1915 Tula Balkan rifle help.

[Inkedforlife76]

Hello. I have a 1915 tula m91.
Scrubbed eagle on barrel, peened out on receiver
Has shims under barrel bands
Counterbored
No pine cone markings or numbers on side of buttstock
Rear sight has the balkan wedge
No extra letter stamp by serial or on barrel

The floor plate and buttplate have been restamped but the font doesn't match original font of numbers. And can tell it got a refurb to the stock and metal. But no rebuild stampings.

There is a B1 stamped onto left side of the buttstock and trying to narrow down where it may have ended up in the balkans. I know alot came out of romania when exported and bulgaria.

Curious if anyone knows about the B1 marking.

Thank you.

[tomaustin]

you don't plan on promoting this as a war time rebuild relic do you......looks totally homemade to me...

[Inkedforlife76]

Considering I pulled this rifle from the crate it was imported into this country from id not think anything else.

[Inkedforlife76]

Pic

[Junk Yard Dog]

I recall seeing these earlier imported Mosin M91's stacked on pallets back in the late 1980's and early 90's when I was buying them. I never saw any in a crate, that was an excess the Soviets did to the 91/30/s and so on after they refurbished the rifles. The Soviets didn't bother refurbishing M91's, they just used the receivers to build 91/30's or M44's. The Finn import M91's also seem to have been strapped to a pallet in a stack from the pictures I remember. Most, if not all of the leftover M91's ended up in Romania if they were in commie hands after the war. The Romanians seem to have done whatever they had to do to keep these rifles in service. Mine have many odd markings on them, and just about every sort of stain color on the stock along with numerous field repairs. One of mine has at least ten repairs, and none of them have cleaning rods, at least not the Romanian used ones I have. If memory serves, a miracle if it does, the Romanians removed them, and instead used the K98k style cleaning kit. These Romanian used rifles are an awesome example of the sort of poverty these communist states existed under. Instead of arming his army with the latest Soviet weapons Nicolae Ceaușescu spent it all on a huge palace of the people communist government headquarters in Bucharest. Because of that these rifles had to remain in service longer than anticipated and there was no money for refurbishments so they sometimes look a bit rough, and can have bore issues. The shame of it is that when funds were available the Romanians made one of the nicest M44's in the east block.

[Inkedforlife76]

Thank you for the info. My father owned a sporting good/firearms shop since the late 50s. He would get 10-20 mosins at a time and they'd be layered in a wood shipping crate. Came from century that way. But for some its hard to believe things if they only seen it one way.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Thank you for the info. My father owned a sporting good/firearms shop since the late 50s. He would get 10-20 mosins at a time and they'd be layered in a wood shipping crate. Came from century that way. But for some its hard to believe things if they only seen it one way.

When shipping rifles inside the US the importers would have crated them as the trucking companys wouldn't have accepted a bundle of loose rifles wrapped in paper or something like that. A late 1950's import would make this rifle a Spanish Civil War relic, not a Balkans used rifle. The Cold War was in full swing during the 1950's and the Communist states were not selling rifles to anyone yet. That would not happen until the fall of the Wall, and then the dissolution of the communist states in Eastern Europe after 1989.

[steelbuttplate]

What is the marking under the buttplate, on some SCW rifles ?

[husker51]

I have the same B1 stamp in left side of the butt stock of an 1895 Tula I just picked up. It’s in a post 1913 stock, no cleaning rod and the flat leaf rear sight is still on it. No hand guard on mine.