Strange 91/30, what is the deal?

[Kevin917z]

I have a couple ideas but want to see what others think of this rifle. Its missing crest and makers mark on barrel. High wall, no date on tang.

[steelbuttplate]

The Tula arsenal got captured in '41. A lot of half finished rifles got shipped to Izhevsk, finished in a hurry and sent to the front. That one started as an izhevsk, but a lot of both got made in a hurry in '41. Marks got lightly stamped or not at all sometimes.

[Kevin917z]

Any possibility it could be something like a Leningrad seige rifle built from parts ?

[Junk Yard Dog]

At this point in the war the wolf was at the door, and things were not going well to put it mildly. Rifles built during this time after June 1941 and into late 1943 had some standards relaxed in favor or speedy production. The rifles didn't need to look pretty, or have every marking carefully stamped in order to fire. This was a time when the Red Army had suffered massive losses in men and material, they had replacements going into combat with no weapons at all. I have seen these rifles with all markings, no markings, some markings, and even a double set of markings. It's a post WW2 refurbished rifle, the Soviets didn't think it necessary to restamp any original type markings so long as the serial number was there.

[ssg_lord]

Any possibility it could be something like a Leningrad seige rifle built from parts ?

The rifle was assembled at Izhevsk because it has the 1941-42 Izhevsk factory military representative final acceptance marking on the barrel.(see picture)

Izhevsk final proof mark (2).jpg

I already posted this to your Facebook post about this rifle, but I'll repeat it here as well.

I believe what you have is an unmarked Tula barrel that was assembled at Izhevsk in the months after the German invasion. Tula shut down 91/30 production in mid 1940 to concentrate on SVT-40 production and all 91/30 parts remaining at Tula were sent to Izhevsk. There were a number of unmarked or partially marked barrels included in this transfer. Once the Germans invaded Izhevsk kicked Mosin production into high gear and instituted a number of time saving changes to the production process including making "high wall" receivers, something Izhevsk had not done previous to mid 1941. They used whatever parts were available to quickly assemble rifles, including the previously mentioned Tula parts and a large stockpile of parts and receivers left over from WW1 and later that had minor production flaws that prevented their use during peacetime but were more that acceptable once German tanks started rolling towards Moscow.