Enemy at the gates, Which Mosin Was it? MN PU-Sniper length?

**Zet70** · June 9th, 2010, 10:09 AM

Was our hero using the longer 51" Mosin or the Shorter Carbine 40" in the movie/ real life?

I'm currently in a fight with my brother over it. I insist it was the longer 51".

Im Assuming it was the PU-Sniper Mosin and also assuming the sniper was longer. Do I owe him a six-pack now?

**nijwnfi** · June 9th, 2010, 10:17 AM

You would be right. The PU is the scope designation.

**Hawk** · June 9th, 2010, 12:23 PM

Here's the only pic I could find: (Definitely not a carbine)

enemy-at-the-gates-3.jpg

The Real Vassili and his Mosin:

VasiliZaitsev.jpg

**TTR** · June 9th, 2010, 04:28 PM

This has nothing to do with the question but, in the scene where Vassili and the other guy, the newspaper man, were in the center of town hiding in the fountain.. The newspaper man aimed the straight bolt Mosin and the bolt was pointing straight up and in the very next second the bolt was in the closed position and never showed him closing it. Then he gave the rifle to Vassili to knock off the 5 Germans.

It just looked like a film error they didn't catch..

**Rundownfid** · June 9th, 2010, 08:53 PM

I thought that the best scene in the movie was where the Russian conscripts were getting off the ferry and were handed a rifle and a handful of cartridges. While at the same time the ferry was being re-filled with dead and wounded.

I pray that we never put our troops in such a terrible position.
Stalin, having purged his officer corp, then conspired with Hitler to rearm Germany, then started a war of Conquest against Finland, attacked Poland, and only then did he lead the "Great Patriotic War" against Hitler.

When I was in the Soviet Union in 1976 I went to a burial area outside of Leningrad. There they had huge mounds of dirt with plaques. These were mass graves with thousands of dead bodies in each, the plaques only gave the dates such as June 15- June 18, 1942. There were dozens of these mounds, each bigger than a big house. Again I pray that our nation never has to be saved by this level of sacrifice, especially due to the incredible bungling of its "leadership".

**shadowcat187** · June 9th, 2010, 09:30 PM

Originally Posted by TTR

This has nothing to do with the question but, in the scene where Vassili and the other guy, the newspaper man, were in the center of town hiding in the fountain.. The newspaper man aimed the straight bolt Mosin and the bolt was pointing straight up and in the very next second the bolt was in the closed position and never showed him closing it. Then he gave the rifle to Vassili to knock off the 5 Germans.

It just looked like a film error they didn't catch..

probably was just an error they didnt catch. I didnt even catch it till you mentioned it.

as already stated it was the longer 51" mosin. A carbine length mosin wouldnt have the desired accuracy to be an effective sniper rifle. Carbines are ment for standard infantry troops and close/medium range. Shorter barrel is better for movement.

**Zet70** · June 10th, 2010, 03:51 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiMOh...eature=related

**shadowcat187** · June 10th, 2010, 09:46 PM

some good videos.

**PA Rifleman** · June 13th, 2010, 02:01 AM

Originally Posted by Zet70

Was our hero using the longer 51" Mosin or the Shorter Carbine 40" in the movie/ real life?

I'm currently in a fight with my brother over it. I insist it was the longer 51".

Im Assuming it was the PU-Sniper Mosin and also assuming the sniper was longer. Do I owe him a six-pack now?

As others have posted, it would have been the standard length 91/30 model, as depicted in the movie. The carbines (M1938 & M1944) were initially issued to troops that weren't expected to see frequent contact with the enemy forces. Later, the M1938 became the M1944, which did become a front-line issue weapon. I'm not aware of any carbines that were made into scoped weapons, outside of one-off prototypes.

Another point is the weapons didn't get particularly good cosmetic care in battles like Stalingrad, they certainly didn't look new. The filmmakers get their weapons from armorers, who, like us, try to preserve them. The net result is all the equipment looks like it rolled out of the factory 2 minutes ago. This is what a real 91/30 sniper rifle looks like near the end of W.W.II:

Note most of the blue gone, no original finish remains on the wood. But, the basic rifle is intact and working. Fortunately this example doesn't have muzzle rod wear, or counterboring.

List of W.W.II snipers:
http://wio.ru/galgrnd/sniper/sniper.htm

Enjoy your beer. Did someone say it's souptime?

**Ecclectic Collector** · June 13th, 2010, 07:17 AM

The photo of the real Vasili shows him with a 91/30 PE rifle. You can tell because it has both front and rear scope rings and is a larger scope called the PE model. The PE scope had a slightly higher magnification (4x I think) instead of 3.5x which is what a PU model scope.

Several makers/importers were selling (replica) PE model sniper rifles as recently as a year or so ago.