I was never really into collecting Russian rifles or militaria. I’m still not, but I remember going to the movies in 2001 when Enemy at the Gates came out. A few other friends who were also collecting and into historic arms came along. For those that don’t remember, it starred Jude Law as sniper Vasily Zaitsev who was facing off against German sniper Major Erwin König, played by Ed Harris. I’ll skip over the love story part of it but watching the scenes and looking at the rifle used by Law, I became a little more interested.
German K98k sniper rifles can be really expensive, but their Russian counterpart, the Mosin-Nagant Model 1891/30 with a sniper scope and mount, is not – Even with prices going up over the years. So, a few weeks after watching the movie and doing a little research, I picked one up. It was in good condition and had a really sharp and crisp bore. I took it to the range and was quite impressed by the accuracy. The scope and mount were already on the gun. It’s hard to tell if it was originally made as a sniper rifle, but for my purposes it didn’t really matter. I just wanted an affordable representative example as I wasn’t planning on buying another.
As far as research before you buy, there are many publications on the market. The Mosin Nagant, written by Mike Francis is a great book. For bolt-action arms in general, I like Bolt Action Military Rifles of the World, written by Stuart C. Mowbray and Joe Puleo. It has a great section on Russian rifles as well as many others. There are also websites that can be very helpful with your research, including russian-mosin-nagant.com which is loaded with little details to help you understand the arms.
It’s funny how watching a movie can affect collecting patterns. I think my wife is much happier when I’m not watching some film on World War I or World War II. Normally the credit card bill goes up and the packages begin to arrive. Since I was a kid, I had always collected U.S. weapons, uniforms, and equipment, but then Band of Brothers hit HBO six or seven months after Enemy at the Gates, and that led to many more collecting rabbit holes! But that’s a story for another time…
If you’re interested, we have various Mosin-Nagant rifles, scopes, bolt-action rifles, and other collectible militaria coming up in our September 29th online auction.
