Tikka 91/30 PU sniper: real or fake?

I picked this up at a gun show a couple years ago and I'm 99 and 44/100 percent convinced it's a fake and I bought it as such just for a shooter so no worries about being duped. Story time. The guy I got it from said he'd had if for about 20 years(anyone ever heard that line before) but did have parerwork(I still have it.... somewhere) showing he or someone bought in 1991 at a gun shop in N.C. and that it didn't have a scope or mount when he got it, just the rifle and base. He was trying to sell but nobody was interested saying it was a fake and $250 was the highest offer he'd had. I made a slightly higher offer and after some hesitation he took it. My reasons for thinking it's a fake are the bolt handle and the fact that Finn snipers are ultra rare. In fact I'd never heard of a Tikka 91/30 sniper at the time but later found out they do exist. Information on them is very limited with no pictures for comparison. I'm still convinced mine is a fake but would like to hear it from others just to be absolutely certain. It came with the scope and mount shown(added some years after purchase of the rifle according to seller) and shoots well. Bullet hole 7 o'clock low was my fault, trying to keep on target through the lonnnng trigger pull is a challenge. Range: 100 yds. No rest used, I mostly shoot as I would when hunting.

Fake or not, it's a nice looking rifle.

Fake.

Interordnance made these up when the Tikka M30s started coming into the US. The scopes are usually modern repros.

The Finns certainly never did a PU/Tikka M30 sniper rifle....

I had it pegged as such before I bought it but that .56 of a percent chance it was legit bugged the tar out of me so I inquired just to be 100% certain. Evidently others besides Interordnance built up fakes as this one is a Century import or else it was done by some individual, perhaps the dude I bought it from. Whoever it was did a very good job. Scope and mount are, as far as I have been able to determine, legit. According to 7.62x54r.net Tikka 91/30 High Walls are rare and rate a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10 but I don't know how reliable their information is, it was the same website that more or less confirmed that Tikka 91/30 PU snipers do exist although information about them seems to be as scarce as the rifles themselves..

Either way I agree it's a great looking rifle and the groups are nice shooting!

Unless you paid a premium price for a rarity, you shouldn't worry about the academic question of whether the parts - which look genuine enough for me, from the photos - were put together by Tikka, John Doe, or anyone else. The result is a rifle that performs well, which is the whole point of the exercise.

To see if it performs not just well, but excellently, you must test the rifle, not yourself. Reload the once-fired cases from the same rifle, using only neck-sizing. Make another test, this time using a sandbag to rest the rifle at the same point on the stock where you would normally place your hand. Then show us another photo of the group!

By any chance, would you be willing to sell this rifle? I realize that rifle isn't worth much any more as a collector's piece, but I've been looking for one of these Century Tikka Snipers for a while now as a shooter.

Sorry Firebolt it isn't for sale. To the purist collector it wouldn't have much if any value but for some odd reason or another you're not the only one who's contacted me in the attempt to purchase it, one made an offer I almost couldn't refuse.

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Originally Posted by vintage hunter

To the purist collector it wouldn't have much if any value but for some odd reason or another you're not the only one who's contacted me in the attempt to purchase it, one made an offer I almost couldn't refuse.

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I'm not surprised.
Firstly because the thing works well.
Secondly, because tuning the ammo can turn 91/30s from minute-of-barn-door into MOA shooters. I did exactly that a couple of months ago, I am not talking empty theory here.
And thirdly, because somewhere down the line it is going to be peddled as a genuine WWII sniper with a price tag to match.

Ignore the opportunists and test it as I suggested. Your opinion of the rifle may then be so enhanced that the "offer I almost couldn't refuse" no longer seems so great.

Patrick, are you telling me that this here fake sniper rifle can quite possibly be made to shoot better by resting it on sand bags with handloaded ammunition?:move eek::D
Seriously though my uncle got me started reloading in 1984 for a Marlin 336 lever gun in 35 Remington which I still have. It will consistently shoot MOA 3 shot groups at 100yds with IMR 3031 powder and Sierra 200 gr RN bullets. Scope sighted of course. Damn good for a lever gun.
Opportunists have been ignored and I'll get around to experimenting with the Tikka sooner or later right now I'm more than happy with how it shoots with commercial and surplus ammo, SMOBHA.( that's Sub Minute Of Bo Hog Accuracy) I never said I hadn't shot it off bags, just that the pictured target was shot using a different style with factory hunting loads. It does noticeably better with a proper rest.
I never really got into the competitive target shooting thing, nothing wrong with it but those paper targets taste much worse than the wrong end of a BPCR blow tube.:madsmile:
I'm a diehard hunter, hogs can be hunted year round and deer season in my area is 4 1/2 months long. I also have a special DNR sanctioned crop damage permit that allows me to hunt deer an additional 4 months. IMO, live game is the ultimate reactive target.

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Originally Posted by vintage hunter

Patrick, are you telling me that this here fake sniper rifle can quite possibly be made to shoot better by resting it on sand bags with handloaded ammunition?

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Amazing but true!:madsmile: I just wanted to get you to test the rifle as well as possible, not yourself!

BTW, what don't you like about the bolt handle?

As I understand it the bolt handle is most always the one thing that will give away a fake Mosin sniper. I have read(internet info mind you) that on real 91/30 snipers the short stubby bolt handle was milled off, the bolt rib drilled, new longer handle pressed in and welded and the weld then uniformed in a lathe before the handle was turned down. But, like I say that's internet hearsay. Then again this particular rifle started life as a 1943 Izhevsk( marked as such on tang bottom) and the 42's and 43's were a bit rough finish wise compared to earlier examples due the high demand for rifles at the time. Sniper variants generally had a somewhat better finish than standard rifles. I completed apprenticeships with the Millwright and Ironworker trades and was at one time or another a welder for both and to me the quality of the handle job just has an amateur look about it. The smaller the object is being welded the better the welder has to be and the small jobs always separate the real welders from the ''blobbers''.
I will get around to testing the rifle but right now the shortage of loading components has that on hold. I want to use .308'' 150gr flat based bullets mainly because the elevation drum is calibrated for 148-150gr FB spritzers at around 2800 fps and I do occasionally take shots at critters out to 300 yds if I can't close the distance. ATM all of the .308'' bullets I have on hand are BTHP's in the 168-200gr range.

It is almost certainly one of the ones Century put together using Finn rifles in the early 1990s. It is definitely a pretty one. Your mount is Tula and scope is Progress SVT type.

With the Finns, sometimes they would build a sniper on a non-sniper rifle foundation. It is the exception, not the norm or the rule. Very unlikely that this rifle is one that the Finns scoped.

Great rifle. Enjoy.

Thanks Mike. I'd identified the scope as being what you say it is soon after buying the rig. The mount was giving me a bit of trouble as it looks to have been refinished and some of the identifying features removed. In fact there was a blue slip of paper with Russian writing dated 1954 tucked in the scope cover that I assumed was post war refurb/calibration documentation on the scope.
I'm perfectly happy with it being a fake, I can enjoy it without having to worry about destroying any collector value.
Won't be long now before it gets some use, as I type this the farmer that tends my land is planting 40 acres of melons in front of the house and the pesty deer won't be far behind.