1894 Chatellerault m91/38 and the real story

[scribs87]

walked right buy this beast at a gun show. On the second round i looked over at a rack of gun stocks only to see one full rifle upside-down hanging under them. Had to even notice. .

It was a very strange mosin. Never seen one like it. So i flipped it back upside-down and starting My Internet investigation. .

Ended up leaving. Today i went back to the show. Only to find ot still there. So i flipped it back up. Took a photo and then flipping it back upside-down walked away. ended up a hour later buying it at a haggled price of a couple hundred bucks.

Heres the beautiful 1894 Chatellerault m91/38.
any info would be a huge plus.
i know little to nothing about this.
but i do know thanks to some of you that its very rare.
thanks for all your help.

There will be better pictures when i get home from work. I had to take the ones im posting now on my lunch break.

[scribs87]

Ok my photos are to large i guess.
so you will all need to wait till i get home from work for more photos.

All numbers match but the bolt is numberless :(

[Junk Yard Dog]

No number is odd, but OK, very likely they just didn't get around to restamping it during the build. Haggled it down to a couple of hundred? There are guys here who would have paid double that so fast the friction from pulling out their wallet would have set their pants on fire. All 91/38's are rare, a Chatellerault M91/38 much more so because all of these actions were produced before 1900, and few survived into the post war era to be turned into carbines or anything else. This was a very good find, and you were amazingly lucky that nobody saw it sitting there after you left it twice. If I or any of 30 people on this board that I can think of quickly had seen that rifle after you walked away it would have vanished like smoke in the wind

[ffeng31]

Yeah !! What he said... I would have been one of those 30..

[scribs87]

But your forgetting something. I set that photo up! Then i put it back upside-down under the random wooden stocks like i found it .. hehe

[Lee-online]

Take some nice photos outside and post them up so we can all see at this beautiful old war horse.

Finding a m91/38 in the wild would be really cool, finding a Châtellerault would be awesome and then for the price he was asking, without even getting money knocked off. Wow!

[King Johhny]

Nice rifle! I would have picked it up too...

[neal45]

For those reading this who missed the first thread when it was thought to be a 91/59 and want to know more about M91/38s, I have a database sticky'd at the top of the page: http://www.russian-mosin-nagant-forum.c ... =5&t=21814

I have seen them go for over $1000 on GunBroker and those were not Chatelleraults. They would command top prices.

[Rongo]

This is an astounding find! I'm amazed it was still there & no one else snagged it up.

[qz2026]

Amazing find for a couple of hundred. As Neil says, this guy would probably fetch $1K at auction. I am not surprised that the bolt isn't stamped. I have come to expect about anything from these rifles. I have one with a non matching bolt. Another with a butt plate that is four digits off the shank number. This one, for example, has two Czech stars on it - one on the shank and one on the receiver. Haven't seen that before. Also noted the circle KK/10 stamp on the receiver. They all don't have that stamp on the receiver. I also note that the Imperial Eagles are scrubbed. Could indicate that this rifle spent some time in Austria Hungry at some point. These older ones have a lot of history.

This is what keeps me going to guns shows. Around here thought another dealer would have lapped this one up before the show opened and you'd never see it at that price. This one is a keeper. 91/38's are rare. A Chatellerault is one step higher on that rarity scale. You are very fortunate to have it.

Please post pictures of the entire rifle. Of course, I would like to see every part on the rifle but that's just me... Resize the pictures you upload to 640x480 and they will be fine. I would like to see what kind of stock it is sitting in. Also, check under the butt plate on the top of the butt stock to see if there is a large number stamped there. Depending on the stock type, there should be one. Also, if you decide to shoot it (I wouldn't), make sure the stock has a steel crossover bolt along with checking headspace.

[scribs87]

Im having a very hard time getting my photos resized. I will definitely continue to try and get any and all information i can posted. I like that im able to be apart of the research into this newly discover variet of rifle.

i do alot of buying ,selling and trading of mosins And the only one iv kept is my m27. I guess now ill have a second i cant get ride of. I wonder if ill ever fall in love with a still "russian " mosin lol

So there is still alot of gunk and grim on this gun. The bolt is very sticky as well.Is it safe to run a cloth and gun cleaner over this gun and really clean the bolt up or do i leave it as is?

[scribs87]

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread. ... st3316085I

got a few pics up on gunboards.
apologies for not being able to get them up on here :(

[qz2026]

Cool. This one looks like it was actually used.

[ffeng31]

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread. ... ost3315868

I got a few pics up on gunboards.
apologies for not being able to get them up on here :(

Getting rid of it so soon?? Would be nice if you would offer it up here ,as you had no idea as to it's identity and value prior to asking on this forum...

[scribs87]

Not going to get rid of it. I only posted it for the photos. As im having a hard time getting pics up on this forum.
I would not be so rude. You guys will all get first dibs. If you notice i even stated on gunboards that i probably would not trade it.

[scribs87]

Fixed it. Its now in the right forum and the link has been posted

[Lee-online]

Looks like a really nice score. IF you do sell it, remember us on here, many of us, including me would gladly add this to our collections.

As for the pics, I like to upload them to http://photobucket.com. You can upload any size and then choose the size you want them to link at.

[BubbaDX]

Im having a very hard time getting my photos resized. I will definitely continue to try and get any and all information i can posted. I like that im able to be apart of the research into this newly discover variet of rifle.

i do alot of buying ,selling and trading of mosins And the only one iv kept is my m27. I guess now ill have a second i cant get ride of. I wonder if ill ever fall in love with a still "russian " mosin lol

So there is still alot of gunk and grim on this gun. The bolt is very sticky as well.Is it safe to run a cloth and gun cleaner over this gun and really clean the bolt up or do i leave it as is?

This might help you with resizing images. http://russian-mosin-nagant-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=22106

[scribs87]

http://s213.photobucket.com/user/scribs ... t=3&page=1

I wonder if this will help at all?

[scribs87]

Hope you guys enjoy the photos. let me know if you want anymore. Shot it today and its amazing. Trigger is unbelievable and its very accurate. Was shooting jugs at 50 yards and had a few bullet holes touching out of 5 Shoots. At 100 i was hitting 1/2 pieces of clay pigeons.