I haven't seen any either. .....?????bb91 wrote:Were there any Tula's in the Samco rifles, I don't believe I have seen any posted anywhere?
M91/30 Sniper (Samco)
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Darryl
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Re: M91/30 Sniper (Samco)
Re: M91/30 Sniper (Samco)
I don't recall any wartime PU snipers, although there were a couple Yugoslavian conversions of 1939 Tula 91/30's to PU snipers - I have one of them. This rifle originally had one of the rare Yugoslavian made PU bases - I was able to locate one through one of my connections in Serbia and used it to re-scope the rifle along with an original, non-post war refurbed, WW2 Soviet mount and a rare Yugo made TOS "ON-52" PU scope made in 1952 at Lubljana, Slovenia.
Most of the Yugoslavian issue PU rifles are 1944 Izhevsk - most of these were sent to "Joe the Butcher" Tito by his mass murdering Marxist buddy "Joe the Butcher" Stalin in early 1944 as part of a Soviet "war aid" arms shipment to the Yugoslav Communists, and some were also early post-war Soviet "military and economic aid" the Soviets more or less forced on the Yugoslavians.
There are a few 1943 Izhevsk rifles - out of the 20 Yugo PU rifles still in their WW2 German 91/30 PU sniper shipping chests I got from Samco back when they first imported these rifles, 2 were 1943. I sold one to a friend and fellow collector, and still have the other. Back when I was still keeping track of these things, it seemed the overall ratio was one out of every 20 rifle would be 1943 and the rest would be 1944.
There were also a very, very few 1942 Izhevsk rifles - I can think of 2, perhaps 3, offhand. IIRC "Skid", who used to post as "SSSniper" on Gunboards, got one of the 1942 rifles - and sent it back because the bore was less than pristine! I think Skid has the other '39 Tula PU, but don't remember for sure anymore.
The Germans, who were always desperately short of sniper rifles, did use a number of PU snipers in Yugoslavia, and surrendered these to the Yugoslavian communists along with all their 98k Mausers at the end of the war. I believe it is highly likely that the 1942 and 1943 dated rifles are former German used ones. The father and uncle of a friend of our family were Croatian-German Waffen SS snipers in Yugoslavia during the war (they were also cousins of Tito's) and occasionally had to use the Mosin PU rifles, which they hated compared to their 98k rifles. They were actually engaged in sniper duels with Yugo Communist snipers armed with the Mosin PU rifles who were holed up in some caves, so for those of you who have a Yugo issue PU it is possible that your rifle was actually one of these rifles.
I have been trying to research the German units in Yugoslavia who were equipped with Mosin snipers and looking for any Yugo records of Mosin snipers in with surrendered German rifles, but the Yugo records seem to be only concerned with the numbers of captured rifles and not the types, and the Yugo records of the German units involved in various battles and that surrendered at the end of the war are also not that accurate as far as the names and numbers of the units.
Most of the Yugoslavian issue PU rifles are 1944 Izhevsk - most of these were sent to "Joe the Butcher" Tito by his mass murdering Marxist buddy "Joe the Butcher" Stalin in early 1944 as part of a Soviet "war aid" arms shipment to the Yugoslav Communists, and some were also early post-war Soviet "military and economic aid" the Soviets more or less forced on the Yugoslavians.
There are a few 1943 Izhevsk rifles - out of the 20 Yugo PU rifles still in their WW2 German 91/30 PU sniper shipping chests I got from Samco back when they first imported these rifles, 2 were 1943. I sold one to a friend and fellow collector, and still have the other. Back when I was still keeping track of these things, it seemed the overall ratio was one out of every 20 rifle would be 1943 and the rest would be 1944.
There were also a very, very few 1942 Izhevsk rifles - I can think of 2, perhaps 3, offhand. IIRC "Skid", who used to post as "SSSniper" on Gunboards, got one of the 1942 rifles - and sent it back because the bore was less than pristine! I think Skid has the other '39 Tula PU, but don't remember for sure anymore.
The Germans, who were always desperately short of sniper rifles, did use a number of PU snipers in Yugoslavia, and surrendered these to the Yugoslavian communists along with all their 98k Mausers at the end of the war. I believe it is highly likely that the 1942 and 1943 dated rifles are former German used ones. The father and uncle of a friend of our family were Croatian-German Waffen SS snipers in Yugoslavia during the war (they were also cousins of Tito's) and occasionally had to use the Mosin PU rifles, which they hated compared to their 98k rifles. They were actually engaged in sniper duels with Yugo Communist snipers armed with the Mosin PU rifles who were holed up in some caves, so for those of you who have a Yugo issue PU it is possible that your rifle was actually one of these rifles.
I have been trying to research the German units in Yugoslavia who were equipped with Mosin snipers and looking for any Yugo records of Mosin snipers in with surrendered German rifles, but the Yugo records seem to be only concerned with the numbers of captured rifles and not the types, and the Yugo records of the German units involved in various battles and that surrendered at the end of the war are also not that accurate as far as the names and numbers of the units.