Milsurp After Hours

I've been watching the Ken Burns epic on the Roosevelts. Last night it was on the topic of FDR as the under secretary of the Navy under Wilson. Among the photos it went through was a passing shot of him holding what was obviously a Mosin Nagant. I was under the impression it was taken while he was in Europe on an early visit to the war before the US got into it or later after it was over and he was there to see to closing down Navy operations . So... I went looking online. I found this photo that is reported to have been taken in May of 1918 in the US.

Odd that he holds what is probably a NEW or Remington made Nagant. Probably from the stock that never made it to Russia.

Since Roosevelt had a long New York political history, Remington was in Ilion, New York, it may have been a case of playing politics in 1918 when the government agreed to buy up the remaining undelivered stocks of contracted Nagant rifles. This would square with the year of the photo.