I posted this picture on my LJ a good while back, and never got much response to it. I later bought several books on the Mosin Nagant Rifle, and still was stumped.
What this picture is of is my New England Westinghouse M1891 made sometime between 1915 and 1918 in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. On its muzzle is a blade bayonet lug. Now the M1891 pattern guns made just about everywhere (and the ones exclusively made in America) were made to accept the Russian spike bayonet that simply clips to the front sight base with no need for a lug. And the Ruskies made do with spike bayos until they adopted the SKS and the AK-47 in the 1940s. I really haven’t decoded this rifle’s many stamps yet, but there is a Cyrillic stamp of some sort on the stock leading me to believe that it did make it to Russia. Most common civilian modification to military rifles is “Sporterizing” by cutting the stock or the barrel to make a better hunting rifle. I fail to see why a hunter would attach a different lug. Well I had a breakthrough recently, what do you think?
Looks like the bayonet lug and front sling stud for an American Krag-Jørgensen rifle.
Still what the hell story is behind this rifle that it could me made in Mass under contract by the Tzar, likely shipped overseas. In its service it lost its top hand guard (fairly common, they break and aren’t replaced) and gained a Krag Bayonet lug, and eventually make its way back to Massachusetts to be bought by a collector.
As I said this gun is covered with arsenal stamps, so it can talk to some extent, but I first need to learn the language…
At first I thought it might be a German WWI bayonet adapatation; the Germans captured a bunch of 1891’s in WWI and adapated them to take blade bayos: http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinRareMausBay.htm
The lug on yours is all wrong for a Mauser bayonet conversion, but the Germans did several different bayonet conversions on captured 1891’s, and the Germans were far from being the only combatant nation to use captured 1891’s and convert them to accept their own bayonets: http://www.mosinnagant.net/USSR/JPS-bayonet-one.asp
That being said I sure as hell think that looks like a Krag lug installed over the existing Mosin nosecap.
So the answer might be who was using Krags in WWI or before that might have obtained captured 1891’s and fitted them to use Krag bayonets, but given that only the Norwegians, Danes, and Americans used Krags, that’s not a likely list… except for the North Russian Campaign: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Russia_Campaign
Following the end of WWI, the Allies decided to intervene in the Russian Revolution, and a bunch of Canadian, Aussie, and American troops with support from the Royal Navy and RAF were landed in North Russia to fight the Bolsheviks. They were equipped with Mosins, according to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosin-Nagant#World_War_I
It wouldn’t be impossible that the US contingent of the North Russian expedition might have been equipped with Mosins retrofitted to take old Krag bayonets, but the photos of US troops with Mosins in Russia seem to be carrying bog standard 1891’s: http://www.texastradingpost.com/militaria/usmosin.html
Furthermore, this site states that most of the Mosins used by US troops in the North Russian campaign were destroyed to keep them out of the hands of the Bolsheviks. And the images I’ve been able to find of the U.S. Rifle, 7.62mm, Model of 1916 don’t have Krag bayo lugs.
I suspect a time travelling gun geek with a twisted sense of humour might be responsible.
That being said, the folks over at http://www.milsurps.com might be able to help. And I’ll poll the brain trust over on the CGN milsurps forum.
Did some more Googling; it looks like Francis Bannerman & Sons of New York did a lot of Mosin conversions: http://mosinnagant.net/global%20mosin%20nagants/bannerman.asp
And one of the pictures on that page shows a Mosin with a Krag lug: http://mosinnagant.net/images/Front%20Band%20detail%20on%20Drill%20Cadet%20rifle.jpg
However, that rifle’s a Cadet/Drill model with no front sight, unlike yours. Buuut… the Bannerman Military Model Mosin could be a candidate: http://mosinnagant.net/images/Military%20Model%20of%20the%2030-06%20Bannerman.jpg
Except that those were .30-06 conversions.
Regardless, we have a known source of Mosins with Krag bayonet lugs in your part of the world. So I’m inclined to think that the Bannermans likely had something to do with your 1891.
WOW Great work, man! I appreciate it. I may drop Tam an Email too, she’s certainly VERY well read in both old rifles and the wars that they were carried in.
No sweat. I couldn’t sleep, and this was much, much more interesting than late-night TV :). Keep us posted on what you find out.
Oh FYI, German Capture was one of the first roads I looked down, and Mauser Bayonet conversions were slapped on the SIDE of the rifle, not under the muzzle.
Seems that there may have been another surplus outfit called Sedgely that might have installed the Krag lug: http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4892104&posted=1#post4892104
Could you have one of the Moisen-Nagants that was used by the Finns during their Civil War in 1917? They were still part of Russia, then made a break for it during the collapse of the Russian Empire? With Norway just next door, they could have gotten Krag-Jorgenson Bayonets during an Arsenal rebuild, just because a Bladed Bayonet would be more useful in the Finnish Woods rather than a Job Specific spike. Supposedly there was a bunch imported in the 1960’s back to the states.
Tam Hipped me to this wonderfully dry, but amazingly dense read
http://www.amazon.com/Mosin-Nagant-Rifle-collectors-only/dp/1882391217
A capture and a hodge-podge retrofitting is very possible, but my first gander was at the Jerries, and the Germans as a rule fitted side-mounted Mauser lugs to their captured M1891s. I got VERY excited to see that the Finns were NOT very interested in the Ruski spike bayonets and tossed nose caps with blade lugs on their captured rifles. Very high probability of Russian rifle with a blade lug on it to be a finn nose-cap. Only the Finns had their own bayonets and nose-caps, and they look nothing like the lug on a Krag.
I mean there were Krags floating around both of those parts of the world when this gun might have been there, and certainly I could see an armorer slapping the lug from a broken Krag (or a Krag without ammo) to a Westinghouse M91…but MAN you need to sharpen your Occam’s Razor to make that smell right.
Good thoughts tho! Thanks for tossing that out there!