The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

Junk Yard Dog wrote:Could be they were made in Hungary, or Czechoslovakia and were captured by the Soviets during their crackdown's in these country's and just put in the refurb pile. Remember the Hungarian 91/30's that turn up in the Soviet refurb crates?

Very true. I had forgot about those.

CJ, great finds. I would have jumped on those in a heartbeat! Love oddball Mosins. You just don't see weird, "Island of Misfit Toys" type rifles like these in any other collecting sphere.

Here's another Remington M91/30, and a Remington M39 for good measure! Sadly, I own neither.

Thanks for the photos - yours or not. I've never heard of a Remington M39 - that is super cool!!! My 91/30 is less than 10,000 away from that one you posted. It's interesting to see that they are not scrubbed either. Thanks for the comparison.

The longer you hang around this place the more information you gather in. I have never seen rifles like those and I like them a lot.

Did the Soviet Union issue a directive in 1945, that no 91 30s damaged or otherwise, would be converted or re arsenaled to carbines within the USSR?

There was a directive but I don't recall the date. 1945 seems right though. I'll look for the source of the info

I believe it is now thought that these conversions to 91/30 were done by Soviets during WW2 as an emergency effort to reuse older but still mostly serviceable weapons. Only later after refurbishment they were given as aid to Romania due to their being “non standard”.

Greedo1977 wrote: ↑Wed May 10, 2023 8:24 pm I believe it is now thought that these conversions to 91/30 were done by Soviets during WW2 as an emergency effort to reuse older but still mostly serviceable weapons. Only later after refurbishment they were given as aid to Romania due to their being “non standard”.

I have a number of these Romanian " aid" rifles, they span the spectrum of normal 91/30 years with only one or two possibly having been Dragoon rifles as they are 1931-32. All the Soviet block countries received Soviet surplus Mosins in the immediate years after the war. Because Romania was having more financial difficulties than some other buffer states a lot of what had been Polish aid, or Hungarian aid rifles ended up in Romania as further aid to that country. This can be seen in the mix of parts that can turn up in these rifles, parts from the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, and Romania on the same rifle. It seems the Soviets themselves phased in the new sights and bands slowly as rifles have turned up in the Finn hoard with dates 1930-34 and the Dragoon sights still on them. These being rifles captured during the 1939-40 Winter War it shows that such were still common Soviet issue at that time. The Soviets were also cheap, they didn't spend unless they had to due to their economy being crap thanks to communism. They wouldn't have changed the sights on otherwise perfectly serviceable rifles when that work could be done during normal refurbishing. They had lots of time after 1945 to refurbish and update all the old rifles in circulation. I don't recall even one dragoon rifle with it's original sights turning up among the countless Soviet refurbished 91/30's sold out of the Ukranian hoard in all the years they were selling them, or later in the Russian Molot imports.