This is a Mosin-Nagant M91 that was used by Russia in WWI. This rifle was probably left by the Russians on the Romanian front. Romania was reinforced by Russian units, despite widespread fear of the Russians, due to their taking the Romanian-populated region of Bessarabia in 1878. Russian units were generally reliable in battle, but the whole Russian army disintegrated during the Russian Revolution. According to Colonel Antonescu, "Moldavia [eastern Romania] was full of abandoned horses, cannon, guns, and wagons."* In 1926 Romania had some 215,000 Mosin M91 rifles leftover from WWI. In addition, a large group of Mosins were kept in Romania by the Eastern Bloc, and this may have been from that group.
This site has a video showing M91 rifles used by Romanian troops on the Eastern Front in WWII: http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675077804_Marshal-Ion-Antonescu_General-Erich-von-Manstein_Romanian-troops_reviewing-troops Since the butt area of this rifle is particularly dry compared to the rest, it seems likely that it spent some time "planted" in the snow.
This rifle is commonly referred to as a "Balkans M91" by Mosin collectors. I theorize that most, if not all, of the "Balkans M91" rifles were imported from Romania, and the features they exhibit were done during the Cold War. The main identifying feature is the scrubbed/peened Tsarist eagles and barrel markings. Most Romanian Mauser VZ24's have scrubbed King Carol II crests, and some German Mauser K98k's have peened markings, both likely coming from Romania. As far as nearby countries, Mosin M91's observed in Bulgaria by certain collectors bore intact crests, and thus show that defacing the crest was not a Bulgarian activity.
Some other typical "Balkans" features on this rifle include: a non-matching horizontally-numbered stock, barrel band shims, a gearwheel mark on the left buttstock, stamped re-numbered parts, a counter-bored barrel, lots of cosmoline, and Latin letters on the stock and before the barrel serial number. The bolt of this rifle has post-1928 marked parts - so whoever rebuilt it had access to Soviet parts from after WWII, which again suggests Romania. The magazine housing is marked with an "R," which may show a part captured and inspected by Budapest in WWI, which used the "R" mark on Steyr M95's. The rifle has a Century Arms import marking on the barrel, and was imported in the 1990's or 2000's.
*. I quote The Romanian Battlefront in World War I by Glenn E. Torrey, University Press of Kansas, 2011.
This site has a video showing M91 rifles used by Romanian troops on the Eastern Front in WWII: http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675077804_Marshal-Ion-Antonescu_General-Erich-von-Manstein_Romanian-troops_reviewing-troops Since the butt area of this rifle is particularly dry compared to the rest, it seems likely that it spent some time "planted" in the snow.
This rifle is commonly referred to as a "Balkans M91" by Mosin collectors. I theorize that most, if not all, of the "Balkans M91" rifles were imported from Romania, and the features they exhibit were done during the Cold War. The main identifying feature is the scrubbed/peened Tsarist eagles and barrel markings. Most Romanian Mauser VZ24's have scrubbed King Carol II crests, and some German Mauser K98k's have peened markings, both likely coming from Romania. As far as nearby countries, Mosin M91's observed in Bulgaria by certain collectors bore intact crests, and thus show that defacing the crest was not a Bulgarian activity.
Some other typical "Balkans" features on this rifle include: a non-matching horizontally-numbered stock, barrel band shims, a gearwheel mark on the left buttstock, stamped re-numbered parts, a counter-bored barrel, lots of cosmoline, and Latin letters on the stock and before the barrel serial number. The bolt of this rifle has post-1928 marked parts - so whoever rebuilt it had access to Soviet parts from after WWII, which again suggests Romania. The magazine housing is marked with an "R," which may show a part captured and inspected by Budapest in WWI, which used the "R" mark on Steyr M95's. The rifle has a Century Arms import marking on the barrel, and was imported in the 1990's or 2000's.
*. I quote The Romanian Battlefront in World War I by Glenn E. Torrey, University Press of Kansas, 2011.