Mosin-Nagant - Irregular Receiver Shape

[montemon]

Hello

I'm hoping someone can help with my new Mosin. It has a round receiver but not completely round. It has some kind of hump at the top. Is this normal or it is a defect? See the pics below. Thanks!







Edited to add: It's a Ishevsk M91/30 dated 1943.

 

[Buck Kramer]

I've seen a lot of mosins, but not like that.

 

[Dmitri Popov]

My opinion, it was deemed functional, and sent to the front lines. Not all wartime Mosins are pretty. I'd say someone pooped up the machining, but not to a degree that it would affect the rifle.

 

[headoftheholler]

1943 barrell so it is wartime, what date is stamped under the tang? IMO Ivan got a little trigger happy with a grinder under wartime duress.

 

[Jason_G]

Don't know much about the MN, but if that's truly irregular, I'd say that's pretty cool. I'd hold onto it.

Jason

 

[Dentite]

Looks interesting...first time I've seen that. I wouldn't think it would affect the strength as it's excessive material rather than less.

On a side note...I'm no expert but the one I owned that had the crest with the sickle was an old Hex...1922. My 1935 Hex has a different stamping. Could this be an older receiver that at one point was a hex or did they use that crest on new round receivers?

I can't imagine them actually converting a hex to a round but what do I know.

 

[Sergei Mosin]

The Soviets were in a hurry in 1943, and looks didn't count, only getting functional rifles to the front. You'll find some pretty rough machine work on rifles made during WWI and the Russian Civil War too. That rifle is actually a neat insight into how receivers were machined; the small area where yours is pointed in the center is often flat on other rifles from the war years, as though someone ground that pointed strip of metal down with one pass of the grinder.

About the crest on your 1935 - can you post a photo to show what you mean?

 

[TurtlePhish]

Mine has that too, except not as extreme. I just assumed it was a seam line or something from the initial cast or forging of the receiver prior to machining and heat-treating and such. 1942 Izhevsk, FWIW.

 

[Tempest 455]

The Soviets were in a hurry in 1943, and looks didn't count, only getting functional rifles to the front. You'll find some pretty rough machine work on rifles made during WWI and the Russian Civil War too. That rifle is actually a neat insight into how receivers were machined; the small area where yours is pointed in the center is often flat on other rifles from the war years, as though someone ground that pointed strip of metal down with one pass of the grinder.

About the crest on your 1935 - can you post a photo to show what you mean?

Ditto. My wartime M38 has the worst machining I have ever seen on a Mosin but overall it's a great shooting rifle!

 

[Cosmoline]

It's fine. The date tells the story. 1943. The Axis is still occupying much of Mother Russia. Many factories have been destroyed. Production quotas were demanding. So you'll often find them with machining marks and imperfections left on the surface.

 

[scallop]

It is an ultra rare "Humpback" Mosin . Put it on Gunbroker for a min bid of $25k!

 

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

It is an ultra rare "Humpback" Mosin . Put it on Gunbroker for a min bid of $25k!

Made per special order for Stalin's personal killing rifle.

 

[mgkdrgn]

"war time round"

They paid -no- attention to "cosmetics" then. If it shot well, it was good enough no matter how ugly the metal work was.

Perfectly normal .. I've seen worse.

 

[LJ-MosinFreak-Buck]

Look at it this way; Ivan didn't believe in aesthetics. He wanted a tool for war, then and there. Didn't matter what it looked like, just as long as it went bang reliably, and reasonably accurate to take down his enemies.

 

[Deus Machina]

Yup, from what I've seen, the pretty ones are nice and round and smooth, and the mid-war ones tend to have a flat spot about there. It was probably a machining method that got turned from 'make it nice and round' during peacetime to three stages during war. Curve one side, the other, smooth it off.

My guess is that, at some point, "Here's some good ammo, follow the guy with the rifle" turned into "Here's some rusty rounds, follow the guy throwing rocks" and they stopped paying much attention to Step #3.

 

[caribou]

Worn, dull and hard pushed milling Broaches did that, and if it didnt matter as to the strength of the rifle, it didnt matter to the Soviets.

Its a part of the History that was happening when it was made, tells its own story. I own a couple like that as well.

 

[LJ-MosinFreak-Buck]

They wanted a rifle that could fight their wars without killing or maiming their own soldiers/conscripts. The Mosin Nagant did that for them. Aesthetics aside, it did its' job, and it did it beautifully.

 

[velcro8ball]

Have you looked at the Tang of the receiver to see it's manufacture date. It kinda looks as though this was an octagonal receiver that was rounded. The circular discoloration on the barrel end could be where the Czar Crest was removed. Just a thought.

 

[montemon]

I have to agree, it looks like a quick job to get it out the door. Compared to my other round receiver Mosin (1938), this one doesn't look nearly as smooth, especially after I took it out of the stock...see pics below.




The date on the underside of the tang matches the barrel date, 1943.



Planning to take it out to the range this weekend to see how she shoots.

 

[SimplyChad]

cool
I would try the gunbroker thing tho

 

[TurtlePhish]

The date on the underside of the tang matches the barrel date, 1943.

It's a little uncommon to see a 1943 date struck that well on the tang. A large number of 1942-1943 Mosins had a half-struck or barely-there tang stamp. Most say "194" or even just "19" with the last bit barely struck at all.

 

[LoonWulf]

My 43 looks almost exactly the same, very pronounced crown on the reciever. I had to smooth it out a bit to get my scope mount on strait. Still shoots good tho.

 

[greenlion]

There is a crate full of them at a store in town and every one has a hump like that on top of the receiver.

 

[montemon]

Took it to the range earlier today and it's a shooter. I tought it was a little more accurate than my 1938 Mosin so it’ a keeper.

Stopped by a gun shop on the way back (Sarco in Easton, PA). They had about 20 Mosins on display. I didn't see any with that distinctive hump but was able to guess the year by taking a quick look at the receiver. The rough looking receivers were all 1943 while the smooth ones were late 30’s… thought that was interesting.

Was hoping to pick up a hex while there but none in stock.