The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

Digging through the safe tonight I came upon a rifle I haven't thought about for a while. I picked it up when I first became interested in Mosins and I did not know, at the time, that it was pretty special.

A 1931 Izhevsk Dragoon, captured by the Finns (marked: 41) Ground Soviet markings, re-stocked with a Finn stock and with the sights renumbered and a pair of boxed SA marks. I had not noted in my log, but the rifle is devoid of import markings and has no added receiver serial. Sitting on a grey blanket it would probably fetch a fair sum. When I get home from work tomorrow, with the sun shining, I will take some pics to share. I think that on Sunday, it will get aired out on the range.

I looked for production numbers for Izhevsk Dragoons in '31 but came up blank. If anyone could point me in the right direction I would appreciate it.

There probably aren't any production figures that we have access to unless they are for all of 1931's rifle production. Likely every rifle made that year would have been a dragoon, that was only one year after the 91/30 changes were authorized but we know they were still using up old dragoon parts as late as 1933. Every 91/30 I have that was made before 1934 started off life as a dragoon rifle.

Junk Yard Dog wrote:There probably aren't any production figures that we have access to unless they are for all of 1931's rifle production. Likely every rifle made that year would have been a dragoon, that was only one year after the 91/30 changes were authorized but we know they were still using up old dragoon parts as late as 1933. Every 91/30 I have that was made before 1934 started off life as a dragoon rifle.

My '30 Tula didn't.

PIcs, Steve, we need pics!

Pics for the starving eyes.

Two more:

Lovely. This one is in great shape!

Very cool!!

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Seriously? You been keeping this beauty hidden and forgotten? This is a gorgeous rifle. I love it Steve. That would be nice on the range.

bunkysdad wrote:Seriously? You been keeping this beauty hidden and forgotten? This is a gorgeous rifle. I love it Steve. That would be nice on the range.

It is in the front of the safe now, I should air it out this weekend.

Good idea. I have had my Dragoon now for about 3 years and have not shot it. Isn't that rediculous?

Nice Steve. I remember you stole this from me on a gray blanket deal. I need it to match my 31 tula dragoon.

Hillbilly's want to know.......What's the difference in a M-91 and a Dragoon???? SBP.....hidin in the woods of the Smoky Mtns.

The main difference is that they are 2 1/2" shorter than an M-91.

That stock is gorgeous. Very nice!

Basically they are close to being 91/30 length to keep it simple and the have a blade front sight with the older M91 sight in the rear. You can find them up into about 1932 and sometimes find them further up in the years with just some Dragoon traits. That is one of the nicest condition ones I have ever seen! It has been cleaned a bit but look at the sharpness of the edges! Even got a hard to find copper endcap on the hand guard. See how smooth and uniform the finish is on the endcaps? That sure looks to me that they were blasted with some kind of process like sand or the like. How they would do that and not hurt anything else I don't know. I have built many carburetors in my racing days and they were supposed to be stock and we used something similar to modern powder coating material to achieve that finish so as not to attract attention of the tech inspectors. The results were almost exactly like that finish. I never tried it on blued steel so I don't know what it would look like but I am guessing it might look very uniform like that rifle does too.

Keep in mind I would have bought that rifle in a flash but I suspect that maybe it was over done in somebodies attempt to get it to look brand new like to me it does. I have many similar rifles I bought years ago and sometimes wonder about too. It comes down to the question of whether that is what the former owner wanted and achieved and whether you like that too I guess. I do like it but then again I also wonder about how that look was achieved and also think about why rifles like that should not exist in that condition unless helped along by someone's well meaning efforts. I love that rifle but have mixed feelings about how it got that nice looking? Maybe it needs a few range trips and some shooting to realistically make it more used looking like I believe it should? Very Nice rifle! and yes while I have mixed feelings I am admittedly jealous! Bill