As always pictures help immensely.

 

Sure, here are a few but the quality is a bit low (I only just bought it so these are not my pictures of it - here in Australia we have to apply to acquire a firearm, so I'm still in the waiting period before I can bring it home).

 

Daeld: Nice looking rifle! The M91/24s were assembled for and by the Civil Guard while the 26/27 Tikkas were built for the army. M91/24s, for the most part, have features not present on the army rifles. The fully developed 91/24 had: heavy barrel; special trigger setup; unique upper band cross-bolt; and plate with improved sight-notch added to rear sight. Apparently early CG rifles may not have had some or all of these features and many have later had them removed during refurbishment.

Ruprecht

 

Thanks for that. So with this one having served in the Civil Guard but also made at Tikkakoski in 1926, does that mean that we are looking at an M/91 made for the military but served in the Civil guard at some stage or the other way around?

 

Congratulations.
That must be even more exciting to get one with the Lack of freedom there.
Nice rifle! Enjoy!

 

Very close in serial number to the rifle I just bought!

 

fascinating. what SA and/or SS markings does yours have or other service markings? I'm wondering because made in the same year, fairly close together, I wonder if they both went to the Civil Guard or not. As I understand it, only about 2-3 thousand were made and not many survive, so it's cool to have two in the thread that may have been in the factory around the same time.

 

Super interesting. As far as I can tell, the SA marking only came in in the early to mid 1940s (some say 1942, some say 1944). It seems that the majority would have been placed back to army use once the ceasefire was negotiated in 1944 and the civil guard's role was reduced/disbanded. Your region is also the same as mine (Pohja) but with a different number.

 

The SA mark started in 1942. The vast majority of Finnish small arms (but not all - I have a couple Finnish Mosins that lack any SA mark) and many other pieces of field gear were so marked to identify them as property of the Finnish Army. AFAIK rifles, such as yours, that were on loan to the Civil Guard in the immediate pre-war years, were quickly recalled and placed back into Army service when the Winter War started and losses in men and material started mounting. The Civil Guard was disbanded in 1944 as a condition of the Moscow Armistice that ended the Continuation War. Civil Guard small arms were fully absorbed by the Finnish Army at that point. The majority of Finnish Mosins were repaired and reworked over the subsequent decades after the war which is why collectors tend to favor Mosins with as many pre-war/Civil Guard features remaining as possible.

If you're looking for a great resource on Finnish Mosins and small arms you should get this book. I can't recommend it enough.

book Finnish Mosin Nagant | wet-dog-publications

Finnish Mosin Nagant Three Line Rifle to Ukko Pekka is the ultimate reference book for all small arms from Finland. m91, m27, m28, m28-30, m39, sniper, https://www.wetdogbooks.com/

www.wetdogbooks.com

 

that looks awesome. thank you!

 

Get the book for sure. As co-author of a chapter in it, I might be biased. But adding to this discussion - a bit over 10,000 Tikka M91s were made 1925-1927. The first 1500 often have the "ATV 1" stamp you see on the hex.

 

so one that has survived the war with the ATV1 stamp and also has SS and SA markings wouldn't be too common for the Tikkakoski examples?

PS Just bought the book. thanks again.

 

I'd say one without the SA stamp would be much harder to find. The SS mark is on a minority of them - but not really "rare"

 

Cool. Thanks.

 

I would describe it is as "uncommon". It's a great example an early Tikka made M/91 with the added bonus of an AV1 stamp and Civil Guard usage. Post some more pics when you get it!

 

Thanks, will do.