The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

Well, me and a friend of mine had been planning a trip to Cabelas for some time, we mostly just shop the local places, so it's nice to hit one of the big retailers once in awhile, just to see what's in stock. They had an entire rack of M91-30s out on the floor, (the action was zip tied shut) which was great, because I could go down the line and inspect all 20 of the things and then double check for any particularly interesting features and markings. Which of course I did... Anyway, it appears as if all of the rifles aside from one, which was a Molot, were from the same crate. Almost every single one of them were war time manufactured rifles, dating 1942 and 1943. There was a 1939, and a 1940 thrown in as well. The metal work was what was to be expected from a war time 91-30, very crude looking and rough. The stocks were in decent shape I suppose, but seemed to lack that reddish orange shellac I am accustomed to seeing. Out of the 20 or so rifles, 2 or 3 had war time stocks, the rest had post war stocks. No particularly interesting markings either. Not to sound snobbish, because I do plan on picking up a few war time Mosins just for collecting reasons ( but not at Cabela's prices) , and I'm sure the rifles would shoot just fine, but these were what I would consider bottom of the barrel M91-30s. There is an interesting note about the Molot rifle. It had some significant rust on the magazine and receiver... I'm convinced it was most likely a pre owned gun that somebody used and abused, because I've never seen a refurbed M91-30 imported with rust all over it like that. The date and markings on that rifle weren't anything special either, aside from the rather ugly Molot import stamps.

So that's my report guys, nothing too special.

A few weeks ago our Cabelas had the following on one rack (didn't pick up any of them as they were 199 and I pretty much had something similar to each of them): 2 1928 Izhevsks, 1 1927 tula 5 liner, 1929 tula on laminate stock, 1934 izhevsk with KO tombstone mark that I thought about just because I know that marking is rare even though unknown, 1935 izhevsk hex, and 1943 tula ex sniper. I was pretty surprised of the density of quality mosins. Even the ones I didn't look twice at were nice there were 3 or 4 37 to 39 rifles and only 4 or 5 42's and 43's. But 200 was too much for me.

Cabela's has never been known for great prices and selections of refurbs has not been the best anywhere these days. $200 to me is obscene for s basic parts rifle but many people who got on the Milsurp bandwagon lately will pay that much it seems. I think even the prices on M91's these days at $400 is ridiculous but then I started collecting these things before many of you were born. Buys are still to be found out there for one who looks hard and long and has the patience to do that. The problem is our society has an instant gratification problem and many of our younger set refuse to do that so they will pay way too much for things. They then come up with in 5 years it will be worth that much. From what I have seen most of them in 5 years will be selling off their rifles for a loss to get a street rod or mountain bike or whatever else the subject of the day seems to be at that time. Modern society seems to flit from hot subject to hot subject never staying in one place or thing too long. Even their work habits mirror that propensity to move around a lot. But then you have to look at the work situations they are being offered too with very minimal medical coverage, job security that disappears in seconds, 401 K's that don't offer what I had in my time and are not equaling what the workers put into it equaled by the employer, and many other things that don't warrant long term employment and appeal to the workers loyalty sides. They just flit from interest to interest like they are forced to do in the employment side of their lives. Shame isn't it? Bill

If the Molot rifle was abused, it must have been real recent abuse, those things haven't been imported until recently...