Home --> Guns n Gear --> About Mosinka
Buckle your fucking seatbelts, because Now that I have finally recieved my Mosinka, I have been spending a lot of time getting familiar with it. From cleaning it as best I can with .22 cal cleaning stuff, to cuddling with it at night, I have probably become more intimate with it than all my others. So I now where each marking is anywhere on it. I've been so obsessed trying to figure out what they all mean. So in my internet journey I have decided I would read up on what I can find to solve the mystery of my new toy's previous life, and then I would return to the proverbial nest and regurgitate my findings all back to you my fuck ugly hatchlings.
The most obvious markings on the gun are on the receiver. The first is "1943Г" ("Г" being short for "year"), signifying the production year. Then above that there is a hammer and sickle enclosed in a laurel wreath. This and the marking at a bottom which is an up pointing arrow inside a triangle, both indicate that this rifle was made by Izhevsk Arms, which is located the city of Izhevsk (like how Tula Arms is located in Tula). That is, according to Wikipedia. The website I looked to for info about the markings have photos that suggest otherwise. The bottom emblem represents the mountain where the factory's founders supposedly lived (something something about dwarves), and the arrow represents their production of arms. And Izhevsk arms was established in 1942, so this gun was one of their first however many Mosin-Nagant products. The serial number is marked on the reciever, bolt, magazine floorplate, and the butt plate. But only on the recever it is led by a pair of Cyrillic letters, and they are not at all line up like they are on other rifles that I've seen images of.
I want to also note that the bayonet has a different serial number. I have not read much about the bayonets, but if I had to guess they were paired with the rifles by number. If so, the one I have is not original to this Mosinka. Also, I have a friend who's big into trapshooting. He got a new shotgun last year, a Browning. But the one he got before it wouldn't fit togehter. Turned out that one of the three parts (barrel, stock, forearm) had a serial number that was different from the other two, and since Brownings are handcrafted, their parts are not interchangeable. No one really nows how that gun and another got parts mixed up but they couldn't be assembled. Meanwhile my bayonet is easy getting on, but I can't get it on enough to turn it to the side like you're supposed to, and I can't pull it off, I have to hammer it off (even using some gun lube doesn't help). I know those things need to be secure, but I'm not sure if it's supposed to fit the way it does.
So here is what we know so far:
Sources: