This Mosin-Nagant M38 carbine was built at Izhevsk in 1943 and is chambered in 7.62x54R. It is all matching and mechanically excellent, and the serial it carries, M38065xx, is importer applied. The barrel is counterbored, an arsenal repair in which the last stretch of the bore is opened slightly oversize so that the rifling crown sits back on fresher steel, which is standard Soviet practice on refurbished barrels and is not an indication that a rifle is worn out. The bore is semi bright with strong rifling. The stock is the M44 pattern, inletted on the right side for a folding bayonet the M38 does not have, which is consistent with Izhevsk standardizing all carbine stocks to the M44 pattern from the middle of 1943 and issuing the M38s built after that point in them. A 1943 date puts this carbine in the middle of wartime production at Izhevsk, and an all matching example from that period is a better find than the force matched guns that make up much of what came out of the postwar arsenal stocks. The carbine is offered as it is shown.
The M38 was adopted in 1938 and entered production in 1939 as a shortened version of the M91/30, intended for rear area troops who needed a handier arm than the full length rifle: artillery crews, radio operators, engineers and similar. It measures about forty inches overall on a barrel of roughly twenty and a quarter inches, weighs around seven and a half pounds, and feeds five rounds from the standard Mosin magazine. The rear sight is a shorter version of the M91/30 sight, with the slide interchangeable between the two. The defining point of the M38 is what it does not have: it was never designed to take a bayonet, since rear area troops were not expected to need one. That omission is what led to the M44, which added the permanently hinged folding bayonet and superseded the M38 in production. Izhevsk built the M38 throughout, from 1939 to 1945, while Tula turned them out only in 1940 and 1944.
Specifications
Manufacturer: Izhevsk Arsenal, Soviet Union
Model: M38 carbine
Caliber: 7.62x54R
Year: 1943
Serial: M38065xx
Capacity: 5 rounds
Barrel: Approximately 20 1/4 inches
Overall length: Approximately 40 inches
Bayonet: None, the M38 was not designed to mount one
Stock: M44 pattern, inletted for a folding bayonet
Matching: All matching
Serial note: Serial number is importer applied
Bore: Counterbored, semi bright with strong rifling
Mechanical condition: Excellent
