1897 full matching Dragoon and a mystery device
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1897 full matching Dragoon and a mystery device
Hello everyone! This is my second post here on the forum and basically the first after introducing myself, so i would like to show you something really special...i hope. I had the possibility to acquire this 1897 full matching Dragoon rifle recently. It has been found under a roof of an old house in Northern Italy years ago and it has a really fantastic patina. The stock is also beaten like it should be on a rifle that saw the WW1 trenches. The only sign of an Austro-Hungarian connection is the classic "W" close to the butt plate. No other markings outside the original made at Izhevsk. I will publish pictures of the entire rifle soon but the mystery is the device that apparently was originally found attached to it (on the receiver). You can see it in the pictures. It is not permanently attached to the rifle, just in place with a spring clamp, so you can easily but obviously always carefully remove it leaving no signs on the rifle. The idea is that it could be a sort of WW1 trench periscope or a same era training device. Anyway, i spent days on books...nothing. So i hope you will enjoy this Mosin mystery and in case you have any information on this device and this weird original configuration, please feel free to share. Thank you!!
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Re: 1897 full matching Dragoon and a mystery device
Google Russian to English translator using provided Google keyboard:
captain s.k. rnkovskiy yidna
Looks like an aiming training device. If it's Russian military, it probably should have the factory marking on it somewhere.
captain s.k. rnkovskiy yidna
Looks like an aiming training device. If it's Russian military, it probably should have the factory marking on it somewhere.
Mosin Fanboy
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Re: 1897 full matching Dragoon and a mystery device
Definitely a training device, very cool find !
Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.
Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
Theodore Roosevelt
Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
Theodore Roosevelt
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Re: 1897 full matching Dragoon and a mystery device
I'm curious if it has a second angled interior wall similar to the end furthest from the rifle? Could it have held mirrors for indirect aiming? Confused by the flag pole..
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Re: 1897 full matching Dragoon and a mystery device
Looks like an aim corrector used in training.
On Facebook? Check out the non-sporter preservationist group at: OOOPS. Deleted by Facebook because it's evil to even discuss collectible firearms on social media these days.
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Re: 1897 full matching Dragoon and a mystery device
Hello everyone! First of all thank you very much for all your comments and info about this device! Yes, as you said, this is an aiming training device. After searching more, I found also some pictures of this object in use on the excellent book by Alexander Yuschenko “Model 1891/1930 rifle and its variations”, pag.495 and followings. It is described as the "orthoscope designed by Yankovskiy”, so the officer name on the plate you can see on the initial pictures, who designed this device during the Tsarist era. This was in use also after, in the ’20 and ’30. With the two angled mirrors it was possible for trainee and instructor to aim at the same target. As you can see in the picture below, for example, the rear sight leaf is visible in the mirror on the right side.
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Re: 1897 full matching Dragoon and a mystery device
And now some additional pictures of the 1897 Dragoon, as i promised :
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Re: 1897 full matching Dragoon and a mystery device
By the look of the markings on the stock someone was in one hell of a fight against an edged weapon. Sword, blade bayonet, or E-tool maybe. Cool
Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.
Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
Theodore Roosevelt
Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
Theodore Roosevelt
Re: 1897 full matching Dragoon and a mystery device
What a great find! Lot's of history in that one!
Re: 1897 full matching Dragoon and a mystery device
Looking good, some kind of sighting deice, have you found out exactly what it is yet?
“A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct. The ethics of sportsmanship is not a fixed code, but must be formulated by the individual, with no referee but the Almighty.” Aldo Leupold
Re: 1897 full matching Dragoon and a mystery device
I love seeing rarities like this. Thank you for sharing
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Re: 1897 full matching Dragoon and a mystery device
Thank you! I will try to post some other specials in the next days. To answer to Kenbow, yes it is an aiming training device. You will find some more details above in the post number 7 from the beginning.
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Re: 1897 full matching Dragoon and a mystery device
Very cool find! Not just the training device, but unless I am seeing it wrong, the rear sight itself is extremely rare to find still attached to a weapon. That looks like an original sight that would have been replaced after spitzer bullets were adopted.
Last edited by Insignificant Git on Sat Mar 30, 2024 11:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 1897 full matching Dragoon and a mystery device
And maybe not a Type 1 rear sight, now that I am viewing it on a larger screen than my old phone...