Its paint
http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?113260-triangle-25-red-orange-paint-survey
Have one like it.
Comments on the rifle itself? Reliable? Accurate, etc??
Can I offer that I used to work industrially with hydrogen cyanide and it is water soluable. I don’t know how long an effective dose would last in battlefield conditions.
Cyanide breaks down over the course of several days and virtually inert after about a week.
I’ve owned and refurbished dozens of MNs and have never seen nor heard of such a thing. This was likely a gimmick, IMO.
FWIW, when I’ve been asked to strip the stock red shellack off of a Nagant, I’ve always used a white stain or paint to enhance engravings on the receivers and butt plates. This looks more like an orange paint to me.
I think there is a much simpler way to kill yourself with a rifle.
As Kipling put it “Just roll to your rifle and blow out your brains, and go to your Gawd like a soldier.”
It’s likely suicidal to be carrying a bright orange rifle in combat. Perhaps these were issued to “problem” recruits?
I had a Mosin Nagant. Quite a butt kicker.
We used to use the blood of Mohammedan Jihadists to dye the butt-stocks of our Lee Enfield 1 mk IIIs. Where indeed are the erythrocytes of yesteryear?
Also please do not lick the brownish grease and sand particles on the butt.