The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

Here is the 1914 Mosin Nagant I won on 5/4. I was finally able to pick it up from the LGS a couple days ago after a long wait.

In the first couple pics here, it looks like the Izhevsk crest was ground off.







Here it look like the crest was peened out?

Nice , this is not a Finn? Ant tiny pine cone stamps on the buttstock of in the finger groove?

I don't remember seeing any pine cone stamp on the stock, I will have to take a closer look tonight. But, the listing on gunbroker did have it listed as a Finn.

If it's a Finn there will be a SA in a square stamp on the left side of the barrel shank near the wood line.

I see no SA, or D stamp on the barrel shank, everything I see looks Balkan, the Finns scrubbed receivers, but I never saw them peen anything out, they grind.

1914 was a black year in history, the start of the Great War, Many of these Balkan rifles were sent as aid to various Russian allies, or captured from the Russians by the Balkan countries. A lot of bloody history. Sometimes they were first sent as aid and then captured from the second country to use them. The pinecone stamp is tiny, easily missed, and indicated Bulgarian ownership.

Thanks JYD, I will look for something like that.

You would be surprised at how many Balkan M91's people sold me without ever knowing the Bulgarian stamps were there

Nice one Kyle.

Junk Yard Dog wrote:You would be surprised at how many Balkan M91's people sold me without ever knowing the Bulgarian stamps were there

Well if I can't find it, I may have to send it to you for confirmation.


Kyle

Nice Kyle any M91 is time for me

kyle514 wrote:

Junk Yard Dog wrote:You would be surprised at how many Balkan M91's people sold me without ever knowing the Bulgarian stamps were there

Well if I can't find it, I may have to send it to you for confirmation.


Kyle

No problem, might take me a few years and while I have it I would be glad to test the sights for proper alignment, two cases of ammo might be required for that

Balkans M91 for sure, Pinged Tsarist eagle, Metal tightener bands for barrel clamps, and scrubbed Tsarist markings on barrel plate. The rear sight markings are unmessed with too, still in Arshins not transfered to meters or at least not lined out. Refinished at some time in the past and that hand guard looks to be Finnish but nothing else does look Finnish. Typical mish mash of parts one sees on both Balkan and Finnish rifles for sure. Counter bored? Most of the bores on Balkan rifles are well used that I have seen but that is not to say there aren't nice ones out there. I would say a nice example of a refinished Balkans rifle and worth $100 to $200 easy in today's market. Nice to have one of those for sure as they represent a bit of Mosin history. Congrats! Bill

Great rifle. I like the photos you took, VERY well done. I keep looking for pine cones now that I know they exist (outside of pine trees).......you have a wonderful piece of history. Great rifle........I love it!!!!

What a fantastic piece of history! Made the first year of WWI. Anyone care to venture why they ground off the Izhevsk stamp if it isn't a Finn capture?

Not the Izhevsk markings themselves, it's the Imperial Russian markings , the stamp of the Czar they wanted gone. After 1917 when the Reds started to gain the upper hand in the civil war they scrubbed imperial markings off the older rifles and added commie markings to the ones built while they were in power. These rifles were captured by Germany, Finland, Austria, and other countries in large numbers, these country's issued the captured rifles to their own troops and much of the time removed the old eagle stamps first. Some did slip through the cracks, the Finns didn't bother scrubbing the markings when things got tight time wise, and there is currently a 91/38 topic that shows an unscrubbed 1901 receiver and barrel, surprising for two reasons, that an unscrubbed M91 survived to the 1950's in commie hands, and was used as is to build a new rifle. In the 50's they had time to scrub everything off it and didn't.

I was looking it over this morning, I didn't see any pine cones, but I did find a faint number stamped on the buttstock.



And it is counter bored.

Kyle

I'm guessing a Balkan rifle, and the importer or someone else may have replaced with a Finn handguard? Really does not matter as that is a great WWI era M91. Given what its been through since the Guns of August, she was not pampered but used as intended.

Semper Fi, Rob

That's really nice. I'll bet she could tell a story or two.