Westinghouse

I ran across a Westinghouse M1891. The rifle has the walnut Westinghouse stock with a good cartouche. The bore is in good condition - some shine but a little dark & strong rifling. The muzzle is in good shape - not counterbored. The bolt may be original as it has only 1 s/n on it which matches the receiver. I'm pretty ignorant about the M-N and one source I read says bolts were marked only along the root which is where this sine is marked. Is this correct? The rifle retains about 50-60% original finish and has no visible pitting or rust. The stock is intact with no splits or chips. The hand guard is birch, an obvious replacement. The barrel has an import marking near the muzzle. The rear sight is graduated in arshins, not meters. It comes with a Soviet bayonet. Overall, I'd rate it as G-VG condition.

The seller wants $250 for it. This seems a bit high as you can Soviet M91s in near mint condition for $100 or so. But not a Westinghouse . . .

I'd appreciate any thoughts about this rifle.

If it has not been "force matched", i.e. had the bolt and/or magazine floorplate renumbered after removing the old #'s, then US$250 isn't a hideous price. If you think it's good and are actually interested in keeping it a while, then have at it! Not too easy to find in complete and original condition any more. I forget the website's name that specializes in these weapons, but it has good info on IDing parts and such. 7.62x54r.net or something...



Plus there's your first resource- the MKL on this site...Unfortunately, no Westinghouse.

ETA: a link that might help

http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinM91R.htm

I bought the New England Westinghouse M-N. It appears to have its original US walnut stock (complete with the Cyrilic "English Contract" cartouche) but that's all. All the other parts appear to be Soviet or Finnish. It has a Finnish boxed SA stamp on the left rear of the barrel shank, just in front of the receiver and a D stamped over the chamber, a Finnish proof mark for their heavy ball ammo. The bolt is as jmoore states, a forced match.

The barrel & receiver retain most of the original finish. The bore on the rifle is excellent; shiny, strong rifling, with an excellent muzzle that gauges 2. The manager of the shop where I bought it had a rod & cleaning patches which improved the bore from poor (dark & weak rifling) to excellent (shiny & strong) in just 60 seconds. I'll have to remember the brand of patches he gave me. It retains the original sights (remarked by the Finns from arshins to meters). The stock has numerous minor dents & scrapes but no major damage. The hand guard is birch & has copper rivets. The S/N on the bolt is restamped to the s/n on the rifle; the s/n on the butt plate doesn't match and the magazine is unmarked. The magazine has about 60% original finish (90% under the wood & 30% on exposed parts) plus some lightly pitted areas.

The bayonet is late Soviet push-to-release type. I got the rifle for less than the $250 asking price & considering it has the original stock & excellent bore, I am satisfied.

Attachment 16050 Attachment 16052 Attachment 16051

I was able to get to the range today with the M-N & a box of Winchester 180 gr fmj ammo.

The rifle made about a 2” group at 100 yds which, since the sights are fuzzy, seems A-OK. The bore measures .314" & the bullets go .311".

The cases failed to eject. I cleaned the rifle yesterday & cleaned the one-piece interrupter/ejector. It looks OK but I have nothing to compare it to. When I tried loading the magazine, the rounds pop back out so it looks like the interrupter/ejector has problems.

Attachment 16082

Reloads will make it shoot a whole lot better.

Are you loading one round at a time? If so, make sure that the case is slid under the interrupter/ejector prior to loading it into the chamber.

The screw tensioning the interrupter/ejector was loose. Once I tightened it, function is 100%

2" group at 100 yrds w/ open sights, ain't nothing to complain about, Ray

It seems like many N.E.W.'s were used by Finland, post WW1 sales maybe?

Finland got most of their Mosins by picking them up on the battle field or off a large freighter that they sunk in shallow water off the coast of Finland. It was loaded with many thousands of rifles in crates and lots of ammo. They put them to very good use too.

That's a nice Westinghouse and the price is right. Nice grab and lots of history on that one. Did the bayonet have a [SA] mark? If so, it may be about as valuable as the rifle.

The bayonet seems to be just an ordinary late Soviet made one. I did find a ® on the nose cap.

Attachment 16937

I can't tell you much about the serial number situation but I can tell you that we have a lot of gun shows around my area and I don't miss a single one if I can help it. So I have a pretty good idea most of the time as to what things are going for and what's out there. The Westinghouse and Remington M1891 rifles are hard to come by. Yeah, they're out there, but they aren't something you can easily find compared to the 91/30s for sure. And when you do they usually look like they were tied to the back of a truck and dragged all the way to the show. I have a Remington that I paid $100 for. It's rough, no doubt. There is no bayonet, it's missing one of the sling escutcheons and the stock looks like it's been sanded down after it was trampled by a herd of elephants. The original asking price was $200 but he hadn't sold a thing and just wanted to get rid of it. When I do see them they usually go for $250 to $350. And they are all in about the same condition (which is better than mine but not by much) Mine is the the worst one I've seen to be honest but hey, it was a hundred bucks so what the heck. If this rifle is in decent shape, I wouldn't pass on it for $250. The Russian 91/30's are great but they are also a dime a dozen and not a WWI gun. With the anniversary of WWI coming up I would bet the farm that interest in the weapons is going to increase and so will prices. Better safe than sorry. Just my 2 cents.

---------- Post added at 11:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:58 PM ----------

The ® is Remington. Somebody swapped some parts out at some point.

The shop where I bought it has many 91/30s for sale, all refurbished and not of any interest to me. He also has 5 Remington & 5 NEW 91s out. Since I bought mine, I check back every couple weeks and noticed that there is some turnover in the rifles as some are sold but he always has 10 on the rack including this Remington with a nice bore & birch stock. I'll keep checking back to see what else turns up.

Attachment 16938

250 for a Finn Westinghouse M91 with the bayonet is a very good deal. You done good.....chris3