Simonov 91/30 1936

I was walking around a gun show last Saturday when I came upon this rifle on another dealer's table. It's one of the trials rifles designed by the Simonov weapons bureau in 1936. During 1935-1936 trials were conducted to improve the 91/30 . The primary one that got into trial production , at Tula, was the Simonov submission. The differences between a Simonov and a standard 91/30 are the serial # which is always preceded by the number "0" , a mauser like front band (and extremely rare knife bayonet) , barrel bands that are open on the underside, pillared actions , a variety of front sights that were experimented with and a dark , almost black , stock finish. only about 30,000 were manufactured. The exterior is still in pretty nice shape , she's all matching and without any import marks of any kind. How and when it arrived in the States is unknown. Here are some pics.

Len

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