how to tell country of origin of Mosin Nagant?
 

I recently purchased two Mosin Nagant M91/30s and a 440 round spam can of ammo. I looked up the ammo and found that it was Bulgarian made in 1980.

How can I tell which country made the rifles? I know the finnish rifles have a fold down action, ours are both straight.

There is a different armory stamp on each rifle and neither really have similar markings...and they're markings I can't read and therefore have a hard time looking up.

Here are the details of the rifles.

Straight action handles
Hex Recievers
date stamp 1928r and 1934r
stock on one is dark wood, looks to be some sort of oil/stain under with shellac or lacquer over
Stock on the other has a very defined grain, definately lamanated stock with the same dark oil/stain and shellac/lacquer finish.
Both have a hole through the front grip and rear stock where a leather "dog collar" goes through to attach the sling.
The rings that hold the wood over the barrel are held on with spring tension bars.

This is all the info I can remember while I dont have the rifles in front of me, is there something else I need to look for? I can let you know later tonight when I get home.

I bought these rifles at my favorite gun shop, mostly cleaned, for $109. The only thing we did was take a mild soap water solution and a rag and ran it over the wood, it took away some of the "sticky" feeling of the finish. I took apart the actions and cleaned the grease out and relubricated with gun oil. Then rubbed a little gun oil over the barrel, reciever, and trigger to make it look really sharp and protect the metal. and finially ran about 40 patches through each barrel until they came out clean (alternating Hoppes#9 powder cleaner and dry patches).

Big Country

Re: how to tell country of origin of Mosin Nagant?
 

They're almost certainly from Russia. If you would like to see what arsenal made your rifles, take a look at:

http://www.russian-mosin-nagant.com/arsenalmarks.htm

$109 each is a very good deal (from a brick & mortar store) for the older "hex" Mosin Nagant 91/30 rifles.

As to "finnish rifles have a fold down action", not really. If by "action" you mean the bolt handles, most MN91/30 rifles have straight bolts. Only the MN91/30 sniper rifles had bent down bolt handles. I'm not sure about Finn sniper rifles, but if captured from Russia, they would have been bent down also. Most Finn rifles (MN91, MN91/30, 24, 27, 28, 28/30, 39) have the same type of straight bolt handle as seen on your rifles. The Finnish rifles will generally have a [SA] stamp on the barrel shank.

Enjoy your new rifles!

Re: how to tell country of origin of Mosin Nagant?
 

Click the answers to the questions to identify your mosin nagant rifle. real handy.

http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinID.htm#length

Re: how to tell country of origin of Mosin Nagant?
 

Thanks for the clarification on the bolt handles. I must have gotten some mis-information somewhere. I was pretty sure they were from Russia as well I just wanted to know if I could verify it.

I'll take a look at that site and see if I can't nail down exactly which arsenal.

Thanks!

Big Country

EDIT: Looks like both were from the Izhevsk arsenal. Thanks!