Found some pitting under the handguard on one of my Mosins, cause for concern?

[afultz075]

I decided to start cleaning up the Mosins I picked up at Valley Forge the other week. When I removed the handguard on the 32 Tula hex I picked up, I was surprised with a few nasty patches of pitting. My 43 M38 and 44 M44 exhibit no such pitting under the barrels. I also have a 43 Izhevsk 91/30 up home in Lewistown but I haven't removed the handguard on it yet to check.

Anyway, is pitting like this anything to worry about as far as shooting it goes? The pits have been blued over during rearsenal, so it's obvious the damage was done long ago. These hex head Mosins obviously saw many more years of use then the typical late-war 91/30's, so maybe metal damage like this is more common on them, i've just never encountered any pitting like this on any guns I own. All of the pits look to be under 1mm deep.

[Vismund Cygnus]

Looks very minor. Such surface wear would be common on any milsurp rifle that saw actual service. As long as it doesn't worsen and everything looks good inside the barrel, I wouldn't worry about it.

[Zet70]

Was there any cosmo in there under the hand guard? If not it would only seem logical that after 70 years in a storage crate you would have a few patches of pitting. Maybe there's a cool explanation behind it, like that's where Ivan bled on his moseen and comrade Nichols didnt have time to remove the hand guard and clean the gore.

[Pukindog]

The rifle is 79 years old. Who knows what it has been through. Nothing to worry about. Perhaps it got wet at the Battle of Stalingrad.

Jeff

[Sniperfreak]

nothing to be concerned about...I've seen alot worse on mosins and have never hesitated to shoot them...and none of them have had any problems.