Nagant 91/30 Sniper used by the Germans?

[theduke635]

Ok so i have wondered about this for sometime....I have seen a few Mosin Nagant 91/30 Sniper rifles with waffenapt's on them an i remember hearing that they where captured and refinished and returned to service by German snipers.. is this true??

[sawman]

I really don't know how often this happened during the war. However, in the book Sniper on the Eastern Front, Allerberger said he used a captured Mosin Nagant 91/30 sniper rifle for about a year in Russia. He also mentions that the rifle "had been overlooked and not been sent to the rear collection center." I did not see anything in the book about refurbishing those rifles. Cass

[sitges1990]

On the eastern front and any place else that the temperature dropped to -20F, the K98 did not function well. This was caused by tight tolerances, and the thicker lubricants the germans used. The ammo could not be loaded with the stripper clips, and the bolt was difficult to get closed and locked. This did lead to the German's using the Mosin's because the bolt had a much looser fit, and the Russian's used oil that was almost as thin as water for lubricating in extremely cold weather. Mikhail Kalashnikov once said in a famous interview that the Americans and the Germans built guns that were too damn tight. He said you need loose parts that have lots of room to move around in case they get full of dirt in the field so they can keep operating, hence the "AK-47".

Jay

[theduke635]

thanks for the info..I also remember see a German marked 91/30 Sniper rifle at one point but i cant remember details ( ihave seen a lot of stuff lol) my wife just bought me a 91/30 sniper and i want to use it in reenacting

[Timberwolf]

ive heard about a nagant captured by a german on the easern front then taken to germany and the captured by an american! what a trip!

[theduke635]

ever seen Kelly's Hero's? one of the guys has a nagant sniper rifle

[Glymov]

Винтовка Мосина never called nagant rifle.

Can ya show photos of remarked rifle?

[Berthier92]

I have a pic in one of my history books of a German soldier with a Mosin-Nagant early in July 1941, just after the invasion of russia

[sovblocgunfan]

I'm willing to go out on a limb here and say most of the German-stamped mosin nagants are humped. The only reason they would have been stamped would be if they were refurbished and inspected by the Germans after capture. I'm willing to guess field-expedient pickups were not stamped w/ dirty birds. Why bother? They were used as-is and then disposed of if ammo could not be resupplied. Although the soviets never wasted anything they captured, why would the Germans stamp and re-use their capture MN's to the front lines on a larger scale basis? K98's were plentiful enough for issue rifles. Now, I know the German home guard was issued all manner of rifles (what a logistical nightmare!), so I'm sure there were at least some done this way. However, I bet these rifles are like faked SS stuff. Many more fakes out there than real ones.

[lithgow]

Hello-I'm not sure if Sovblocgunfan was only referring to Mosin Nagant Snipers but immense quantities of all types of Soviet equipment was captured by the Germans in the first 2 years on the Eastern front-their experience of WW1 had taught them the value of using captured stuff for filling the vast gap of constant combat resupply to themselves and their allies. Some was reissued 'as is ' and some was modified to various extents but this was a fairly well organised process so plenty of M Ns of the various models would have received Eagle stamps-Soviet optics were inferior to the German scopes but were still superior to open sights and available in some numbers at times when sniper K98ks were in short supply.