Looking for opinions on this 1937 matching Mosin 91/30

[Military Surplus Lover]

Hello everyone
I have had this rather interesting mosin in my collection for a few years now and I’ve always wanted to find out more about its potential history. It was made at the Tula arsenal in 1937 and appears to have its original stock. The numbers appear to be original stamped matching. I’m not sure if it has been re-blued or not. The rear sight has been updated. It has the extra pin holding the rear sight on. It has an interesting symbol under the date which I’ve never seen on another mosin. I’m wondering if it could potentially be a Spanish cival war rifle due to the fact it was made in 1937. I don’t believe it went through the typical Russian refurb process. I would say the rifle rates about a 9.5 out of ten. The bore looks perfect. Don’t know if it was ever shot. If any of you fellow mosin collectors have any ideas I’d love to hear what you think!
Thank you

 

[Nabs]

That is one nice looking Tula .

 

[themouser]

light refurb looks to me

 

[R005t3r]

No M8 flaming bomb cartouche on buttstock. Tend to have a straight in the white erzatz cleaning rod. Year and handguard would be correct.

 

[Military Surplus Lover]

Yes it is! I was very happy to find it!

 

[Military Surplus Lover]

light refurb looks to me

Any idea when the rear sight modifications took place? Was it a wartime modification or postwar?

 

[jack2000]

Ukrainian civilian market mosins have another pin on the rear sight, might be why.
I don't think it has any features to qualify it as an SCW (sling swivels, cleaning rod, MP8, new handguard).
I am fairly certain this is not a SCW mosin, as the Д letter between № and the serial is a russian depot repair mark. 1936 and 37 Mosins were shipped to Spain right off the production line, and this one saw enough use in Russia to be repaired in a Russian depot.

 

[Horilka]

Well, that Д is confusing. Rifle indeed is factory matching, however reblued. Maybe some kind of Eastern European light refurb, similar to Bulgarian SVT refurbs... I have no idea, however it's not Soviet refurb for sure for several reasons.

 

[bearhunter]

I would be willing to bet it stands for the "D" chamber

Д in the Cyrillic alphabet translates to "D" in the Latin alphabet.


Cyrillic
De is a letter of the Cyrillic script. De commonly represents the voiced dental stop, like the pronunciation of ⟨d⟩ in "door". De is romanised using the Latin letter D

 

[Horilka]

D chamber is Finnish thing, has nothing to do with Soviet markings.

 

[cainesy]

That is a jewel of a mosin. If the bore is xlnt it definitely wasn’t fired very much. Maybe she spent her life with a back line unit or was in a headquarters somewhere during her life. If she could only talk, oh the stories she could tell. That’s why mosins have been my favourites, the history behind em. Oil her up and keep her safe, she’s well worth looking after, and if you feed her give her something good, none of that nasty corrosive surplus. Cheers.

 

[Military Surplus Lover]

That is a jewel of a mosin. If the bore is xlnt it definitely wasn’t fired very much. Maybe she spent her life with a back line unit or was in a headquarters somewhere during her life. If she could only talk, oh the stories she could tell. That’s why mosins have been my favourites, the history behind em. Oil her up and keep her safe, she’s well worth looking after, and if you feed her give her something good, none of that nasty corrosive surplus. Cheers.

It is definitely the nicest mosin I have! I have never shot it. Don’t really plan on shooting this one as I have others that I shoot! I think this rifle was in some high ranking officers office. Only if it could talk. I’m very happy to own it.

 

[Military Surplus Lover]

Well, that Д is confusing. Rifle indeed is factory matching, however reblued. Maybe some kind of Eastern European light refurb, similar to Bulgarian SVT refurbs... I have no idea, however it's not Soviet refurb for sure for several reasons.

I’m thinking if we could figure out what that prefix means, we could learn more about the rifle. I bet it means something.

 

[Military Surplus Lover]

Do you think that prefix was stamped when it was made in 1937? Or later on?

