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Nagant M1895

The rather prolific Soviet sidearm, this unique little revolver continued to see service in spite semi-auto designs like the Tokarev being fielded. Chambered in 7.62x38R, the cartridges have deep seated bullets. The Nagant’s cylinder moves forward, sealing the entire setup. This makes it a very clean shooting revolver but also very awkward and annoying to load, eject and reload.

They are fairly cheap on the surplus market; usually $85 to $120 depending on condition and who’s selling it.

Vintage… Soviet soldiers during their campaign in Afghanistan. Interesting to note the optics on a couple of the rifles. The one on the right hand side at the end has an 1PN58 Night Vision Scope. Soldier right next to him has a PGO-7 optic primarily used on the RPG-7

Defeat… Soviet soldiers standing together as they present the military banners of the defeated Nazis. Note the first soldier and the lack of the banner. That one belongs to the infamous 1st SS Division Liebstandarte Adolf Hitler. The banner was never found or captured; whereabouts are unknown or possibly it was destroyed during the battle for Berlin. There are some theories that it was saved and preserved by the post-war Nazi insurgency group/plan known as Werwolf; German for Werewolf.

Messenger cat… A Soviet soldier slowly nudging a cat with propaganda and surrender leaflets attached to the collar. The cat was supposed to head over to the German side of the trenches in the heavy urban combat of Stalingrad. Note the PPSh-41.

Captured… Two smiling Soviet soldiers pose for a photograph. The daggers on their belts are captured SS daggers, either from a surrendering officer, left-behind loot or pillaged from a dead body.

Прощай Афган A Soviet soldier leaves a simple message; “Goodbye Afghan”. That war has often been described as the “Soviet’s Vietnam”, where a larger more technologically superior military got muddled down with guerrilla warfare and mounting anti-war sentiments back home. Afghanistan’s nickname as the “Graveyard of Empires” is well earned.

Mi-24 Hind The infamous Soviet gunship that could also transport a handful of troops. Technically though the Mi-8 Hip was better suited for troop transport and the two were often paired together (Hind and Hip, someone at NATO was having an inside joke). The Afghans fighting the Soviets nicknamed the helicopter “The Devil’s Chariot”. God…if I was filthy rich I’d buy a Hind to use to travel to places, maybe I can shoot down someone famous in their private helicopter.

Red Army Rifles The semi-auto SVT-40 and the bolt-action Mosin Nagant 91/30. Both rifles are chambered in 7.62x54R, a cartridge that is still in use with the Russian military, in spite being over 120+ years old. The SVT-40 was an unsuccessful attempt to replace the Mosin but proved to be too complicated for the mostly illiterate peasant soldiers. The Finns and Germans however found the rifle to be effective and used it against the Soviets whenever a captured example could be had (if there was enough ammo for it anyway).

5.45x39mm The Soviet response to the U.S 5.56x45mm. The smaller cartridge meant each individual soldier could carry more rounds. Pulling a basic page from preppers; you don’t necessarily need the biggest, baddest cartridge to survive. That’s kind of why you’ll see most “survival” rifles are actually chambered in .22 LR. Currently replacing some obscure guns in my collection for rifles in 5.45x39mm.

Mosin Nagant M44 The carbine version of the M91/30 with a side-folding spike bayonet. Fairly popular surplus rifle cause it produces large fireballs out of that shorter barrel. The folding bayonet would later be added onto the SKS but that was the last firearm to do so for the Russians. The Chinese however incorporated that into their AK clone, the Type 56.

Russian Capture K98 Marks

As mentioned in the previous post, there are usually 2 easily visible ways to tell if a Mauser K98 is a Russian capture example. The receiver will have an “X” cut/etched into the side, sometimes it is very crude, but there are some very uniform examples that are well done. Second identifying mark is the destroyed swastikas on the German proof marks, as seen in the second image. The confusing thing though is that the Russians weren’t exactly consistent, as seen above. The “X” is present but the swastika is intact, other times you’ll find the swastikas destroyed by no “X”. You can also find half the swastikas destroyed, but the rest intact.

Captured… A pair of soldiers (Russian I think) overseeing the inventory of captured Mauser K98’s from the defeated German military. Note the pile of MG34 machine guns as well. You can usually identify a Russian capture Mauser if there is a an “X” cut/etched into the side of the receiver. Sometimes the marks with swastikas were obliterated but there are some that remained intact. You can also see a pile of German helmets behind the Mauser stacks.

Russian IP-2/PU-1 Experimental Light Machine Gun

A rather obscure firearm, it appears that there were two models with the same function but looked quite different. The one pictured appears much more similar to it’s AK/RPK roots, whereas the other model uses an upside-down front assembly. Both of these rifles were able to use standard AK magazines but could also be belt-fed; a trait seen in the FN-Minimi (M249) and the HK11/21/23. Note the odd and extremely rare 100 round 5.45x39mm drum.

Surplus snipers… The Soviet’s sniper rifles of WWII; the Mosin Nagant 91/30 and the SVT-40. In spite the SVT being more adavanced, with a higher capacity and quick follow up shots, it lacked the accuracy found in the Mosin. The Mosin can still be encountered on the battlefields of the Middle East, but you rarely see SVT-40’s in modern conflicts.

Soviet Anti-Air Interesting photo, more than likely propaganda, but not sure what it depicts. All of those Mosin Nagant 91/30’s have the PU optic, setup for sniper work but it seems like they’re all observing a low flying aircraft. There is a similar photo in this context from the Vietnam War.

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