Mosin Receiver Holes

These photos are of the receivers of a Mosin 91/30. You are looking at the left-hand raceways for the bolt.

First up, a standard infantry-issue rifle. As you can see, the metal of the raceway is smooth metal.


This is a re-snipered rifle, it was originally equipped with a PU scope sight. It was recently re-fitted with a postwar PU scope. There are four holes through the left side of the receiver; two pins and two screws. You can see three of them in this photo.



This is the rifle I bought yesterday and I apologize that the focus is off. Note that unlike the PU-scoped rifle, this one has only two holes. It apparently was fitted with a PEM scope.


The PU scope was simpler to make and arguably more rugged than the PE/PEM scope. Supposedly, the PU scope replaced the PEM in 1942. The Soviets were not terribly big on niceties; if they had a number of scopes left over from decommissioning sniper-varients of the SVT rifle, they would fit them to Mosins. Which is what apparently was done to this rifle.