Rare Mosin Nagant

[Blighty]

This appeared on Gunstar for a couple of minutes last summer.

Dropped by an Imperial Russian Soldier, captured by the Germans who rechambered and re-bored to 7.92, carried by an Imperial German soldier before being sent to Turkey towards the end of the Great War to keep them in the game.

Ersatz bayonet adapter, sling swivel on the magazine, Deutsches Reich stamp on the stock, remodelled charger bridge with cut out in the receiver to allow for the longer cartridge, Turkish stamps on the rear sight, ersatz cleaning rod. It goes on and on. Most of the Imperial logo has been lost as the whole barrel has been turned down for the different cartridge profile.

[Blighty]

Only two or three of these in the wild. Turks preferred Mausers and the rest went to Finland for parts.

[meles meles]

Evenin' Blighty !

You have a rare talent for sniffin' out awesome Mosins...

[Blighty]

Remington M91 on left to show how much the effort the hun went into adapting the charger bridge area.

Got two German captures now!

It’s an affliction stripey, an affliction.

[meles meles]

Surely not a cost effective modification ?

[Blighty]

Generally accepted on ‘tinterweb that most of these were sold to Finland in the twenties. I know that these rear sights are found on Finnish M91 rifles there isn’t much else they could have used - barrel wrong calibre, woodwork too short (cut down to accept the bayo adapter), never seen a receiver like that in a Finn.

[meles meles]

Though one supposes that, in extremis, all modifications that make a useable firearm are worthwhile, we can't imagine the Germans or Turks were that desperate...

[Blighty]

Thing is...

Germany must have captured millions of 7.62 x 54 from the Russians, they were even rolling their own towards the end to feed the vast numbers of Rifles that they were capturing. Seems like a hell of a faf to make so many changes.

This particular rifle featured in a British shooting magazine in the dim and distant. Would love to see the article.

[kennyc]

Thing is...

Germany must have captured millions of 7.62 x 54 from the Russians, they were even rolling their own towards the end to feed the vast numbers of Rifles that they were capturing. Seems like a hell of a faf to make so many changes.

.

actually it looks like the Turks made a habit of it

[hitchphil]

a lot of mosins captured from grenadiers after the Normandy landings, many in museums as German rifles.

Look at German air craft & you will find allied wheels etc used - they used what they could. Shot down aircraft were stripped for copper & bearings in particular Germans had very little copper (hence steel CuproNickel coated bullets even today) & hardly any Vanadium / Chrome / Tungsten to make tool steel parts or for burn chambers & tubes in jet engines. Had we just bombed the entire European bearings industry & its supply chain the entire German army machine would have come to a grinding halt in 18months!