Christmas in July . . .

[fn111557]

My 91/30 Russian Sniper has arrived. Everyone says if you collect milsurps, you have to have a Mosin-Nagant 91/30. So I took the plunge and ordered a “Tula” WWII Sniper from “Classic Arms”. Only two days later, right to the front door it comes (gotta love that C&R).
Anyway, here is some gun-porn to drool over. The only EP numbers are on the scope mount, scope & receiver numbers. All other gun numbers stamped match; bolt, receiver, butt plate, mag-floor plate, with no line outs.
Enjoy and comments are always welcome! (good or bad)











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Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[jjjxlr8]

REALLY nice! It has a correct Tula mount, too!

Does it have a Tula cartouche on the right side of the buttstock?

[fn111557]

I’m such a NOOB on these. I don’t know about the Tula cartouche on the buttstock. There is a small cartouche on the right side of the stock, but not a star or triangle, looks like a circle with a letter inside? Any way as I clean it up I will try to get GOOD pics of any and all markings to further my education.
Thanks for the comments and I am looking forward to learning a lot more about this piece of history.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Well done. Range report to follow?

[jjjxlr8]

I’m such a NOOB on these. I don’t know about the Tula cartouche on the buttstock. There is a small cartouche on the right side of the stock, but not a star or triangle, looks like a circle with a letter inside? Any way as I clean it up I will try to get GOOD pics of any and all markings to further my education.
Thanks for the comments and I am looking forward to learning a lot more about this piece of history.

Most of the refurbished PU Snipers don't have it, so don't feel bad if yours doesn't. They were typically sanded off when the stock was re-finished. These genuine PU snipers often have lot's of different inspection marks on the stocks - circles with numbers, circles with cryllic letters, symbols, etc. Looking forward to more photos! Thanks for sharing....I never get tired of looking as these!

The original cartouche would look like this.

[mike radford]

Very nice 43 Tula PU. I assume you paid extra for handpick Tula? I got a 43 Tula from AIM, same shipment of 1000 from Morlot and imported by I.O.. Mine was a definite shooter with 6 groups of 5 shots at 100 yds averaging 1.23 inches and 3 sub inch using Extra Match ammo.

Your scope is an early A prefix with 1943 date, and probably one of the last A prefix that had a date. Progress stopped dating theirs about the time yours was made. I can not tell that you have a Tula mount but bear in mind these guns are refurbed and parts are usually mixed and renumbered. For the price these are saleing for, they are a steal. That is why AIM sold out of Tula in about 30 minutes when first offered and sold out of the 500 they bought in about 3 days.

There are dozens of examples posted on gunboards collector's forum and sniper forum.

Congratulations on getting a nice PU. These are the best deal on a WW2 sniper and the PU will shoot with just about any sniper made in WW2.

[jjjxlr8]

I can not tell that you have a Tula mount but bear in mind these guns are refurbed and parts are usually mixed and renumbered. ....

You can tell that the mount is a Tula because of how far down it is cut between the mounting rings (above the circular hole).

The Izhevsk mounts are not generally cut that deep and are more straight across. I suspect that he will have small circular tool marks on the back side of the mount like this...


The Izhevsk mounts look like this...

[fn111557]

Thanks for that info. Yes the back of my mount has the small circle tool marks like your pic. I was wondering if that was an original mount because of the E.P. numbering, but remember reading somewhere they could be numbered either way; E.P. or Stamp.
No large-ish STAR on the stock, but a few circles with letteres/numbers.
Will get more pics next week, this weekend I am off to visit my son for his 29th B-Day. He's getting to be an OLD FARRTTTT like me! LOL

[jjjxlr8]

It's most likely not the ORIGINAL mount, but it is a TULA made mount. Tula mounts were originally stamped with the rifle's serial number. During the refurb, the original number on your mount was polished off, mount was re-blued, and then the new numbers added.

Here is what the numbers on the Tula mounts originally looked like...


Note that on this rifle, when it was refurbished, they used the original Tula mount number and added the EP'd mount number to the rifle's receiver!

[mike radford]

Yes, I can tell its a Tula mount from the rear machining. Thanks for the better pics. Izhevsk mounts vary and I have seen a degree of the downward cut between the rings so I do not rely on that.

These rifles are outstanding IMO. Any WW2 collector who does not get one has made a big boo boo.

When Rguns first released their Tula's, they were out in about a week. Price was $900. Izhesk, without hand pick was $800. These are $200-300 less. These are fresh out of military storage, mine was zeroed and ready for issue. Many others have reported the same experience. Gotta love these things, and they definitely will grow on you.

Picture is old. I have added a few since.