1916 Remington M91 Mosin Nagant used by Finnish Civil Guard

[MongooseLaw]

Hello, I just wanted to share a cool Finnish Civil Guard marked 1916 Remington M91 rifle I picked up from gunbroker a little while back. My main interest (obsession) is Russian Imperial/Finnish M91's and other variants, particularly Civil Guard marked. This one appears to have 3 separate CG numbers along with the usual SA stamp. Not only is this another Finn'd M91 for my collection, it completes the Remington years of production as I also have a Finn'd Remington 1917 and a Spanish Civil War Remington 1918. Along with the hard to find year and cool CG markings, the stock is a beautiful early Russian one piece stock with a French Chatellerault buttplate and several plugged holes for various sling attachments through the years. There also appears to be some sort of script writing on the left hand buttstock. Bore is good, strong rifling and reflects light, it's not great and didn't clean up much after a few rounds at the range but I didn't buy it for a shooter anyway. My only real problem with this rifle is figuring out how to add a sling as I'm kind of an accessories nut...I'm ok with leaving it alone though. Cleaning rod is Tula hammer marked, I don't see arsenal markings too often on my M91 cleaning rods so that was a nice bonus. The two CG numbers on the side of the barrel are 122063 and 124776, not sure about the number on top of receiver. Information from user Mangrove on Gunboards:

"S 122063 = Ylitornio Civil Guard.
S 124776 = Savukoski Civil Guard. Savukoski is the most sparsely inhabited municipality in Finland as of 2021."

I love the history of these Finn marked M91's, especially the thought of this rifle being used by some old weathered Finn guarding his home district, haha...

Please enjoy the pictures, any comments/additional information is welcome!

Thanks
-John

 

[RaoulHayduke]

Well, well. I have S 122031 from Ylitornio, an 1893 Tula.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Well, well. I have S 122031 from Ylitornio, an 1893 Tula.
View attachment 132796


View attachment 132797

That's probably my favorite crest of any of the Mosins (Sestroryetsk).

 

[MongooseLaw]

I would have to agree DD...my example is also Civil Guard marked and a great shooter at 120 yards

Raoul: Im jealous, beautiful rifle...my earliest is an 1894.

 

[johntheplinker]

Erittäin kiva!

Is there any provision at all for a rear sling attachment? I can't tell from the pics. While its been a few years since I've really messed with Mosins much, IIRC the drilled sling swivel holes are either a Austro-Hungarian or Balkens feature.

 

[RaoulHayduke]

I would have to agree DD...my example is also Civil Guard marked and a great shooter at 120 yards

Raoul: Im jealous, beautiful rifle...my earliest is an 1894.

Thanks! Truth be told, I was considering offering it in trade for the Persian 98/29 you had listed on Gunboards about a month ago, but it's currently my only M91. I did just pick up a '44 Tikka and a '44 Sako M39 as a very attractive package deal, but the Sako is being moved to a new home. Shot the Tikka today for the first time, it's really quite nice.

 

[MongooseLaw]

Ahh, yes that Persian was a nice rifle but I'm definitely more of a Mosin guy. Too bad about the M39, they make great shooters, you'll have to pickup another sometime! The Finn made 91/30's are really cool and usually great shooters, I have one in my collection as well. Let me know if you ever want to sell/trade that '93 Tula, you'll have to pickup another M91 first of course

john the plinker: you are correct sir, holes such as the one in this Remington 1916's stock are usually attributed to Austro-Hungarian/Balkan use, one of my last pictures "swvlhole" shows where a sling swivel of some sort must have been installed, perhaps like the ones commonly found on Finnish M27 rifles but that's just speculation. I thought about finding a correct Finnish sling swivel to install but I will probably just leave it alone, as much as I hate the idea of not having a sling on a military rifle...haha.

 

[DadSmith]

Question now. How many Mosin Nagant's did American manufacturers make for other countries?

 

[johntheplinker]

Question now. How many Mosin Nagant's did American manufacturers make for other countries?

The Imperial Russian government ordered something like 3 million total from Remington and New England Westinghouse. Somewhat more than half were actually produced and about 1 million actually made it to Russia before the revolution.
The ones that didn't make it overseas were bought by the U.S. government to save the 2 companies from bankruptcy after the Russians failed to pay for the rifles and were then sold later by the CMP.