Badly bodged Mosin part II, live(sort of) from Arizona!

[NavyGeo]

A few years ago I rescued a Mosin Nagant from a local pawn shop. Here is my post attempting to identify it and what I wanted to do with it:

Badly bodged Mosin Nagant post

Since then I have done quite a bit of travelling along with moving from eastern Alabama to central Arizona. However I've kept researching my project, and I believe I've figured out what it started life as.

The barrel is indeed not indexed properly to the receiver, which is proven by the mis-alignment(about 150 degrees) of the pins for the rear sight base. Also, knowing now that my rear sight based was pinned combined with the "1945" date and 'arrow in triangle' markings leads me to believe I have a Ishvesk M91/30 produced near the end of WWII.

Unfortunately I have also discovered that there should be a 'dovetail' running along the centerline of the barrel under where the rear sight base attaches. That 'pinned' rear sight base would slot onto the dovetail. Mine is gone, and you can see where it appears someone machined it away. My guess is the barrel was removed to machine that off, and then was reinstalled 'upside down' to hide the bare metal.

I am finally in a place that I can mount my "M91/30 barrel vise/wrench" in order to rotate the barrel to it's correct alignment. I'm setting up to do that this weekend. Then I'm going to see if a rear sight base will be held rigidly/in correct alignment using just the pins. If so then I'll find a way to mount a small Picatinny rail to the base and mount up my reflex sight and this thing will be ready to take to a range and be test fired.

My process for testing any firearm I've ever 'rescued' has always been to 'remote active' the trigger from a safe distance with a string. I usually put some old tires and heavy wool blankets around and over the firearm and then fire 5 rounds of factory loaded ammunition. I haven't had a mishap yet following those precautions.

If the Mosin survives all that then I'm going to use my remaining 15 rounds for accuracy tests. If the Mosin shows that it's capable out to at least 125 yards then I'm going to reload my brass with lower-pressure black-powder loads and call this old warhorse my 'brush gun'. I'll keep you all posted!

[millman]

Turning the barrel will change the headspace drastically. If you manage to screw it in, the head space will be too little, and you wont be able to close the bolt on a round. If you screw it out, the headspace will be too much, likely causing a case rupture or worse. This whole deal sounds ill advised. Just my .

[tomaustin]

millman, well said...........s a f e t y.............c o m e s ...........f i r s t .........

[racerguy00]

1945 date plus lack of dovetail for the rear sight tells me it was an M44 originally. Very few 1945 date 91/30s have ever turned up and m44s' rear sights are a sleeve that is pinned in place, no dovetail