Republican Spanish Civil War rifles

-Both of these rifles fought on the Republican (losing) side of the Spanish Civil War. The Republicans were heavily backed by the Soviets and received not only Mosin Nagant 91s and 91/30s but Polish Mausers, French Berthiers and just about anything they could scrounge on the arms market of the late 30's. A couple of decades after the civil war ended many of these arms were sold by the cash strapped Spanish government and found their way to the US. I'd bet my last dollar that Sam Cummings of Interarms fame was involved in some way as he was a major arms broker in this period (late 50's / early 60's).
-This was my first Mauser, bought back in the very early 90's. Didn't know squadoosh about 'em and just stumbled across this Polish carbine by accident. Plus it was one of the only Mausers that I could afford! Turns out I got my mitts on a Polish version of the 98AZ Carbine that was later scrubbed of its Polish markings and sold to the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. Like so many SCW survivors it's been refinished (see blued bolt and lightly sanded stock) and the bolt, bands and buttplate are non-matching.
-I also added a Republican SCW MN to my collection last year, deciding that I needed to have one example in the collection. Luckily these rifles tend to just blend into the forest of MN imports and so they can be found and acquired cheaply. Think I paid around $135 for this one.
-It's a '36 dated Izhevsk with the tell-tale "Made in USSR" stamping on the receiver that's found on most imported SCW MNs and the Spanish stepped blade front sight that's similar to that found on Finn 91/30s. Unfortunately the bolt doesn't match but the rest of the rifle matches and is in original condition. Many times you'll find SCW MNs that were arsenal refinished in Spain and are sporting the "MP8 flaming bomb" stamp.

Photo 3 - 98AZ scrubbed receiver ring. All signs of the original Polish markings were removed before export.
Photo 5 - "A" mark on stock that I've seen many times on SCW Polish Mausers. Clueless as to its meaning. If anyone here has an answer I'd love to hear it!
Photo 6 - Exported Mauser muzzles were marked "8 MM" but this example was lightly struck and you can only make out the top of the text. This one drove me crazy until I saw a detailed photo up on the new website "The Spanish Civil War Mosin Nagant", a very nice source of info!
Photo 7 - M91/30 receiver export mark "Made in USSR" which is the easiest way to ID a SCW MN. I've seen this text misspelled "Made in URRS" as well.
Photo 8 - SCW 91/30 bladed front sight. Another give-away that it's a SCW Mosin. Note the unique step in the blade.
Photo 9 - Finn 91/30 blade in foreground, SCW in background to show the subtle differences in the blades.

You're a wealth of information. I've seen the SCW 91/30's but had no idea of other SCW rifles. You also take EXCELLENT pictures!

If your SCW Mosin has only the bolt mismatched you did really well, often these rifles are 100% mismatched parts with different serial numbers. Spanish refurb was much different than Soviet refurb, the Sapniards threw all the parts into bins and later reassembled the rifles, but Tula and Izhevsk parts were segregated so even though the numbers are often mismatched, the metal parts will be 100% Tula or 100% Izhevsk. The stocks seem to be the exception, and you often find them mixed.

psoyring said:

If your SCW Mosin has only the bolt mismatched you did really well, often these rifles are 100% mismatched parts with different serial numbers. Spanish refurb was much different than Soviet refurb, the Sapniards threw all the parts into bins and later reassembled the rifles, but Tula and Izhevsk parts were segregated so even though the numbers are often mismatched, the metal parts will be 100% Tula or 100% Izhevsk. The stocks seem to be the exception, and you often find them mixed.

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Seems like every SCW Mosin I've seen is either in excellent condition (the minority) or beat to all get out (the vast majority). Mine seems to fall somewhere in the middle. Not complaining!

Rickhead said:

You're a wealth of information. I've seen the SCW 91/30's but had no idea of other SCW rifles. You also take EXCELLENT pictures!

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Thank you for the kind compliments Rick! As to the photos, I give all the credit to my Pentax digital SLR. Bought it second hand from a pro photographer who was upgrading to new equipment.

psoyring said:

If your SCW Mosin has only the bolt mismatched you did really well, often these rifles are 100% mismatched parts with different serial numbers. Spanish refurb was much different than Soviet refurb, the Sapniards threw all the parts into bins and later reassembled the rifles, but Tula and Izhevsk parts were segregated so even though the numbers are often mismatched, the metal parts will be 100% Tula or 100% Izhevsk. The stocks seem to be the exception, and you often find them mixed.

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But if you're looking for a "Red"* rifle from the Spanish Civil War, that's what you want. A sort of mishmash mess that reflects the rapididly decaying condition that the Spanish Republican Government was on, along with the crap that they purchased, at highly inflated prices, from the Soviets and Frenchies.

*I use "Red" to refer to the Republican side. That's the moniker used by the Nationalists (re: the Army led by General Franco) to refer to the other side.

Rickhead said:

You're a wealth of information. I've seen the SCW 91/30's but had no idea of other SCW rifles. You also take EXCELLENT pictures!

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No feet in the pic!!

methlab said:

No feet in the pic!!

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C&R are exempt under MDShooters Forum Rules.

You have some seriously cool rifles?

They have some real history behind them.

DarthZed said:

You have some seriously cool rifles?

They have some real history behind them.

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There's what I really love about collecting military C&Rs. I've been tempted by fine C&R sporting arms like Ross .280s or Winchester 1907 SLs but as neat as they are there's no history or back story to them.

Now all you need is a Modelo 1895 Carbine, and both a Modelo 1893 and Modelo 1916 Mauser, and you're set!!!

JOBU said:

Now all you need is a Modelo 1895 Carbine, and both a Modelo 1893 and Modelo 1916 Mauser, and you're set!!!

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You've just illustrated why I got off of the Mauser collector track. That particular field has a MASSIVE number of variants. You could spend a lifetime collecting in just one niche of the Mauser world. Take South America for example. Didn't have the coin or physical space to do it!