The 10 day waiting period is over, and I have picked up my Mosin Nagant! Here it is:
In my opinion, the most interesting aspect of this rifle is the information located on the receiver, which is pictured below:
A quick glance at the receiver tells me that this rifle was produced in 1942, a year that is well known in WWII history due to the bloody fighting that occurred at Stalingrad. The lack of a smooth finish on the receiver also indicates that the arsenal was using various production shortcuts in order to get the rifles to the soldiers at the front as quickly as possible. At the bottom of the receiver is an imprint of an arrow inside a triangle. This indicates that the rifle was produced at the Izhevsk arsenal, which is situated in the foothills of the Ural mountains. The serial number of this rifle is “K3 4577.” The “3″ is actually the Cyrillic character that is equivalent to the “Z” in the Latin alphabet, so the serial number can be translated as “KZ 4577.” At the top of the receiver is the Soviet hammer and sickle enclosed in a wreath. There are a few more marks on this rifle, but I’m not sure what they mean so I will have to research them further.
This rifle is truly a beautiful piece of history, and will look even better once I clean all the Soviet grease off of it. Now, if only this weapon could talk! Did it see action at Stalingrad, Kursk, or Kiev? Perhaps its previous owner participated in the capture of Berlin? Unfortunately, we’ll never know. In the future, I would like to purchase a few more Mosins…I really want one that was produced before the Revolution, and an M44 would be nice, too.
Also, I need to put my Mosin somewhere…it’s just sitting in the corner of my room. I would like to hang it on the wall, but my mom isn’t too keen on that idea. Oh well.
More photos of my Mosin here.
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From Ryan Hughes:
I hear Ikea makes a nice gun rack.
From lauren:
and i thought only republicans purchased weapons
From grijsz:
Wow ! This is a great gun, I wonder how many Germans got killed by that…
Is it a secret how much did you pay for it ?
This is a rifle I’d like to buy:
http://www.izhmash.ru/eng/product/tigr_b.shtml
Best regards
From Lindsay:
I paid a little under $80 for the gun, but the state of CA adds on all these stupid fees, so it was a bit over $100 I believe.
From Charles:
I have the M1938. Is that what that is?
From Lindsay:
This is the M91/30
From Aaron:
Always nice to see someone appreciate the history behind the good ‘ol Mosin Nagant as much as I do. That said- I was noticing in the pics you have- (specifically the one with the bolt open) that I can almost see two close-together ‘holes’ on the side of the reciever. If so- that would mean you have no ordinary 91/30. You would have a 1942 Izhevsk ex-PEM sniper. A particularly rare specimen… If it is what I think, No plain ‘Ivan’ carried that rifle- Vassili Zaitsev himself carried that type of sniper. If you haven’t- I suggest you read this:
http://mosinnagant.net/sniper%20section/snipertext1.asp (specifically a quarter or so of the way down the page regarding PEM’s)
Sometime after the war it would have been ‘de-sniperized’ back to a 91/30 by removing the scope and plugging the holes where the mount was…
Hehe, I took notice to yours because not too long ago I got myself a ’42 Izhevsk ex-PEM too
Cheers!
-Aaron
From Paul:
Lindsay:
Welcome to Mosin ownership!
I’d like to invite you to join our forums at:
http://www.gunandgame.com
There is a Mosin forum with some of the most knowledgeable Mosin experts and gunsmiths on the web there, and a lot of us who just like Mosins. They bill themselves as the friendliest firearms forum on the Internet – and they’re right! Come check it out! We’ve got some female members, but we always welcome more!