Found this rifle on a recent on line gun auction listed as being part of an old time gun collector’s estate sale. The bid was reasonable and with a vague description. The pics while not the greatest did show enough to determine that the rifle wasn’t a refurb and it wasn’t a Finn captured 91/30. Additionally it showed no import marking in the pics and the s/n of the rifle fell about 900 higher than a documented 36 Tula SCW rifle. So I decided to give it a go and to my surprise it stayed well under $200.00.
I received the rifle yesterday and it is indeed an unrefurb’ed early 36 Tula 91/30. built on a 35 Tula hex receiver. It is a mix of Tula and Izhevsk parts and is in the original 36 Tula stock. The receiver is lacking in the Communist Crest and doesn’t appear to have been scrubbed. The bore is in decent shape and the action bluing is about 50%, but the magazine housing and the barrel bands have zero bluing and have light surface rust and minor pitting. There are no tell tale signs of being a SCW rifle other than the lack of an import stamp, being non- refurb’ed, and its S/N being in close proximity to another known SCW rifle.
