Wow, I never stop learning.  Either from our Cyber Oracle Flash, the Pope, the Bible or the American Rifleman mag.

 

The American made Russian Moisin-Nagant rifles in 7.62x54 mm R were issued to our "Doughboys" during WWI & some actually saw combat in the bloody North Russian campaign that followed.  Now most people think that our soldiers during the Great War carried the 03 Springfield or the 1917 Enfield in .06 calibre (I have a sporterized one of those), but some actually carried the obsolete .30-40 Krag & the .303 Ross made in Canada.  But surprisingly some actually were issued the Russian Moisin-Nagant rifles.  But why you ask?  Well when Russia entered WWI, that nation faced a shortage of rifles.  The Czarist government placed orders for large numbers of Moisin-Nagants with two American firms, Remington & New England Westinghouse which called for 1 million rifles with bayonets for $30 per copy. These firms received a 7.5 million dollar advance payment for the rifles, Now that's capitalism eh?  After the Bolshevik's seized power the Ruskies defaulted on the rest of the payment so good ol Uncle Sam stepped in & rescued Remington buy buying the surplus rifles for $20 per copy.  Another government rescue of industry eh?  Hence the U.S. Government had all of those ugly Russian rifles at hand, so what did they do?  Why of course issue them to our Doughboys who were headed off to save England for the first time in the 20th Century. True capitalism prevails once again by saving "mother" by saving the rich guys & sending our poor kids off to fight with inferior surplus weapons like the cavalry, arriving just in time to finish the job.

 

T-Dog