Bent-bolt-handled sniper Mosins

They were specifically made by the arsenals in a bent configuration for the Mosin sniper rifles, which were themselves specially selected from the regular rifles -they cherry picked the ones that seemed particularly accurate, fitted them with a bent bolt, mounts, and a scope, which were numbered to match the rifles.

Interesting video. Thanks for sharing.

Mosin77 Nailed it perfectly.

Ill add that it was necessary to bend the bolts to pass under the various scopes mounted above the action.

The Finns had one Mosin varient, the RV-27 Carbine, with a bent bolt, but no scopes.

Watch out for forgeries. The bent bolt handles are available today for sporterizing your Mosin. I've seen a couple that were aftermarket modded trying to be passed off as "sniper rifles". They even had an honest to goodness sniper stock made by Tapco on em. LOL.

That is a WOW video, grain of salt with the commies but even half that would be a wow.
The bent bolt must be for scopes, like said already, never seen one however.
Isn't really hard to do.

wiscoaster said:

This video about WWII Soviet female snipers shows the profiled soldier (and others) holding Mosin-Nagant rifles that have a bent bolt handle. Can anybody fill in specifics? Were these special models? Bolt handles modified or made that way? Thanks ...

Click to expand...

Yes, the PE, PEM, and PU Sniper rifles had a different bolt body than the issued M91/30's. Do not confuse them with the "bent bolts' that were on sporterized Mosins in the 50's & 60's. Those were made by heating and bending the exsisting M91/30 bolt handle.
A bolt handle I got with a sporterized Mosin:

The genuine sniper versions of the Mosin rifle don't merely have "bent bolt handle".
They have a longer bolt handle than the standard Mosin straight bolt handle that drops vertically at a right angle to the bolt body.
Wikimedia Commons* has this illustration:

Mosin sniper rifles were developed from the standard infantry rifle Model 1891/30.
Early sniper versions used the 3.87×30 PE or PEM scope (Soviet-made copy of a Zeiss design).
Later sniper rifles used the simpler and more compact Soviet 3.5×21 PU scope.
Mosins were selected for sniper rifle conversion from general issue Mosins based on showing better than average accuracy.
Because the left side scope mount placed the scope centered over the chamber, the standard Mosin bolt handle was replaced with a much longer handle at a sharp downward angle which is horizontal when raised ("bent bolt" in most collector references). As with the US M1903A4 Springfield sniper rifle, the centered location of the scope prevents the use of stripper clips and the sniper version magazine must be loaded one cartridge at a time.


----------------------
* "The copyright holder of this work allows anyone to use it for any purpose including unrestricted redistribution, commercial use, and modification."

These tended to just be “best of the batch” rifles. Nothing special outside of that.

The best shooter rifles would get a scope and bent bolt and be made into “snipers.”

I have to take off the lens cover on mine. I have the straight bolt.

Here's a few pics of my '42 Izhevsk.
A fine fine fine shooting rifle, even with that goony goo goo pointy post PU scope.....just feed it Sierra .311 174 grain MKs and 47gr of IMR4064





Might pull it out of mothballs in a couple weeks, probably hasn't been shot in 10 years or so

There are some very good reproductions (forgeries?) out there. Jim R made me a replica of an original sniper bolt that was truly indistinguishable from originals...lest the JR stamp and lack of serial number.

There are also N.O.S. sniper bolts in circulation that may or may not have original markings. There are also PU and PE optics with near original markings ( a trained eye can spot the difference). Also PU and PE mounts that are very hard to distinguish, some of these have forged serial numbers. There are also N.O.S. rebuilt scopes and mounts in circulation. One of these with a scrubbed JR bolt handle and forged numbers on a refurbished/de-snipered 91-30 would be near indistinguishable from an original. Buyer beware. Personally I would consider any PU or PE rifle without documentable provenance to be a "reproduction" of sorts.

I bought a reproduction built on a wartime 91-30 with a rebuilt NOS optic, bolt handle, and mount. No attempt ever was or will be made to force match (forge) numbers, so it will never pass as original, but I could see the potential to do so. Were I to mount the same components on a de-snipered Tula '43 and stamp some numbers, I'd be there.

In short, buyer beware with these.

I have fired my repro rifle in CMP vintage sniper competitions and it fared quite well with the Sierra 174 SMK and Hornady 174 BTHP to 600 yards. There is a trick to using the optic. Excessive parallax is the norm with a PU scope. You need to keep the ghost of the front sight in a consistent position at release, then it's all 10s if you strangle the weasel with your trigger finger properly and guess the right wind. The post works best with a 6 oclock hold on black.