Milsurp After Hours

This is one of 9,000 Finn 91/30's mfg in 1944 by Tikka. It is built on the less common pre 42 low wall round reciever with a stacked blade front sight, Finn 2 pc. finger jointed pot belly stock with round hole eschon plates and Finn sling hangers. The rifle is "Finn Matching" with the bolt being a mix of Izhevsk & Tula parts.

Nice one. You have a Finn 91/30 with the full treatment.

Got to looking at my Finn 91/30. It has the new finger groove stock but that's about where they ended the refurbishment. The receiver and the bolt numbers match as original but some of the other parts...like the magazine... don't match. And they didn't do anything to the sling slots and it doesn't have the wire hooks.

It does have the 41 stamp that was ..as I understand... only on some captures from 1941. But I don't know how true this is.

It does have a large "A" stamped into the butt stock. I'm sure they weren't Alabama fans. Maybe this is for Asevarikko arsenal....but no number after it to suggest 1, 2, or 3. It does have a number of Izhevsk stamps on most of the parts.

Do you think the Finn's "improved" the trigger pull on yours? I'd imagine they did. Can't be sure on mine.

The "41 stamp was only used in 1941 to mark all Finn Captured weapons during the winter war, as for the stock it is a 2 peice Finn stock made out of an Austrian captured M91 stock.
The "A" was an austrian capture mark they put on all M91's they captured and converted to shoot there 8x50 round the used in there Mannlicher M1895


The mark is on the bottom of the page on this link

http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinMarks03.htm

Thanks Miller Tyme. You taught me something. That Austrian mark leaves me scratching my head. I know the Finns got Nagants from several countries by purchase. So does this mean they got a 91 from Austria that the Austrians might have come by in WWI and then parted it out? And in the process the full size rifle stock was reconfigured in a rebuild of a captured from the Russians rifle in 1941?

Yep pretty much what happened,the finn's would have had no use for a MN that was throated for a Mannlicher 8x50, but the stock bolt parts, and reciever where still good fooder for other rifles. The Finn's bought MN's from just about anyone that was selling post WW1, no matter what the condition, and used the parts to make complete rifles for there army and civil gaurd.