Hey all. This is a Mosin-Nagant M1891 or variant. I acquired the rifle from a pawnshop in it's current state. Well, a lot dirtier and PAINTED actually. The entire gun including the stock had been spray painted in a homemade camouflage pattern. I bought it on the understanding that it would not chamber a round...the bolt wouldn't close unless the chamber was empty. Well I took it home for a few pennies($75 to be exact). It had a scope mounted on it which I removed. That's when I noticed the rear sight was gone...in fact, I couldn't even see the pin-holes FOR the rear sight. So after complete disassembly and paint-stripping, I discovered a few interesting things.
First, that's one nice stock now that it's just wood!
Second, the barrel was threaded in 180-degrees from where it should've been. In other words, the top of the barrel was on the bottom of the gun. I think that whoever cut the barrel(thereby losing the front sight) and mounted the scope did so to hide the un-finished metal under the original sight. I've been looking for a correct barrel/receiver vise/wrench in order to remove the barrel, clean the threads, and reassemble to the correct position. I'm pretty sure that's going to let me chamber a round.
Since the barrel has been shortened, my plan is to find a good machinist who can turn a stock M91 rear sight-base(EBay $5) into a 'rail' that I can mount a small Reflex Optic sight on(as rigged up in one of the photos). This will allow me to use the gun without trying to find a front sight. Anyways, I welcome any and all comments!!