Balkan '39 Tula 91/30, with some surprises. Translation?

[racerguy00]

Picked this rifle up for a great price and it arrived yesterday. Absolutely the greasiest grungiest mosin I've ever owned that wasn't a fresh refurb. It was refurbed at some point although it lacks refurb stamps. The rear sight base is pinned, and it sits in a wartime stock. Bore looks dirty but with strong rifling. After wiping away the sticky greasy residue on the stock I found some very faint graffiti in front of the magazine. It's barely visible and took forever to get it to show up in a picture. A pencil rubbing won't even bring it out. The best I can do on translating it is "red army glory"? Any help is appreciated.

All forced matched except bolt, and I also found what looks like a canvas shim caked in grease and stuck to the barrel under the front of the handguard. Enjoy, more photos in the second post.

[desdem12]

Nice looker

[jimpierce7]

that is pretty sweet!! Nice.

[racerguy00]

Lots of crud under the bands


Some rust that will be attended to.














Words scratched into the forearm

[Lee-online]

cool, I bet it still fired ok with all that crud in their.

[BubbaDX]

Translation = "Freaking Awesome!"

Very nice, it has that been there done that look. I love it!

[TheSovietSamurai]

The carving reads 'Krasnoj Armii slava', which translates to 'Glory to the red army'.

[Gsragtop]

The carving reads 'Krasnoj Armii slava', which translates to 'Glory to the red army'.

Then bubba had it right, freaking awesome!!!

That's one heck of a great find, and the inscription just puts it over the edge. Very cool score !!

[Junk Yard Dog]

Nice Balkan M91/30 , these rifles were imported from Romania back in the early 90's, and I well remember the filth! Romania was the dumping ground for most of the buffer states obsolete rifles as Romania had problems keeping up weapons production. The Soviets may have sent this rifle to Romania as aid, or they got it second hand from Hungary, or Poland. I bought a series of 14-15 of these rifles years ago, they all have the same look, all seem to have been through a Soviet post war refurb. The Romanians refurbished the rifles by swapping around parts until whatever was broke was fixed, they did not refinish stocks, or reblue metal. Back in 1992 or so these rifles would have sold for $35-$45, I remember one deal for 3 at $75.

[MarksmanTim]

Very cool Dave. Looks like you definitely got a surprise when cleaning that one!

[qz2026]

JYD jumped in before me. Balkan, Balkan, Balkan... You can't mistake that nasty Romanian grease. The only worse grease I've seen is on the Yugo Mausers

Very nice and this will clean up wonderfully for you

Try translating using Serbian...

[bunkysdad]

This is my favorite kind of 91/30! A true score in every way. I would much rather clean the filth myself. I hate to think about how much of this kind of stuff has fallen victim to some idiot with too much sandpaper, time, and a gleam in his eye.