 

[maple_leaf_eh]

Simplistically, the Spanish Civil War was Royalists versus Republicans, ie the leftists. The Germans and Italians supported the monarchy and Franco's side. The Soviets and a lot of the Internationals supported the Communists. The latter ended up losing, but not for want of trying. One thing they did was source weapons everywhere and anywhere they could, and their purchasers did a lot to help empty national armouries of WW1 surplus. Not all was in good condition either. For a head-swirling idea of what the Republicans used, have a look at https://carbinesforcollectors.com/spanishcivilwar1.html.

To your point about whether this could have been shipped from Russia to Spain, I'd hesitate in agreeing right away. Yes the numbers point that way. But, my cynical side asks why would Russia ship brand new anything?

"According to official Soviet reports, during the course of the war Soviet Russia provided 497,813 rifles, 20,486 machine guns, and 862,000,000 rounds of small arms ammunition to Republican Spain. The bulk of the deliveries was sent between October 1936 and August 1937 when 377,793 rifles were supplied. In the period through August of 1938, another 125,000 rifles were sent. On January 28, 1939, the last shipment contained 35,000 more rifles. Over 325,000 of all rifles, sent from Russia, were M91/30 Mosin Nagants."

Secondly, what do you know about the provenance of this piece? Understanding its arrival to your hands will explain a lot more than a half-dozen guys in 2021 on the interwebs can speculate.

 

[Military Surplus Lover]

Simplistically, the Spanish Civil War was Royalists versus Republicans, ie the leftists. The Germans and Italians supported the monarchy and Franco's side. The Soviets and a lot of the Internationals supported the Communists. The latter ended up losing, but not for want of trying. One thing they did was source weapons everywhere and anywhere they could, and their purchasers did a lot to help empty national armouries of WW1 surplus. Not all was in good condition either. For a head-swirling idea of what the Republicans used, have a look at https://carbinesforcollectors.com/spanishcivilwar1.html.

To your point about whether this could have been shipped from Russia to Spain, I'd hesitate in agreeing right away. Yes the numbers point that way. But, my cynical side asks why would Russia ship brand new anything?

"According to official Soviet reports, during the course of the war Soviet Russia provided 497,813 rifles, 20,486 machine guns, and 862,000,000 rounds of small arms ammunition to Republican Spain. The bulk of the deliveries was sent between October 1936 and August 1937 when 377,793 rifles were supplied. In the period through August of 1938, another 125,000 rifles were sent. On January 28, 1939, the last shipment contained 35,000 more rifles. Over 325,000 of all rifles, sent from Russia, were M91/30 Mosin Nagants."

Secondly, what do you know about the provenance of this piece? Understanding its arrival to your hands will explain a lot more than a half-dozen guys in 2021 on the interwebs can speculate.

Thank you for the info! I do not have much information about this rifle. The person I bought it from a few years ago had it in his collection for years. He didn’t know it’s story either. So really there’s not a whole lot to go on unfortunately. Was just hoping someone here may have a similar rifle and have some idea, because it seems that mosins like this are quite uncommon

 

[dimon]

Lovely rifle! It is definitely been reblued at some point, but still lovely. I am pretty sure that Д symbol has an easy explanation, just like MO, XO, СКО and others, but it yet to be discovered... Certain rifles at some point were marked with Д in the circle meaning that it’s tolerances are slightly off, but still within acceptable range...but obviously it is not the case here. I bought a couple of rifles from the dealer on this site back in 2009, and they came in just like yours. All period correct, but with transverse pins in their rear sight bases. One came without it. Betchya this one is from the same batch And I do not think that it belonged to Comrade Stalin or Comrade Voroshilov in the past

 

[Military Surplus Lover]

Lovely rifle! It is definitely been reblued at some point, but still lovely. I am pretty sure that Д symbol has an easy explanation, just like MO, XO, СКО and others, but it yet to be discovered... Certain rifles at some point were marked with Д in the circle meaning that it’s tolerances are slightly off, but still within acceptable range...but obviously it is not the case here. I bought a couple of rifles from the dealer on this site back in 2009, and they came in just like yours. All period correct, but with transverse pins in their rear sight bases. One came without it. Betchya this one is from the same batch And I do not think that it belonged to Comrade Stalin or Comrade Voroshilov in the past

Interesting, thanks for the info! Do you still have those rifles? If so I’d love to see them!