Gen 1 Mosin? Pawn shop find from a totally uninformed buyer
Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2023 5:45 pm
Hello all! This seemed like the best place to post this and ask some questions on what I picked up. Definitely an interesting unaltered Mosin.
Background:
Last Friday I went into a pawn shop pick up a receiver and noticed a Mosin being fawned over by a young guy. I totally would have ignored it otherwise. He was really excited that it had a date of 1902 on it! Price tag was $250
He didn’t really have the money for it and was torn on if he could get it, but decided to pass just because he didn’t know if was worth the money. It looked weird so I took a peek at it after he left
The first thing that popped out to me was the lack of handguard, yet the barrel bands were fitting to the barrel. I had never seen anything like that. Where are the hole for the sling? I left and mentioned my story online, but a lot of people said it was probably some bubba job done to a Mosin missing a handguard. This is the first time something in my life just nagged at me, and two days later I decided to pop back in
What a weird sight for a Mosin! Something is up. I started posting pics to discord and everyone was clamoring for me to buy it. I’m a bit tight on funds but went for it.
Stock is rough, but thee stock + magazine + receiver have matching serials. There are no extra /odd markings anywhere and even after taking it apart I’m struggling to find an importation mark.
Bolt is not matching but from what I understand this is an early bolt?
Tang matches receiver it looks like. Imperial Mosin, gen 1 of some kind, but assembled in 1902? No importation so got into the US early? Either way this is not your regular Mosin.
I spent the evening carefully cleaning out the massive load of caked in grease on everything as best I could and applying some very light oil to the metal. Under the wood magazine was pretty scratchy looking but still solid. The stock finish is beat up but the wood is good so no idea how to protect that without doing damage to the stock.
Any idea how this slipped through this long without modification? I’m thinking it might become a wall piece instead of a fun shooter for me, but any idea then with of something like this?
Background:
Last Friday I went into a pawn shop pick up a receiver and noticed a Mosin being fawned over by a young guy. I totally would have ignored it otherwise. He was really excited that it had a date of 1902 on it! Price tag was $250
He didn’t really have the money for it and was torn on if he could get it, but decided to pass just because he didn’t know if was worth the money. It looked weird so I took a peek at it after he left
The first thing that popped out to me was the lack of handguard, yet the barrel bands were fitting to the barrel. I had never seen anything like that. Where are the hole for the sling? I left and mentioned my story online, but a lot of people said it was probably some bubba job done to a Mosin missing a handguard. This is the first time something in my life just nagged at me, and two days later I decided to pop back in
What a weird sight for a Mosin! Something is up. I started posting pics to discord and everyone was clamoring for me to buy it. I’m a bit tight on funds but went for it.
Stock is rough, but thee stock + magazine + receiver have matching serials. There are no extra /odd markings anywhere and even after taking it apart I’m struggling to find an importation mark.
Bolt is not matching but from what I understand this is an early bolt?
Tang matches receiver it looks like. Imperial Mosin, gen 1 of some kind, but assembled in 1902? No importation so got into the US early? Either way this is not your regular Mosin.
I spent the evening carefully cleaning out the massive load of caked in grease on everything as best I could and applying some very light oil to the metal. Under the wood magazine was pretty scratchy looking but still solid. The stock finish is beat up but the wood is good so no idea how to protect that without doing damage to the stock.
Any idea how this slipped through this long without modification? I’m thinking it might become a wall piece instead of a fun shooter for me, but any idea then with of something like this?