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MO marked RS K98 rifle

2K views 41 replies 18 participants last post by  Stalin's Ghost 
#1 ·
Does this change the reasoning behind MO marked Mosin Nagants?
 

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#17 ·
First MO marked K98 I have ever seen. Very interesting. I knew there were RC marked K98s. I even have one. But there is no MO mark on it. Would the MO marked K98s turn up less often than SCW used K98s? I don't think I have ever seen a SCW K98 in person, but saw one here once.
 
#18 ·
Does this help establish that M.O. was simply a refurbishment/inspection facility which came into being during the war? i.e. Get this gun back into action ASAP!

The gun does not have the finely polished and refinished metal that we see on later and/or triple dated Mosin Nagants, when the facility would have had more time to spend making them pretty.
 
#22 ·
Two. Row 45 as well.

Both are marked /42. So the rifle in the OP would make at least three of these M.O. /42 K98s.


From what I've seen, 42 is the earliest documented year. I thought someone on here had a document that was tracking the frequency of the MO dates..
According to the 7.62x54R.net link posted earlier by racerguy00, there's at least two examples of earlier ones: one marked /35, and one marked /36.
 
#25 ·
I've seen 5-6 of these. All are MO/42. There is one in Law's Backbone of the Wehrmacht, and then others turned up in the Russian Capture imports. This one has been for sale for a while, and still is technically, since the auction is on continual relist. I bid up to what I felt it was worth a month or so ago, didn't meet the reserve, and then moved on. They are neat guns, but I didn't need it that bad.
 
#27 · (Edited)
There is one in Law's Backbone of the Wehrmacht.
Nifty. I'll have to check that out when I get back home. I don't recall seeing that, but it's been a while since I read BBotW straight through. I mainly use the tables for quick references now.

Edit: Yep, page 187. A 1940 Mauser Oberndorf K98, stamped "MO" and with "/42" added after the original 1940 date. But the author (Law) doesn't seem to know the significance of the MO stamp, and doesn't even reference it in the caption. He merely states that it's "the only example seen of a double-dated K98k". (Unfortunately, just another one of the little details that show that BBotW is starting to get outdated.)
 
#28 ·
I have seen a couple of these before. BWest(yep, the place that screwed me over) had both of them for sell. $500 I believe was their asking price for each, they may still have them if someone wants one. One rifle was dated 1942(original german date, not an MO date).

Could have been used to guard a train station or party building during the war or been issued post for for another reason. We will never know.
In my opinion MO were second rate weapons that were not needed front line, which is why you see few MO ww2 dated(example being 1939 made rifle with a 42 date) unless they were captured weapons, however post war you see many dates like 51, 52 and so on when the AK and SKS were the front line weapon.

Dont think it is a refurb mark.
 
#32 ·
seems the post war dated mos are finely polished like martin said, and the fewer 1940s MOs seem to be very rough. That 91/30 41/42 i posted has a counter bore and the bore looked like it went through Stalingrad twice over. The 1937/53 that i have is nicly polished with a very smooth action and a great bore.

 
#39 ·
First I thought that was yours. Then I said no way! Steve that's the second, I have ever look at. Both were RCs. who knows how much they were drinking!
 
#41 ·
Back in my collecting days pre Katrina, I owned some rare RCs.

Three depot rifles. Two dual codes. An SS rebuild with the date under the barrel a few months priot to Kursk. I caught lots of flack on that one. Many on this site saying it was too old, therefore fake.

The thread is still in the archives somewhere on this site. It's from the early 2000's. I took many decent pics. If someone could dig it up, it would be worth it.
 
#42 · (Edited)
I'm with you. There are plenty of excellent "MO" marked rifles (SVTs and Mosins and German stuff) as well as handguns. I have several. They certainly were not all old or worn out. The Romanian "Instructies" seem to meet the second rate definition a bit more, but not "MO' marked rifles.

The guessing is fun but hopeless.

I asked the curator of the Tula Arms Museum face to face what it meant -he didn't know, and I asked the staff of the Moscow Museum of the Great Patriotic War and they didn't know.

As you all should know by now, it can't mean "Ministry of Defense" since that wasn't even created or named until 1953.

My own guess, and I mean guess, is that it refers to an oblast issue to local forces such as the Moscow Oblast (the largest), perhaps during wartime guard duty as what we call militia.

These large "worker's militias" did great armed defensive duty at many cities including Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad, but were never officially part of the Red Army. Exempted from military service because they were part of vital industries, these workers, men and women, took up arms as required in defense of their cities on many occasions under Army command. The famous Leningrad "blokadnik" bayonets were used by such a force. Postwar in the rubble of the cities such workers groups kept order and perhaps guarded the tens of thousands of German prisoners forced to clean up the damage, needing arms to keep the prisoners at their tasks.

Another interesting possibility is for the legions of special railroad guards who were required to guard ports, docks, bridges, warehouses, tracks and stations in both peace and war. There were many thousands of such armed guards required both wartime and postwar as the USSR had tens of thousands of miles of track and a lot of unfriendly neighbors and bandit partisans in some areas. These uniformed guards were attached to various transportation departments but were not Red Army, sort of like our TSA now.

Another is for training of young people in which the Ministry of Education received both rifles and retired soldiers to train up young students, boys and girls. My wife was part of this training but doesn't recall any "MO" on her rifle!

All guesses, but fun to argue about.
 
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