The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

A friend of mine had this 1897 and when he passed away, his wife, knowing I liked guns, gave it to me. It has alot of markings. I'd like to get any info on it that I can. This is my first attempt to do so. It's also the only mosin I've ever held so I dont know much about them in general.

Beautiful stamps on that one. Pictures of the whole rifle will answer more questions.

1897 Finn capture Sestroryetsk. Really nice rifle.

That was a very nice, and somewhat expensive gift, sorry you lost your friend. More pictures showing the entire rifle would help.

Sorry to hear your friend passed, you received a very special rifle to remember him by. As a new Mosin owner, the most important thing you can do to preserve the value is to keep it as is. No sanding, refinishing of metal or wood. Period. Keep it clean and oiled to preserve it and the value as a historical relic will continue to increase. Shooting it is a lot of fun, just clean afterward as any surplus ammo is corrosive if not cleaned properly.

As the other guys said, a special rifle. You might get more info by checking out the "RMNF Knowledge Base" tab in the above header, then click on "Russian 1891".

I think M91 Mosins are beautiful and the Sestroryetsk logo is the best of all, artistically. The often have a somewhat higher value than other arsenals. You are quite lucky to be the beneficiary.

Please note the quote by bunkysdad about maintaining it's historical accuracy by keeping it as is.

1897 Sestroretsk M91. Used by Finland. Stock looks like a Finnish stock, and it looks like it's in good condition. "SA" is a Finnish marking as well as the "D". SA is a Finnish Army property marking. A lot of the markings are going to be factory, acceptance, or inspector markings.

I'm having a heck of a time trying to put pics up. I'm not exactly computer savvy. Here (hopefully) are more pics of the 1897. Sorry if there are duplicates. Still trying to figure this forum thing out

Thank you all for your input. The gun is in ok condition. A few dings and dents on stock and the bolt has pitting where I think my friend removed rust. It operates well though. The bore is clean and the stock is solid. It will look great on my wall but I'm a little concerned about dust getting on it. It will be too high to take down very easily to clean

Alot of Finnish rifles have older recycled parts with pitting like that, more likely cleaned up by the Finnish armory that assembled the rifle.