Haven't logged in for awhile but thought I'd share my recently acquired New England Westinghouse.
It was found in a dark corner of a deceased dealers workshop where it had sat for God knows how long covered in grease and grime and very much unloved.The cleaning rod was missing, and the only bolt assembly parts with it were the original bolt head and the connector bar.Both barrel bands had snapped screws but there was something about the old girl that I couldn't resist so I set about sourcing parts for her.....the cleaning rod came from Sweden, a pair of N.E.W-marked barrel bands came from Estonia and the bolt parts I needed came from Finland, with the exception of the main bolt body all the bolt assembly parts are N.E.W-marked with the bolt body being a Tula part with no serial number which I can live with.
After a damn good clean it appeared that the chamber and bore were pretty much like new right to the muzzle and the trigger sear and the ejector/interrupter had little to no wear marks on them and it appears and it appears to have had very little use over the years.The metal at the exposed portion of the barrel has pitted a bit over the years, as has the buttplate and the top of the receiver in the area of the stripper clip bridge possibly due to less than ideal storage but under the stock the blueing is still very good and strangely like new on large portions of the barrel and receiver.
All the marks and stamps on it are N.E.W factory marks and Russian proofs, the buttplate serial number matches and the stock is the original "English Contract" marked stock with a Cyrillic acceptance mark.
There is nothing to suggest it was Finnish-captured or ended up in the Balkans and it has no US property marks such as the Flaming Bomb cartouche.......it is a bit of a mystery as to where it has been all these years and I did wonder if it was possible that it was one of the rifles that were held up in Liverpool Docks following the Russian default due to the Revolution and if it was possibly "lifted" from the Docks by an unscrupulous dock worker,possibly with Irish connections......ultimately I'll never know but it has no recent C.I.P-recognised European proofs and had never been proofed here in UK prior to it being proofed prior to me taking possession of it, in fact it wasn't registered on the British Police firearms database!.
Anyway, here's a few pics of the old girl......
She shoots 15" high at 100m but the windage is pretty much on, this target was shot from a rest at 100m with 150gr handloads, the target is 8" across......
Recently acquired N.E.W
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Snayperskaya
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Recently acquired N.E.W
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Last edited by Snayperskaya on Mon Jul 13, 2020 8:59 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Snayperskaya
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Re: Recently acquired N.E.W
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Longcolt44
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Snayperskaya
- Posts: 115
- Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2018 10:54 am
Re: Recently acquired N.E.W
Thank you......I feel lucky that it has its original stock and handguard and that they are in nice condition, although they were very dirty there's no major dents or scratches apart from a very small crack at the rear of the handguard but it's nothing major.The M91 rifles aren't anywhere near as common as 91/30's and carbines over here in the UK so I was lucky to find this one.
With the absence of European proofs (Most Mosins in the UK come in via Germany and tend to have German C.I.P proofmarks) I did wonder if it could be one of the rifles that was held up and then stored in Britain following the Russia Revolution and later sent to Russia with British troops during the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War and it somehow made it's way back when the British pulled out*.....possible or am I dreaming?.
* I read somewhere that those rifles were left in Russia but maybe it's possible some were brought back.