Mosin Nagant 91/30 Sniper - newly acquired

Hi,

I'm new here (not new to guns, but mostly new to milsurp). My son (12) and I picked up a Mosin Nagant 91/30 Sniper yesterday. It appeared to have never been fired (plenty of cosmoline, no marks on bolt, bore mirror bright, old yellowed tape still on scope, adjustments, etc.). We pulled the tape off the scope, cleaned it up a bit and took it to the range.

Got some friendly help from one of the regulars who knows Mosins, and sighted in the scope. First shot at 100 yards in the 8 ring. Got better from there. Wow. Gun seems to have made us more skilled shooters!

Anyway, we've spent some time on the 762x54 and mosinnagant sites (tons of info there, awesome resources), but don't see much about the Sniper model. Gun is marked 1943r, has ATI import marks, appears to be an Izhevsk (triangle), and has a bunch of weird markings. All numbers match.

Pics below. Any additional info anyone can offer would be appreciated. FWIW, we absolutely have fallen in love with this gun.

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I'd check under your scope mount and make sure there are no markings under there, if there are then it isn't an original sniper rifle. However if you don't care then more power to you! Go out and have fun!

That is a beautiful rifle. From the stamps, the barrel and scope at minimum looks to have been arsenal reconditioned at the 2nd Grau Arsenal so chances are the whole rifle was done at that arsenal, but I would have to see the stamps on the stock to be sure. Is the barrel counter bored?

Thanks for the replies. I'll take the scope mount off later. In the meantime, here's some pics from the stock, and also the floor plate, which I forgot to include before.

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Barrel does not appear to be counterbored, but I'm far from an expert. Hard to get good pics with a stupid phone and a cheap bore light...

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There should be some stamps (cartouche) on the buttstock. But as I said it looks to be arsenal reconditioned; if it came with bayonet it should have a matching serial number as well. Be careful Mosin Nagants can be addicting, they are still kind of affordable... I have about 6 of different variants. Where did you pick this one up at?

---------- Post added at 05:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:52 PM ----------

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Originally Posted by jml

Barrel does not appear to be counterbored

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BONUS POINTS!!!!.... you are one of the lucky one's. The arsenals took to counterboring even the rifles that didn't need it. Guess they were bored and needed to "make work".

Nice to hear! Certainly the gun performs nicely. Seems odd that it would have been reconditioned, as the bolt had not even the slightest marks at the firing pin, and the bore looked brand new. After we shot it, yeah, we could see rings on the bolt, but before, nothing (I should have taken pics). Bolt SN matches everything else.

As for butt stock, no marks other than this very minor one -

Attachment 87934

Very nice sniper it is correct as imported .

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jml

Seems odd that it would have been reconditioned,

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The box with the X indicates that it was arsenal reconditioned. There are few Mosin Nagants that were "not" used. The lined out numbers on the floorplate are usually indicators of a serial number force stamp. Allot of time replacement parts is forced stamp to match the rifle serial number. So it doesn't surprise me that your bolt face had no signs of use. It could have been replaced. Look and see if there is a triangle with an arrow or an arrow with dot on each end on the bolt head lugs. Most original bolt heads are marked, its hit and miss for the replacements.

I'm not a Mosin Nagant expert, but I'm sure there is one here that can tell you better than me. I'm just going off information that I've learned over the years. So you can take it with a grain of salt. Izhevsk is my favorite Mosin Nagant factory and I try only to buy them. Most people prefer Tula.

jml: Definitely refurbed- in addition to the marks mentioned above, the font on bolt, buttplate and floorplate do not perfectly match that on the barrel. It can be a subtle distinction but, if you scan threads displaying original, matching rifles you'll see what I mean. As far as being an original PU rifle, I believe I see the circle-C mark on the barrel which was applied to Izhevsk sniper quality barrels (not all of which ended up on sniper rifles). These refurbed PU's were done very well and, as you've seen, can be tremendously accurate rifles. My favorite is a refurbed '43 Tula which shoots way better than I can! Thanks for sharing your rifle.

Ridolpho

Thanks again, all. This is tremendously helpful.

I have attached a couple more pics. The bolt has various markings on it, including on the lugs. These guns sure do have lots of markings. I found what looks like another Izhevsk mark under the rear sight leaf.

Not sure which is the "C" on the barrel?

One thing I'm wondering - if the gun is a refurb, why would the bore look brand spankin' new (and no counterbore)? Would they replace the barrel in one of these refurb jobs?

Thanks!

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[QUOTE=jml;415211]

One thing I'm wondering - if the gun is a refurb, why would the bore look brand spankin' new (and no counterbore)? Would they replace the barrel in one of these refurb jobs?

Thanks!

jml: Post-war refurbs with very good or excellent barrels are not unusual. Presumably large batches of rifles were processed with ancillary parts stripped off and replaced with new or renumbered used parts (bolt, buttplate, magazine and floorplate, etc, etc). One would imagine that on a rifle with an excellent bore other smaller parts were still probably in equally good condition but who knows? Could have been some rust from poor storage with the rifle never having been issued. My '43 Tula PU refurb has no original parts other than barrel and receiver and the bore is absolutely perfect. There is another type of refurb, known as "light refurbs" that may have some parts replaced and some shellac slathered on but retain many original pieces. In Canada, recently, a batch of "43 Izhevsks 91/30's with folding bayonets were imported and sold (I believe there were around 50?). This group is unusual in that it includes a few probable all original matching rifles plus many that would be considered light refurbs with a bit of shellac, maybe some sanding, and one or more non-original parts. I bought one and it is all original except for a replacement floorplate. It seems this batch went through a more selective refurb process involving inspection and replacement only of defective parts.

Ridolpho

Thanks, Ridolpho. Is there any way to tell the year of the refurb?

jml: The square with "X" inside is the mark of Arsenal #2, Kiev, Ukrainian Soviet republic, according to Alexander Yuschenkos recent book. This and other facilities repaired rifles during the war but large refurbishment programs occurred long post war. The same reference indicates your scope is manufactured by Factory #297, Yoshkar-Ola. The date is the first two digits in the serial- 1944. it was also refurbed. I would recommend this book if you plan to collect wartime 91/30's (title = M91/30 Rifles and M38/44 carbines in 1941-45). There may be some of them showing up in places like e-bay or alibris.

Ridolpho