1934: the year of Donald Duck, nights involving long metaphorical knives, and this Mosin! Specifically, this rifle in many ways your standard Soviet M91/30. What’s notable about it however is that it did not stay Soviet forever; this rifle was one of many that fell into the hands of the Finnish Army. Given its age, it’s quite possible that it served on the Soviet side of the Winter War, but the 41 on the side of the barrel denotes that it was one of over 100,000 M91/30s captured during the Continuation War (but not necessarily in 1941). The rifle has clearly seen much use; in addition to several scuffs there is a fairly sizable dent in the stock just above the trigger. The bolt, magazine, cleaning rod, butt plate, and the back barrel band retaining spring are all Izhevsk produced. The bolt appears to be an M91 style as well; I wonder if the Finns intentionally put Imperial bolts in Soviet rifles due to their reputation of being smother? Interestingly the extractor is blued, which makes me think that it may have come from the parts lot the Finnish bought off the Germans. The markings on the stock are almost completely gone, faded and buried under the Finnish finish, but under light I was able to find the faint remains of what I think is a Tula star (you can judge for yourself in the photo). The aluminum escutcheons were also caked over with this finish in parts, which I scrapped off; in my defense, I originally thought it was dried oil because there was a ton of that caked on this rifle as well (it wasn’t cosmoline, we all know cosmoline when we see it lol). The trigger and cleaning rod are in the white, which gives this rifle a very attractive color palette of black, silver, and dark brown. It has the serial number copied onto the receiver as is the Finn way in addition to the SA mark. But perhaps most interesting of all is that this rifle came with the original sling collars still in the stock. I quickly removed them for protection, but it’s a cool thing that I haven’t seen often. The last photo shows the rifle as I received it. Other than that, the rifling is strong and counterbored. I just wish that she could talk. Maybe if the guys at Mosin.fi come across her records, then she just might. Until then, she will just remain a nice example of one of the most common types of Mosin in the Finnish arsenal despite today only being remembered as the rifle used against them.