M91/30 Finish Nagant….. (F 1066)

Between Wars Hexagonal Breech M91-30 Nagant

A Standard Military specification Mosin-Nagant before it fell into the hands of the Soviets.  Dated 1934 with matching bolt and action.  Chambered in 7.62R with a five shot single stack magazine.  A short-handled bolt and a replacement Finish stock.  A full-length rifle which measures 48.1/2″ in length.  The round blacked barrel is 28.1/2″ long and the trigger Pull is 13.5/8″ to centre. The bolt assembly is finished in the white the balance of the rifle is finished in black (Blued) Rear sight is graduated from 100 to 2000 meters.

  This rifle may have been captured in the First Winter War and been accurised by the Finns.  Many of the Russian weapons were turned upon their original masters to great effect.  Among other things the Finns have shortened the bolt handle, changed the stock and added a different arrangement for the sling swivels.  All improvements in their eyes, but judging by their kill rate, they were doing something right as the made the Russian troops pay very heavily for their efforts.  The stock is in very good condition with all its original finish and few marks.

These captured Finish rifles nearly always have hexagonal breeches.  The straight grip stocks are made for the rifles by the Finns with a large finger joint at the centre to help combat the effects of extremely cold weather.  There is also a defined finger-grove along the fore-end to aid grip in the aim.  The Finns also added their preferred type of sling swivel consisting of the thick gauge bent steel wire loops.  The rifle still retains a full-length cleaning rod. On the RHS of the buttstock stamped clearly in the centre of the face is a mark that looks like a circled “Z” with two diagonal arrows behind it – this is a stock makers mark.  The lower stock is all replacement Finnish, but the handguard looks to be the original Russian part.

The first section of the round blued barrel has much information to absorb; The first most prominent marking is the Soviet Star with the Tula arrow within a post 1928 marking.  Below that is the date of manufacture “1934.”  After a small gap is the weapons serial number; – “154617.”  This matching number is repeated along the spine of the bolt.  The breech then shows various inspection markings and stampings, these include the rectangular refurbishment mark and the concentric circled accuracy mark.  On the LHS of the same, just above the line of the woodwork is a boxed “SA” marking.  This is the Finnish Army mark.

Build quality of the Nagant is still considered to be good between the World Wars and this is one of those examples.  Couple that with the fact the Finns got their hands on it and we are looking at a potentially accurate rifle.  The action is mechanically fine.  The bore is dirty but “all there!”  Another classic waiting to be exercise once again.  A classic which on the US market is starting to appreciate is value; a definite upward trend has been noticed since 2002.

Stock No’ F 1066

£ 795.

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