So I picked this thing up several months back from a gunshop that was closing down for $50 bucks out the door. Just couldn't pass the old crusty thing up. Today I finally started to look into the guns markings and it looks like it came from the Izhevsk factory. It has a SA stamp on it. I can't really find any other info on the other markings on it. It's got a staple shaped mark with an oval around it. It also has a circle with a funky T shaped mark. It has an 0 inside of a circle. Also has an R or K inside of a circle/oval. It's also got some weird roller coaster looking sites on it. Here's some links to some pictures, but beware, they're pretty big and the gun is ugly!www.regionofdoomforum.com/Upload/userfiles/blue84s10/karl%20work%20292.jpg
www.regionofdoomforum.com/Upload/userfiles/blue84s10/karl%20work%20293.jpg
www.regionofdoomforum.com/Upload/userfiles/blue84s10/karl%20work%20296.jpg

The SA in the rounded corner box stands for Suomen Armeija - "Finnish Army".

The mark behind the "1934" is Cyrillic letter (insert a one armed 'T' with serifs) geh. It's the abbreviation for "God". Thus the barrel was made "In the year of our Lord 1934."

The year the receiver was made will be stamped on the bottom side of the receiver tang, behind the hole. If it's not there then the Finns removed it when they serviced the rifle.

I got this out of the "For Collectors Only" book The Mosin-Nagant Rifle by Terence W. Lapin. A pretty imformative book for $20.

Couldn't find anything about the other markings. There are some excellent MN websites around too. Can't recall the names though.

Cool find! How's the bore? I bought two and their both dark and rough, but fun as all get out to blast with.

Thanks for the info! The bore is OK the rifling is real strong and it's not too dark. I bet it would help if I cleaned it better. I ran a patch through it and fired it a couple of months ago and it did great. So is this a Finnish rifle or a Russian rifle?

It's a Russian rifle that the Finns captured probably during the feud they had in 1939(?) and refurbished and reissued to the Finnish Army.

What looks like a staple inside of a circle is a proof mark. The staple is the Russian symbol for the letter "P".  The "K" is a Russian letter "K".  They are all proof and acceptance marks. Your rifle was built on an older receiver probably from a Mod. 91 type.  The Soviets redesigned the original Mod. 91 around 1930. They used old stocks of receivers to build the new Mod. 91/30 Mosin-Nagant in addition to the newer round receiver. The rear sight is the standard 91/30 rear sight.  What you have is a Mod. 91/30 built using an older model of receiver. They command a higher price than a round receiver 91/30.  So, if you paid $50 for it you got a good deal.  Hex receivered 91/30's(which is what you have) are more sought after than the round ones.
Your rifle was probably captured by the Finns either during the Winter War or during the Continuation War. The Finns refurbished the captured rifles and used the parts of the unservicable ones to build new rifles.  The Finnish rifles seem to be more desirable than the Russian ones.

if you paid $50 for it you got a pretty good deal. a gun in that condition should fetch a minimum of $75-$80 - definatley worth $50

look here to see how rare S/A marked guns are

http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinRarity.htm

Quoted: look here to see how rare S/A marked guns are http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinRarity.htm

Wow according to their rarity chart my M44 scores an 8

Romania-1953-8