Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com, I'm Ian McCollum.
And today we're going to take a look at a pretty cool
rare version of the Mosin-Nagant M91/30.
... I don't know that this even has a formal designation, or if it does,
I haven't seen it in any English language documentation yet.
They are alternatively either called the Semin 91/30,
or the 91/30/43 because they were developed in 1943.
And they were developed with the folding bayonet
designed by a guy named N.S. Semin in the Soviet Union.
Now the Russian army, the Soviet Army, had a problem with bayonet losses.
The bayonet on the Model 91/30 is this kind of long and awkward spike
that you have to carry on you if it's not fixed to the rifle.
When it is fixed to the rifle it makes the thing very long and cumbersome,
and they're easy to get detached from the rifle and lost.
So in an effort to solve this problem the Soviet Union, the Red Army, it looked into different ways of coming up with fixed bayonets,
folding bayonets, bayonets that were permanently attached to the guns and couldn't be lost.
Now, they did a bunch of trials in 1943 to find a bayonet that would fit this pattern,
and the one that ultimately came out on top was a design by a guy named N.S. Semin.
Now his bayonet would ultimately go into huge production on the M 44 carbines.
... I should back up a little. As of 1943 the Soviets had two versions of the Mosin-Nagant, as did many armies.
They had a full-length rifle version, which is basically this with its detachable bayonet,
and they had a carbine version, and that was the M38.
The carbine was a lot handier, but it didn't have a bayonet, and they wanted to give it one as well.
The Red Army thought that a bayonet was still a very viable combat tool.
So what they ended up doing was adopting the M44, which was a carbine with a fixed folding bayonet.
And in doing so they got rid of the need for the long rifles entirely.
So, these bayonets go into testing in 1943 in the summer, and initially
5,000 of these full-length rifles with folding bayonets are ordered for trials.
... Ultimately they'd produce 11,500 of them in 1943, and another 10,000 of them in ... January 1944.
So let's go ahead and take a look at what they were actually making here.
So what Semin came up with was a bayonet that ... had a fixed pivot point here,
and a spike that just swung around and either locked in back facing down along the barrel,
or would lock out facing downrange.
Now this is an M44 carbine (this is actually a Polish M44 carbine) and this is our troop trials 91/30.
There are a couple little differences you can see here. One of them is that
the M44 here has a front set of hooks ... in addition to the muzzle ring to keep the bayonet in place.
I should actually show you how this actually folds out. ...
Alright, so what I have here is actually a Polish Mosin-Nagant M44,
but this is the version of this bayonet that was actually adopted into ... wide use.
The way the bayonet works is we pull this latch back, and then you can pivot the whole bayonet
out like this.
There's a spring-loaded catch here, and that snaps over the barrel. And then the bayonet is deployed and usable.
And then you can just pull this out
(... I can't really keep the whole thing in camera because it's a very long bayonet),
anyway, once you snap it back in place, the two lugs here hold it in the rearward position.
Now, there are a couple differences between this exact pattern of bayonet that went into mass production,
and the one that we have on the 91/30 here.
One of them is that we have a front set of hooks on the M44
that act to help ensure that the bayonet stays in place when it's fixed forward.
We don't have that on this 91/30.
That's actually because the very early trials guns of the M44, they were set up like this as well.
... It wasn't initially thought that that front set of hooks was really necessary.
Now the other major difference
is in the attachment method. On the M44 we have a pin here and this bayonet is permanently attached to the barrel.
It's slid on and then cross pinned through the barrel.
On the 91/30 however, it's actually a detachable bayonet. This has an open slot here very much like
the original detachable bayonets. This will slide in and then that little pin right there,
locks in behind the front sight and holds the bayonet in place.
So while this is not easily detachable, it's not something you can take on and off
at your convenience, an armourer can just tap that pin out and the bayonet comes right off.
The only modification necessary to fit one of these bayonets onto a regular 91/30
was a little bit of adjustment right back here on the stock where the tip of the bayonet came to rest.
And there are actually a couple different ways that this was done.
This one has sort of a slot cut out for it, which is very much like you would see on the Model 44.
Like this slot cut down along the side of the stock.
However, some of these actually just have a flat surface sanded into the stock right here, instead of a specific little trough.
So to deploy this we just pull this back to unlock it, and then the bayonet folds out
there,
pull it forward,
the ring goes around the muzzle and presto, you have
a ridiculously long bayonet.
This is actually the same length as the original
detachable 91/30 bayonet, and actually a ... couple inches longer than the M44s bayonet.
The rest of the rifle is identical to a standard 91/30.
They were of course made in 1943 and 1944. There are a variety of
receiver serial number prefixes that are found, so these weren't all made in one batch.
It is not entirely clear if these were a batch of guns that were assembled originally on the field,
or if these were guns that were refurbished using the Semin bayonets at some point.
Although that seems a bit unlikely.
But anyway, no particular special markings on the rifle to indicate the use of that bayonet.
And the bayonet itself, being a permanently attached (or pseudo-permanently attached) part of the gun,
the bayonets themselves are not serial numbered.
Now production of these rifles ultimately ended at just 21,500 which is a lot of guns,
but it's a very small number for the Soviet Union in 1944.
And the reason is simply that they stopped making 91/30s. They didn't need the full-length rifle at all,
it was being replaced entirely by the M44 carbine.
So the system appears to have worked fairly well.
There are relic condition examples of these rifles that have been found in the Ukraine. They were used in combat.
They were used in, I don't know if it you'd call it combat issue or if you'd call it combat trials,
but one way or the other these did find their way into fighting in World War Two.
This particular batch, about 100 of these rifles came into Canada a couple years ago.
From, I've seen a variety of people saying where they came from, maybe Bulgaria, maybe Ukraine.
... Someone out there knows, but that doesn't appear to be common knowledge.
At any rate, ... a batch of them were found in a warehouse somewhere.
So most of them had been refurbished and they come in condition like this one.
So, it's a really cool unique opportunity to get a chance to take a look at
a version of this rifle that was made ultimately in very small numbers,
and pretty interesting as a transition between the 91/30 and the M44.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video.
Thanks for watching.
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