Stock repairs and trench carving

Wood is the shield around the Mosin Nagant metal heart

Mosin Nagant stocks are sometimes telling stories more then the metal parts. The wood was usually receiving damages from esplosions on the battlefield and it is not uncommon to find really beaten warhorse with pieces of shrapnel still plunged into the rifle’s stock. When the stock was sustaining damages but it was still usable, field mobile repair units or central arsenals of various users were applying different kind of repairs. Let’s discover some of them!

A repair to the stock of a Chatellerault M1891 rifle, produced in 1895. The stock however is a Finnish two-pieces example and i suspect the back part could not be from an M1891 but possibly from an M91/30 or a Dragoon.

A similar kind of repair has been found on this M91/30 stock. A really nice work to stabilize a crack.

The two plugs in the above picture are lying under the stock of an Austrian captured M1891 rifle, produced by the Tula Arsenal in 1896 and adapted by the Wien Arsenal to fire the 8×50 Austrian standard cartridge. The stock has no sling slots so it was modified with the addition of typical Austrian metal sling swivels. Since the Austrian captured examples are showing frequently also another kind of sling swivel, attached under the stock in the same area, it seems that this stock was initially using that type of swivel and then the one in the picture above, so the two holes were closed.

What could be a reason for a specific repair on Mosin Nagant stocks?

Another repair (picture above), this time on a Izhevsk produced transitional M91/30 from 1933. This Mosin Nagant rifle is really interesting and i am really happy to publish what I received from Jeremy J. (see his comment at the end of the page): he was helping me to clarify the reason of the presence of this insert in the stock. It seems these were very common repairs, as these stocks will crack at the rear tang from extensive use, especially if the rear tang screw was not tight. In the following picture, provided by Jeremy, we can observe a similar repair.

The one above is from an M1891 infantry rifle that started life as a 1917 Tula Peter The Great but had a long life and signs of use in other regions, outside Russia. Thank you Jeremy!

Remember, this is a place to share and improve our knowledge, so if you want to help me please just comment a page or write to me with additional information. I will be more than happy to update these pages and share knowledge.

This close to perfect circular plug belongs to an M91/30 rifle stock. However, even if this is a Russian stock, the rifle is not Russian! The stock is from a Tikkakosky M30, so a Finnish produced M91/30 rifle.

Another circular plug, this time on a really fantastic “tiger striped” Finnish M39 rifle stock. This example saw an exensive usage (those are the kind of Mosin Nagant i like the most) and the beautiful wood has multiple repairs.

Mosin Nagant stock field repairs?

The butt stock above has been repaired in a very speditive way or at least a portion of it was reassebled to the stock in such fashion. The overall effect is great. It would be nice to know with kind of glue or similar has been used. I will add more picture of this beauty.

The sling swivel under the rear stock. You can see the forward edge of the repair.

The other side of the rear stock. And below just another view of the same rifle with the plug already shown above. I would like to add another picture just to show the conditions of this fantastic (by the way) PUOLUSTUSLAITOS marked SAKO 1941 M39.

Here are some additional examples of stock repairs that were kindly provided by Jeremy J. and i am really happy to add to this page.

An unknown kind of repair is depicted in the following picture.

Some examples of dowel repairs on unissued Finnish stocks. The following is from a New England Westinghouse restocked M1891. You can see two inserts, a big one and then a small one close to the sling swivel metal base.

Here’s another new unissued Finnish M30 stock with a similar treatment. The natural figure in the wood indicates the presence of a branch. This was the reason for this kind of dowel repairs also in the example in the picture before.

Some additional repairs from a well used Tula M1891 from 1907 with a Finnish past. An insert close to the butt plate.

Then two plugs covering the holes where a sling hanger was probably located.

Finally something that is not properly a repair but it is nice to see: the presence of a first type crossbolt, the wooden one, replaced by the metallic version.

Mosin Nagant trench carving

As the stock can tell us a lot about the story of a rifle, it could happen that the wooden parts are even able to tell us who used that specific gun during the war, adding important dates or numbers, names, days or even kills.

In this case someone wrote the initials “E W” on this elusive M27rv carbine stock. Since this stock is likely made of a former M1891 stock, we are not sure at which stage in the story of this stock the initials were carved in the wood.