Triple Date MO & DDR M91/30

This rifle is a typical Soviet M91 Dragoon built at Izhevsk in 1928 that has been updated to M91/30 specifications. What makes it unique are the markings on the barrel shank that it has acquired over the years. Starting at the bottom of the barrel shank, the first mark that is not original is "MO". Moving up the barrel shank, after the original date of "1928r.", is "/47/52". While MO marked rifles are often found with a single extra date after the original, ones with two extra dates are relatively uncommon. For more information on the MO and date marks please see Mosin Nagant MO Marks. Towards the top of the barrel shank is the DDR (East German) "triangle 1" property mark. The "1" indicates it is "first quality", a 2 would indicate "second quality". A significant number of DDR marked Mosins have arrived in the US in recent imports. However, the DDR mark is not usually found on MO marked rifles. Presumably the rifle would have been given to the DDR after it's use by the MO. For this rifle to come to the US it would have been returned from the DDR to the Soviet Union proper, rearsenaled and placed in storage in the Ukraine before being exported.

These pictures show the typical M91/30 sights, handgaurd and barrel bands that replaced the original Dragoon parts at some point.

The stock is not original to the rifle as is evident by the later style sling slot escutcheons. However, it has been fitted to the hex style receiver with the steps on each side just forward of the tang. There are two small patches to the stock on the right side of the butt which are not often encountered on Soviet rifles. One is oblong and looks like a sling slot plug, but does not go through to the other side. The other is a smaller round plug near the butt plate. Both of these appear to have been done when the stock was produced to replace knotholes in the wood. The Ukrainian depot mark of a box with a diagonal slash is also seen on the butt.

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