New England Westinghouse M1891 Nagant, couldn't resist

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lionking

lionking

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Went today to a local gunstore to shoot some handgun. In the rack I saw a Mosin. I thought yeah another Mosin but let me check it out. Turned out to be a Westinghouse 1915 made Mosin they just took in yesterday.

I said it's mine to them plain and simple what is the price? Bsed on what I just saw on gun broker I got it for a deal.

Bore has very good grooves, a bit frosty may clean up nice. cosmoline around the bolt and receiver that needs to be cleaned. Bore is counter-bored. Metal is is very good condition. It is import marked under barrel.

Butt stock has some marks and dings but not that bad, cartouche is still visible. Wasn't looking to buy another gun lol! right now least of all another Mosin but I had to have it.

IMG_4598.JPG IMG_4585.JPG IMG_4589.JPG IMG_4588.JPG
 
Does yours have a SA stamped somewhere on the barrel or receiver? From the appearance of the stock, you have a Finnish M1891. I have one with a Westinghouse receiver and barrel, but the stock modifications are strictly Finnish.

I have no idea how the Finns got their hands on M1891's with new barrels, but I have seen them, and owned a few. Typically the Finns restocked them in their special jointed stocks, the bolt, trigger guard, etc, don't match and are not Westinghouse. Once the barrel was removed, I don't know how you identify a Westinghouse receiver from any other M1891 receiver. When the Finns went to the M24, they replaced barrels as the M24 barrel was heavier.

Still, an interesting rifle.
 
Slamfire said:
Does yours have a SA stamped somewhere on the barrel or receiver? From the appearance of the stock, you have a Finnish M1891. I have one with a Westinghouse receiver and barrel, but the stock modifications are strictly Finnish.

I have no idea how the Finns got their hands on M1891's with new barrels, but I have seen them, and owned a few. Typically the Finns restocked them in their special jointed stocks, the bolt, trigger guard, etc, don't match and are not Westinghouse. Once the barrel was removed, I don't know how you identify a Westinghouse receiver from any other M1891 receiver. When the Finns went to the M24, they replaced barrels as the M24 barrel was heavier.

Still, an interesting rifle.
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I would think the rear sight might give a clue as well, since AFAIK, a '15 Russian contract gun would have the sight marked in Arshins, but if it went through a Finn rebuild, they would remark the sight in meters.

I almost bought a Westinghouse Bannerman .30-06 conversion years ago, but it was in rough shape and I passed. Probably a good thing I did, as later research indicated they were prone to grenading......
 
Slamfire said:
Does yours have a SA stamped somewhere on the barrel or receiver? From the appearance of the stock, you have a Finnish M1891. I have one with a Westinghouse receiver and barrel, but the stock modifications are strictly Finnish.

I have no idea how the Finns got their hands on M1891's with new barrels, but I have seen them, and owned a few. Typically the Finns restocked them in their special jointed stocks, the bolt, trigger guard, etc, don't match and are not Westinghouse. Once the barrel was removed, I don't know how you identify a Westinghouse receiver from any other M1891 receiver. When the Finns went to the M24, they replaced barrels as the M24 barrel was heavier.

Still, an interesting rifle.
Click to expand...

Yes SA on the side of the receiver, and the stock is jointed on the bottom, so guess it is a Finnish that was originally a Westinghouse capture?, from Russians.
 
total recoil said:
It'll never fit in that case. :) or is that an optical protrusion.
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No it won't just used it as a backdrop for photoing. My Carcano 1891 barely fits in it this Mosin may be the longest rifle I have now, or maybe the Swiss 1911 not sure.
 
lionking

Nice find! Interesting history with it!

Doubt if I would have been able to pass on that as well!
 
NIGHTLORD40K said:
I would think the rear sight might give a clue as well, since AFAIK, a '15 Russian contract gun would have the sight marked in Arshins, but if it went through a Finn rebuild, they would remark the sight in meters.
Click to expand...

I never saw the words meters or arshins on a Russian or Finnish rear sight. I guess you had to know the units.
 

