Mosin Nagant question

[Francqua]

For a winter project I picked up a surplus Chinese version of the Mosin Nagant recently...

While cleaning all of cos off of the stock I noticed how light (no weight) the wood is. The texture of the wood seemed very "fiberous". Do I have a CHU wood stock? What the heck is CHU wood and how do you restore something that feels like it came from some bush?

I probably put this post in the wrong section...I'm sure I'll find out soon enough...

 

[Joop]

It most likely is "Chu" wood (however, it's more commonly known as Catalpa). I would check the markings to see if anything stands out as Russian or Hungarian, because it's not impossible that it has a stock from there, as well. It does look Chinese, though. They are notoriously soft stocks. There's nothing you can really do to restore it. Just enjoy it for what it is. However, you may want to add some metal shims behind the recoil lug and under the tang. This should help to give it a more solid platform and minimize compression. It will likely help to retain/improve the accuracy, as well.

I just picked up a T53 myself, last month. Fun little carbines, especially for the price.