Izhevsk Mosin Nagant 91/30 question

asop

Top of barrel is stamped 1943r along with what looks like to be a 4 or ch?? and K 1496 all separate single hand punched numbers. Some where along the line someone told me he thought the 6 equated to a 1938 mfg. date? Is this correct or was it mfg. in 1943? Thanks

1KYDSTR

To the best of my knowledge the Izevsk guns were marked with year of manufacture on the receiver ring. Not sure what your friend references when he says the "6"'is a date code? You should likely go to the Moisin boards as they are much more serious MN geeks than most of us!

beantownshootah

Mosins are normally stamped on the top rear of the barrel near the receiver with a four digit year of manufacture under the manufacturer ID symbol.

If yours is marked there "1943r", I think its safe to say that is the year of the gun's manufacture.

In some cases, there can be other numbers stamped there too, include two digit numbers indicating year gun was put into service, retired, etc.

Note that these guns have been "re-arsenalled" (ie refurbished in Russia, with new finishes, and possibly new parts), so numbers stamped on the small parts (magazine, bolt, etc) may not be original to the gun.

heavyiron

Hi,

There should be symbol that resembles a triangle with an arrow inside for Izhevsk Ordnance Factory on top of the receiver. The date is located on the receiver also, using a 4-digit number just as Beantownshootah stated. The "r" is a not an r, but is a Cyrillic symbol for g pronounced as in "gone".

Best,

Heavyiron

machine gun moran

The 'r' following the date is an abbreviation of the Russian word 'god' (pronounced 'goad'), which means 'year'. This is the date the rifle was completed, but may not be the date that the receiver was manufactured. These markings are not on top of the receiver, but are on top of the chamber section of the barrel. The manufacture date of the receiver is found on the bottom of the receiver tang.

It is not necessary to remove the gun from the wood to determine if the receiver is of prewar manufacture. Prewar receivers have a deep scallop on the left side of the receiver which almost reaches the wood alongside the bolt body, relief cuts on both sides of the reciever at the rear resulting in a narrowed tang, a second (internal) receiver shoulder which abuts the breech end of the barrel (whereas the wartime receivers are cut straight through and abut the barrels only at the front of the receiver), and a bevel on the right rear of the receiver which matches that on the left rear (which is the relief cut for rotation of the striker knob to the 'safe' position).

For any of you all who are interested in anecdotal Russian war stories which involve the use of Mosins (and other Russian stuff), there is the Russian veterans website 'Iremember.ru', which has thousands of accounts of individual experiences. All information which was unavailable to the West for 50 years.