Mosin 1898 question

[lupothebutcher]

Hi all, a quick question for you experts; I have an 1898 built in 1907 Ishevik (sic), I think a Finnish capture like most of them. My question is about the ramp / ladder sight increments, I know that Russia went to metric in 1925 and that they had some kind of weird old system that I don’t know or understand (verts?); so the question is, of course, what are the sight increments? Yards? Meters? Or something else?

 

[shredder]

If the rifle was refurbished by the Finns, the sight graduations will likely be in meters - same as if the Soviets refurbed it.

If the rifle wasn't refurbished (unlikely, but possible) the sight graduations will be in something called "arshins" - an old Imperial Russia means of measurement equal to 28 inches (according to Wiki it was standardized by Peter the Great himself).

 

[Horilka]

Finn should have arshins cancelled on the left side of sight base and meters stamped on the right. (If it's not the case immediately PM me pictures). 1 arshin = 28 English inches = 71.12 cm

 

[lupothebutcher]

Thanks, i think you're right; the numbers on the left are (badly) struck through (apparently by someone who didn't much care about his work - a single, stamped line for each number that hit about half of the numbers), the left side numbers are from 4 to 11 and the right side numbers are from 2 and up including some fractions, the numbers on the underside of the ramp (making it a ladder or volley sight) appear unaltered and go up to 32. My very minor research on this rifle made my think a Fin capture, if I recall it was something about a two-piece finger-jointed stock and actual metal sling loops instead of the hole through the stock common on Russian Mosins.