucks on toys: like a Rasheed (thanks Ron) and a Daewoo (thanks Arkane). And others.

None of the older stuff is getting cheaper, except semi AK's.

As far as "thousands" of newly imported SVT's bringing the price down much, I don't really think so. I doubt it's comparable to SKS's, because I honestly think there may be 10 MILLION or so of them in the U.S. The question might be, how come SKS's aren't still 100 bucks???

Well, because the American public has decided they like mil-surps. Look how many Mauser 98's there are, and yet they are getting right up there in price.

[Aaron 2.0]

I have been thinking of buying one of these when I get back from the desert. LMK if you find one and how you like it.

[SteelCore]

I had the SVT bug 5 years ago, but let go of it then. Now I'm back in the mkt for an autoloader in 762x54R, but with the prices being so low on PSLs, it'll prolly be what I do. I may make one as opposed to buying one, it can't be that diff from an AK build. Plus, I can cut down the bbl for a PSL para look.:airtight:

[Gairwyn]

I need the gas adjustment tool for mine, it always short strokes. I cant get over spending $25 on a little piece of metal with a 5 sided hole in one end. I know Im not the only one who will drop bookoo bucks on a piece then scoff at the piddily accessories. Keep watching gunbroker and other forums, they always pop up. After the first of the year is a great time to find new toys.

I think this might be the guy Planning mentioned..?

http://www.blackrivergunsmithing.com/contactus.html

I purchased my SVT from this man at a show a while ago for $550. Got the site tool from him as well and worked like a charm.

Good luck in your quest mine was a spur of the moment purchase and I haven't regretted it.

Michelle

[Simon]

I need the gas adjustment tool for mine, it always short strokes. I cant get over spending $25 on a little piece of metal with a 5 sided hole in one end. I know Im not the only one who will drop bookoo bucks on a piece then scoff at the piddily accessories. Keep watching gunbroker and other forums, they always pop up. After the first of the year is a great time to find new toys.
It's a pentagon shape, right? So why not just get a cheap wrench and put a "v" cut in one side so that the "v" grips a point and the other side grips the opposite on the nut? Probably cost $5 if you go to harbor freight.

Alternatively a spare socket for a socket wrench might work better. Used one of those to make an adjustment tool for my Hakim (with some instructions from surplusrifle.com).

edit: hm, didn't notice the date of that post. ah well, maybe it'll help someone else down the road.

[milsurprifleman]

what are the pro's and con's of these rifles, accuracy? I've been into them for a little while now but i don't want to spend $1k on a rifle that i know nothing about.

[okie shooter]

The biggest pro is they shoot cheap ammo, but the parts are harder to find adn you can get a PSL for half of the money and shoot the same ammo.

The biggest pro, is they are for the collector, a peice of hisory IMHO. I would be looking harder for one but they never caught my eye, or to say too much other stuff has caught my eye.

I have spend far more for a rifle I did know little about, the mitchell ak but do some reading on these things, they were a transition rifle for the USSR.

[Planning]

I think this might be the guy Planning mentioned..?

http://www.blackrivergunsmithing.com/contactus.html

I purchased my SVT from this man at a show a while ago for $550. Got the site tool from him as well and worked like a charm.

Good luck in your quest mine was a spur of the moment purchase and I haven't regretted it.

Michelle

yep! thats the company, thanks for the posting.
that is the best way to go on the tool for the svt.

ron

[M1 Tanker]

Okie, I think those are good pros and cons. It is truely a piece of war time history that is nice to have. I'm good for about 20 rounds when I take mine out, the cheek slap is just too much to be a weekly shooter though.

[mitchstoner]

I've been watching them on GunBroker. Very few go for less than $800, most between $800 and a grand. Before Christmas I saw several bid to $1200.

When I saw examples I liked, I emailed the sellers to see if they would be willing to do a layaway deal. Found one but he sold before I made a bid--he had listed several times but bidding didn't get to his reserve before that.

Then another seller agreed. With several people already bidding, I got in and held high bid, at about $80 shy of my max. I just had to hold my breath and cross my fingers. I was scheduled to be at work when the bidding ended.

Another buyer did come in at the last minute, but about $2 under my max bid. So I got it, mailed half the price, will pay it off by the end of Feb. Happy Valentines Day to me!

Guess after this one is paid for, I might have to start thinking about a K/G-43! :eek:

[mitchstoner]

It made it to my dealer yesterday and I picked it up tonite.

Tula? Isn't the star the Tula symbol? And the star overlaps a square, what might that mean?

I can't see any stock repairs, the varnish is in better shape than a lot I've seen, maybe refinished since the re-arsenal. However, there are a lot of small cartouches and numbers, so it sure wasn't sanded much, if at all. Bore looks pretty good but it will take some brushing to really see how it is. Has a cleaning rod and the rod catch, which are missing from quite a few. The import marks are the tiniest stamping or etching I've ever seen on a firearm. I assumed it would be "CAI" (Century) but it appears to be "CDI" or "CPI" Swan, VT. Anyone know of an importer in Swan? The sling is one I bought a week or so ago, sold to me for a PPSh sling, which supposedly were also used fairly often on SVT's.

One of my new favorite firearms :-)

I'll see if I can't borrow my wife's good camera and post on the SVT sticky.

[mitchstoner]

btw, another SVT with a scope and mount just ended at $2025! I don't know anything about the optics and the seller didn't make any claims about them being original. I wanted to post a pic or 2 of it but couldn't figure out how to pull a pic out of the listing. here's link: http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=220762112

[97th Signalman]

btw, another SVT with a scope and mount just ended at $2025! I don't know anything about the optics and the seller didn't make any claims about them being original. I wanted to post a pic or 2 of it but couldn't figure out how to pull a pic out of the listing. here's link: http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=220762112


That's a nice looking SVT on Gunbroker. I doubt that the scope is wartime production. It just looks too nice for those hurried and desperate times.

[Damian45acp]

how much ya willing to spend i have one i may consider parting with.straigt shooter in good cond. but 500 isnt even close good luck on 500 for an svt-40.