Non Finnish M91 Mosin Rarity?

^ looks original. Especially since it's not re-indexed to meters on the sides. Your stock looks sanded though :(

Which auction did you grab it from? I usually watch for mosins but did not see this one (not that I would have gone for it - the sanded stock would turn me away) - perhaps it was badly listed and you got lucky :)
 
The auction that shall remain nameless. Lol. God knows I'd be inviting you bastards to compete with me in the future of I let you know ;-p
Sanded is usually a no go for me as well, but I have never seen a completely non Finn, Russian made WW1 M91 for sale in Canada. Didn't have a choice but to bid.
 
Horilka said:
What do you think about rear sight leaf, Noah?
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I can’t say for certain Oleg. It doesent appear to have the typical Finnish rear sight distance modifications that you normally see. It has that extra metal plate attatched to the rear which I haven’t seen before. So at the end of the day another mystery.
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That is actually quite typical Finnish mod. Sorry for bringing "Finnish" news on your rifle.

M27.RS.1.jpg
 
Oleg, I'm very curious roughly how many Russian made, pre 1918 M91s you have come across in Canada that were not Finned? Must be a reasonable number I would assume no? To be clear I have nothing against Finnish M91s. Love the layers of history.
 
Selair_Chapman said:
Oleg, I'm very curious roughly how many Russian made, pre 1918 M91s you have come across in Canada that were not Finned? Must be a reasonable number I would assume no? To be clear I have nothing against Finnish M91s. Love the layers of history.
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I must put a disclaimer that I don't collect MNs (but somehow keep getting them...) So I don't usually chase and examine all MNs I see. If we narrow it down to Russian-made, I would say four or five. But I don't think you should discount all US-made, Matt. There are US-made rifles that stayed in US and ended up here, no big deal sure, but you have a chance to find factory matching rifle in original condition. There are US-made that went to Russia as part of the American Expeditionary Force and then came back to US and then ended up here, there are usually well used, though now war-used. However there are also those US-made that were delivered to Russia, participated in WW1 and bypassing Finland ended up here. For example, my SCW M91 is Remington made.
 
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Military Surplus Lover said:
Cool, good to know, thank you for showing this to me. It doesent bother me either way. Glad to actually know a bit more about it and its journey here to Canada.
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Or, it could be just damaged or missing rear sight leaf replacement. We have to consider all options. My Nazi capture MN 91/30 has replaced slider with post war version IIRC, that definitely doesn't change provenance of WW2 capture rifle.
 
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I have 2 M1891 Mosins with their original front sights. 1895 Finned Tula with curved rear sight leaf and 1917 Remington, Finn stamped but in a factory configuration. Both are shooting high with surplus ammo. The others are fitted with Finn barley corn-type front sights, and their POI is normal. I think that the metal plate at the rear is an attempt to fix the rifle’s elevation without replacing the front sight.
As all know, in the early 1900s”s the flat rear sight leaves on the Mosins were replaced with curved ones and the base was filed/adjusted accordingly.
 
dimon said:
I have 2 M1891 Mosins with their original front sights. 1895 Finned Tula with curved rear sight leaf and 1917 Remington, Finn stamped but in a factory configuration. Both are shooting high with surplus ammo. The others are fitted with Finn barley corn-type front sights, and their POI is normal. I think that the metal plate at the rear is an attempt to fix the rifle’s elevation without replacing the front sight.
As all know, in the early 1900s”s the flat rear sight leaves on the Mosins were replaced with curved ones and the base was filed/adjusted accordingly.
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Could be although it appears to block the front sight quite a bit. Makes it hard to get a decent sight picture.
 
There are Remington and N.E.W. M91s that were in Finland but remained completely untouched other than the placing of the "SA" ownership stamp. Only a certain percentage were left alone like this with others varying from lightly modified to essentially barreled actions with all other parts replaced. The completely original ones are potential bargains- I bought an all original Remington at auction a couple of years ago for one-half the price of a post-war refurb M39 (in the same auction). Not long after I bought a superb all-original (and close to perfect) New England Westinghouse for even less moula. The interesting question is- why did a large number of US Mosins survive Finland largely intact while Finn-used Russian and Soviet M91s that made it to North America are generally heavily rebuilt? One partial explanation might be that the walnut stocks are much more resilient than the birch ones and the US rifles may have avoided arsenal visits that would be required as soon as a stock began to deteriorate. But, if you want to see good quality manufacture check out the bedding on an original US Mosin. The only other Mosins I've seen with as good bedding are non-refurb PU Snipers. They put anything the Finns did to shame.

milsurpo
 
KotKotofeich said:
Lol.

Only saying that a pristine SA marked gun is suspect...
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In our market everything is suspect, but pristine or at least very well preserved SA marked rifles are pretty common. It really makes no difference to value on an otherwise original (but not US surcharged) US Mosin whether or not there is an SA stamp on it. It is a rifle that made it to Europe but, for unknown reasons, was left intact by whoever owned it. The real question (and no-one has an answer) is why the US Mosins had such a remarkable survival rate in Finland while Russian, Soviet, and French M91s did not. It may be as simple as there having been a huge number of US Mosins dumped into Finland pre-revolution- perhaps an entire shipload or two directly from the US? There were certainly a very large number of them available to the Finns post WW1 as, for every somewhat intact Remington or NEW you run into, there are another 5 or 10 that used a US receiver or other parts in one of the new Finnish manufactured rifles like the M91/24, M27, etc.

milsurpo
 
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