1949 Izhevsk mosin nagant 91/31

[csa77]

a local store had a mosin nagant izhevsk arsenal for sale looked excellent condition and has a very sharp and clean rifling/bore as well as all numbers matching.
i was looking at it and the store owner told me its a rare date for a izhevsk since their post war production was very limited. I noticed it also has a very low digit serial number MA 1x4


my question is, is a 1949 izhevsk as scarce as im lead to believe. i cant find any info on it on the internet. alot of websites dont even list them being made that late.i went ahead and bought it for 250$ before tax, he was asking 350 for it.i know its alot for a mosin did i pay too much?

 

[RCArms.com]

depending on overall condition and matching serials on barrel shank, bolt, magazine and buttplate, $250 is not too bad for a post-war 91/30. Far fewer of them exist than wartime production examples.

Don

 

[Cosmoline]

You sure it's a 91/30?

If so, then yes it's very rare and absolutely worth snatching up. There's very little info on them because they're not well known. But it's unlikely many were made. We know that by that point the SKS had been phased in as the primary arm and the AK-47 was also in the works. M44's had replaced the 91/30's before that. Maybe they were still making a few 91/30's for parade use? Assembling them from old parts? Who knows.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

It is a rare bird. It appeares that it was not refurbed. Can you get close up pics of the markings on the metal and the stock?

 

[csa77]

its a 91/30 atleast acording to the 7.62x54r.net guide

it is 48 1/2 inches long and has the flat rear leaf.

 

[csa77]

ok i took alot of photos on any marks i could find

 

[csa77]

more photos

 

[csa77]

more

 

[csa77]

and last one

 

[Cosmoline]

That looks all matching! Get it.

The last photo is of a rearsenal stamp, but it's hard to tell the significance of it here. This does not appear to be a parts gun. Is the barrel counterbored?

 

[csa77]

it doesn't appear to be counter bored, I don't have a 7.62x54r round to place in the muzzle but with a tooth pick I can't feel a counterbore and with a light the rifling seems to be in good shape all the way to the tip of the muzzle

 

[Clipper]

The barrel might be '49, but what does the receiver say? The receiver is date stamped under the tang...I have a '31 Tula receiver with a numbers-matching '52 barrel.

 

[Buck Kramer]

That last one you posted the square with the slash through it means it was refinished....

 

[Cosmoline]

Well maybe. Clipper is right--check the receiver date. That will tell you for certain. Either way though it's worth the price and you should snag it.

 

[csa77]

ok i took it apart, and the receiver tang reads.....1948 izhevsk


i guess it could be worse, id be more upset of it was a war year.

then again maybe they were assembling with left over receivers? i dunno still cool with the awfully low serial numbers on the rest of the gun

 

[TurtlePhish]

It's still post-war, even if it's not ALL matching.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Still a great find. You don't see many Mosins with post war dated barrels.
The receiver may have been made in 1948 but the rifle built in 1949.

 

[Cosmoline]

You're disappointed about that?! That's still a matching rifle. A receiver from 1948 was not used in a war, taken off its rifle and the attached to a new barrel and furniture the next year. Nor is a 1948 a "leftover" receiver. Remember by the book (literally Lapin's book) they stopped production on 91/30's by 1944. It's highly likely that whatever production runs they were doing were very limited because that factory was churning out AK's and SKS's and such. So the new receiver was made and later attached to a new barrel, but on a slow production schedule. In short, this is not your typical rearsenal parts gun. Not by a long shot. It's unique. I'm not even sure I'd call it a parts gun. More of a new 91/30 with a very slow assembly period.

You did buy it by this point, right? I've never seen anything like this and believe me I've seen a LOT of Mosin-Nagants. What you have there appears to be one of the very very last Russian production runs of one of the most prolific firearms in history. It's a real good find. I'd suggest poking around on the collector's forum at MN.net to see if anyone has found out much about these.

Here's a recent thread of a 1950 91/30 ALSO with a 1948 receiver!

http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=779180

I suspect these were just slowly assembled on an ad hoc basis from a batch of receiver churned out with the 1948 stamp. But why? Nobody knows. Maybe for the guards at Lenin's Tomb. Maybe for some special display purpose. They remind me of Finnish "sneak" M39's, assembled for marksmanship in the late 60's and early 70's out of existing unassembled parts.

 

[csa77]

yeah cosmoline I definitely bought the gun, its now hanging on my wall with the rest of the surplus guns

thats an interesting thread from surplusrifle.com cosmoline I think you might be right .
I also found a thread at the gunboards.com where a guy also has a 1949 with a 1948 tang.

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?65194-1949-dated-Izzy-91-30-Non-sniper

 

[RCArms.com]

The buttplate looks to be scrubbed and restamped, it should have the Crillic prefix if original.

A post-war 91/30 is a great find, especially when you consider that the M44 was the primary rifle option produced from 1945 to end of production.

 

[LJ-MosinFreak-Buck]

Nice looking rifle! Get it out shooting!

 

[hang fire]

Very interesting and no doubt a very expensive collector piece.

 

[mgkdrgn]

I've had over 600 91/30's come through my place here, and I've -never- seen one past 1945.

 

[Bojangles7]

Nice score. I love hearing stories like this.

 

[Onmilo]

Look closely at the left inside wall of the receiver cartrdge well, I bet you find some plugged & welded over holes.
Sniper rifles were made into the 1950s along with M44 Carbines.
The Dragunov wasn't taken into service until the early 1960s.

That rifle likely had the Sniper fittings pulled, was rebarrelled/restocked and placed in arsenal storage.