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Well done. I'd have jumped on it myself.

I kick myself in the behind for not buying those Finnish M39s when they were sub $100 at Big 5.
 
The first Mosin I ever bought was a N.E.W M91. The front half of the stock was missing and it took me just over two years to find a correct stock for it. The stock that was on it had the Spanish flaming bomb cartouche and the five dice mark on the receiver.
Here are some before and after pics.
E608FDCA-CAC4-405E-8A0E-498053D259BA.jpeg 3587136F-F634-4123-B624-7A1606471666.jpeg 0EADF3FA-5ABE-4BA2-95E4-36601E5FC0D2.jpeg

All N.E.W. M91s have the date of 1915 on them. The date is determined by the shape of the roll mark and SN# on the barrel. Yours appears to have been made between 1917 and 1918.

I have four N.E.Ws in my collection M91 collection.

To determine if the receiver was made by N.E.W. You will need to take the rifle out of the stock and look at the markings on the bottom of the tang.
Your rifle is in a Finn two piece stock. It looks like you have an early front band and a late rear band. Remember that the bands have left hand threads screws.
 
GunnyUSMC said:
Yes it will. He just has to cut a hole in one end.;)
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A more pressing problem is I have pretty much run out of room in the safe, I have already squeezed as many as I can in it without doing storage damage to them.
 
GBExpat said:
:D QUICK! Buy a Lottery ticket! ... just in case you haven't used up allllll of that luck. :)
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I dunno about luck but I need to chill before I dig deeper into my savings account. Then there are those unforeseen things like cat getting sick and needing surgery, for luck I hope that nothing goes wrong for months so I can catch up , but that is based on me NOT going to gun shows and STAYING OFF gun broker and RESISTING guns catching my eye at local gun stores .:cool:

And now a nasty hurricane looming off my state, while I'm on the other side of the state it ain't over 'till it's over.:uhoh:
 
This is a Finn capture M91 or foreign purchase in typical condition. When Finland declared independence, they seized a large number of obsolete Mosin models from a Baltic port where they were in cache for Soviet Naval service. Serviceable arms were kept basically as-is, marked SA and sometimes re-stocked with arctic birch (as yours appears to be) and used for training, rear echelon and garrison primarily. Rifles needing work were sent to be rebuilt by the various Finnish arsenals. Yours has the original barrel. Rifles were rebuilt with original profile M91 barrels and sights from Austrian surplus (sig made swiss barrels), Belgian barrels left over from early production of M91 for imperial Russia, and the later Finn models were barreled with new-made Swiss and domestically produced barrels. You may also have a large D stamped somewhere on the rifle indicating reaming of the throat to handle Finnish D166 service ammo.
http://www.mosinnagant.net/finland/M91inFinland.asp This article has more information on your rifle than I could hope to provide.
 
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lionking said:
Went today to a local gunstore to shoot some handgun. In the rack I saw a Mosin. I thought yeah another Mosin but let me check it out. Turned out to be a Westinghouse 1915 made Mosin they just took in yesterday.

I said it's mine to them plain and simple what is the price? Bsed on what I just saw on gun broker I got it for a deal.

Bore has very good grooves, a bit frosty may clean up nice. cosmoline around the bolt and receiver that needs to be cleaned. Bore is counter-bored. Metal is is very good condition. It is import marked under barrel.

Butt stock has some marks and dings but not that bad, cartouche is still visible. Wasn't looking to buy another gun lol! right now least of all another Mosin but I had to have it.

View attachment 857983 View attachment 857984 View attachment 857985 View attachment 857986
Click to expand...

Funny I saw about a half dozen of those in my LGS over the weekend. Sadly I wasn't interested at the cost he was selling them for.
 
mustanger98 said:
I read somewhere that the Finns, when they re-barreled a Mosin, used IIRC Belgian FN barrels.
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The M24's were rebarrelled using barrels from German company Bohler Stahl or Swiss company SIG. The barrel from my M24 was made by Bohler Stahl.

I'm not sure who would have supplied barrels for later models of Mosina.
 
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