School me on the M28 Ski Trooper Mosin Nagant

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meanmrmustard

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There's one for sale/trade near me. The add reads as thus:


LOCAL ONLY PLEASE, FTF.
Extremely rare Finnish M28 Ski-Trooper re-arseneled and used in the "Winter War" has the "[SA]" to prove. Also has the rarer hex receiver and the rounded style rear sight that the 91/30's don't have. What adds to the value is the dual rear sling holes in the stock designating it as the "Ski-Trooper" model adding to rarity. Also the barrel is made by SIG. This is not a russian cheap 91/30 so don't offer me anything below ~200 as i will not respond this is a WELL MADE FINNISH MODEL open to all trades of ""EQUAL"" VALUE have more pictures. upon email


He's asking $310. It's in the STL, MO area on Armslist. I'd like to offer to buy/trade, but I'm not sure if its bonifide or not. Any info on this particular model would be great, or if its not worth the trouble.
 
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Worth between $300 for a rough one and $500 for a cherry one. Hellacious shooters, small production, interesting history. Buy it if you have the money and it interests you.
 
It has an "SY" on receiver (which is "hex"), an "SA" in a box near serial number, and still wears some Cosmo. Stock is dark, but not in bad shape. Overall, being that I've only owned two Mosins, it looks rather good.
 
I've got one of them myself. They're great shooters but will usually have a tight bore of about .3085" So they'll do best with handloads using .308 bullets or D-166 Finns.

The sights are sort of a hybrid with the old style rear and a modernized dog-eared front. These were fully modernized with the M28-30. But IIRC Simo Hayha preferred the older M28 sights. These were of course Civil Guard rifles so you will usually find a District Number on the metal. This will tell you what district the rifle was issued to, and you can cross-reference that with info on which Civil Guard units fought where. It doesn't tell you for sure what that particular rifle did, but it adds some interesting details. A very large percentage of M28's saw front line fighting. Probably the highest percentage of any small arm in history, with the possible exception of the 1886 Lebel. The Finns had very few soldiers compared with the Soviets so they rotated them in and out of the lines, keeping only a very small reserve force. That means an unusual number of Finnish soldiers and guardsmen saw combat in the Winter War. And since at that point the semiauto and auto weapons were hard to come by the bolt guns were still front and center.
 
Cosmoline said:
I've got one of them myself. They're great shooters but will usually have a tight bore of about .3085" So they'll do best with handloads using .308 bullets or D-166 Finns.

The sights are sort of a hybrid with the old style rear and a modernized dog-eared front. These were fully modernized with the M28-30. But IIRC Simo Hayha preferred the older M28 sights. These were of course Civil Guard rifles so you will usually find a District Number on the metal. This will tell you what district the rifle was issued to, and you can cross-reference that with info on which Civil Guard units fought where. It doesn't tell you for sure what that particular rifle did, but it adds some interesting details. A very large percentage of M28's saw front line fighting. Probably the highest percentage of any small arm in history, with the possible exception of the 1886 Lebel. The Finns had very few soldiers compared with the Soviets so they rotated them in and out of the lines, keeping only a very small reserve force. That means an unusual number of Finnish soldiers and guardsmen saw combat in the Winter War. And since at that point the semiauto and auto weapons were hard to come by the bolt guns were still front and center.
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Very cool post.

Are all 54R ammo nowadays .311?
 
I also read that the SIG barreled M28s are the rarer of the two, between them and Tikka?

Seller has also sent pics and says it still has much cosmoline. I'm inquiring if he's ever even fired it. He states, "no rust, no pits, and has smooth bolt. Needs cosmoline cleaned off." Hmmm...

Edit to Add: Still in cosmoline, never fired. Wow.
 
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Are all 54R ammo nowadays .311?
Click to expand...

Almost all of it is. There is some older Polish light ball that is a little more like .310" and has a hollow base. I grabbed some up because it shoots really good out of my M39. Not all Polish 54R has that feature, and I don't know the reason for it. This is the stuff:

http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinAmmo021.htm

That's about as close to .308" as it gets. And it's still overbored. I'd suggest doing a quick slug of the M28 with a soft lead ball and lube. That will confirm the matter.

There should also be a "D" on the receiver somewhere. This means the throat was expanded to take heavy ball.

A lot of these were beaten up pretty bad in the war, so getting one in the grease is great. Sometimes you find a kind of black pine-tar type resin inside the barrel channel under the stocks. I think, but don't know for sure, that this was something they put on at the Civil Guard arsenal.
 
Cosmoline said:
Almost all of it is. There is some older Polish light ball that is a little more like .310" and has a hollow base. I grabbed some up because it shoots really good out of my M39. Not all Polish 54R has that feature, and I don't know the reason for it. This is the stuff:

http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinAmmo021.htm

That's about as close to .308" as it gets. And it's still overbored. I'd suggest doing a quick slug of the M28 with a soft lead ball and lube. That will confirm the matter.

There should also be a "D" on the receiver somewhere. This means the throat was expanded to take heavy ball.

A lot of these were beaten up pretty bad in the war, so getting one in the grease is great. Sometimes you find a kind of black pine-tar type resin inside the barrel channel under the stocks. I think, but don't know for sure, that this was something they put on at the Civil Guard arsenal.
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I'm not certain of the "D", but it has an "E" with opposing arrows above serial denoting inspection, and it is one of the first 10,000 SIG barreled M28s of the original run.

Stock is somewhat dark here and there, not too beat up, and as I've said the gent has never shot it, bought it in cosmoline and has had it safed ever since. I'm beginning to understand the rarity aspect, but is it work an SKS? I think so, but I should know so. What do you think?
 
Sergei Mosin said:
Worth more than an SKS to me, but I have a slight Mosin addiction.
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Nothing wrong with that!

I pick it up at 4:30pm today, I'm pretty excited.

You guys have been a huge help. I really appreciate it.

Edit to Add: I have also realized that it has the rear sight that can be adjusted via two screws just forward of sight blade. Supposedly, rare for the M/28.
 
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