Milsurp After Hours

I 1st want to start off by thanking a fellow MN collector "Racerguy" for being just a wee bit slower than me or this would be his post and not mine.

I found this Sunday evening while crusing GB looking for any bargins, and this one fit the bill, It’s a 1915 New England Westinghouse M91 that has been Finn’ed. It is a conglamoration of NEW, Tula, Izhevsk, & Chatellerault parts, with a Finn cleaning rod, a weird repair to the right side buttstock & a Finnish spliced stock. Also there is a cartouch on the left side of the but stock that is hard to make out but it appears to be a NEW “English Contract” stamp. There is also 3 weird stamps on the but plate that best can be described as a capitol “ I “ with a bar crossing through the middle of it that I have seen pic’s of before, but have yet to track them down.

That English Contract circle looks to be in exactly the same spot as mine on the left side of the butt stock. The stock looks to be walnut too like the original contract rifles. But....the Finn finger groove stock configuration of the stock seems a bit mysterious, like a lot of the history of these rifles. Wonder how the Finn's decided which ones to leave alone, which ones to part out for M39's, which ones to make some other adjustments to, like the stock?