Westinghouse M-N

[Kirk]

I ran across a Westinghouse M1891. The rifle has the walnut Westinghouse stock with a good cartouche. The bore is in good condition - some shine but a little dark & strong rifling. The muzzle is in good shape - not counterbored. The bolt may be original as it has only 1 s/n on it which matches the receiver. I'm pretty ignorant about the M-N and one source I read says bolts were marked only along the root which is where this sine is marked. Is this correct? The rifle retains about 50-60% original finish and has no visible pitting or rust. The stock is intact with no splits or chips. The hand guard is birch, an obvious replacement. The barrel has an import marking near the muzzle. It comes with a Soviet bayonet. Overall, I'd rate it as G-VG condition.

The seller wants $250 for it. This seems a bit high as you can Soviet M91s in near mint condition for $100 or so. But not a Westinghouse . . .

I'd appreciate any thoughts about this rifle.

[Art]

Westinghouse rifles are much more collectable than most Mosin-Nagants and that's what the old boy wants the premium for. I haven't seen the rifle of course but from the discription $250.00 dosen't sound out of line. If you just want a nice shooter of course nice rifles from the Soviet/Russian arsenals are very, very inexpensive. The world War II rifles I've seen usually had the Serial number electropenciled , very nicely I might add, on the raised guide on the side of the bolt in front of the handle.

[Kirk]

I bought the New England Westinghouse M-N. It appears to have its original US walnut stock (complete with the Cyrilic "English Contract" cartouche) but that's all. All the other parts appear to be Soviet or Finnish. It has a Finnish boxed SA stamp on the left rear of the barrel shank, just in front of the receiver and a D stamped over the chamber, a Finnish proof mark for their heavy ball ammo. The bolt is as jmoore states, a forced match.

The barrel & receiver retain most of the original finish. The bore on the rifle is excellent; shiny, strong rifling, with an excellent muzzle that gauges 2. The manager of the shop where I bought it had a rod & cleaning patches which improved the bore from poor (dark & weak rifling) to excellent (shiny & strong) in just 60 seconds. I'll have to remember the brand of patches he gave me. It retains the original sights (remarked by the Finns from arshins to meters). The stock has numerous minor dents & scrapes but no major damage. The hand guard is birch & has copper rivets. The S/N on the bolt is restamped to the s/n on the rifle; the s/n on the butt plate doesn't match and the magazine is unmarked. The magazine has about 60% original finish (90% under the wood & 30% on exposed parts) plus some lightly pitted areas.

The bayonet is late Soviet push-to-release type. I got the rifle for less than the $250 asking price & considering it has the original stock & excellent bore, I am satisfied.
6204 6205 6206

[Tuna]

I think you did well since the barrel is the original barrel and the bore came out so nice.

[Kirk]

I was able to get to the range today with the M-N & a box of Winchester 180 gr fmj ammo.

The rifle made about a 2” group at 100 yds which, since the sights are fuzzy, seems A-OK. The bore measures .314" & the bullets go .311".

The cases failed to eject. I cleaned the rifle yesterday & cleaned the one-piece interrupter/ejector. It looks OK but I have nothing to compare it to. When I tried loading the magazine, the rounds pop back out so it looks like the interrupter/ejector has problems.

6220

[coppertales]

250 for a Finn NEW M91 is a steal. You done good.....chris3