Here are pic's of my oldest and newest Mosin Nagants, which also happen to be my prettiest.
The long one is a New England Westinghouse M-91 that was originally destined for Imperial Russia during WWI. Apparently it never made it, because it has no markings beyond the factory ones. Nor does it have any US Army markings....so it wasn't snapped up by the Army as a training rifle, either. The best bet is that it was sold to a civilian through the CMP program.
Looks like it was a wall hanger, because it has very little wear on it. But the original American walnut stock was badly bubba'd...not only shortened, but crudely planed thin at the comb. So I replaced it with a Finnish stock of Arctic birch. I had to strip an unholy mess of gooey, crinkly black lacquer before refinishing it, and was pleasantly surprised when all that pretty burl wood emerged.
The other one is a 91/59, still wearing its original orange shellac finish. The history of these isn't really clear; they may have been intended for security forces within Russia. They're 91-30's that were cut down and put into new stocks, and can easily be mistaken for M-38's, except for the rear sights. They still have the original 91-30 style sights, with the longer distance markings milled off.
And yes, that's natural striping in the stock of this one. It isn't just a trick of sunlight on the shellac....
NEW M-91 in its original stock:
NEW M91 in Finnish stock:
91/59:
My oldest and newest Mosins
Linear Mode
