Serving the Enemy

Captured Rifles

Here you will find information on who else used the Mosin besides Russia

Captures

After initial success against the Central Powers, the Russian Imperial Army would soon find itself on the defensive against counteroffensives by Austro-Hungarian and German troops.
Already early into the war, both nations acquired tens of thousands of Mosin rifles both from the Eastern and Southern Front where it was wielded by Montenegrin, Romanian and Serbian forces as well.

With all warring parties facing a shortage of rifles, these captures were pressed into service in the second line to free up as many main service rifles as possible. While the Germans distributed the rifles as they were, only adding a "Deutsches Reich" stock stamp onto the buttstock and occasionally marking the receiver with "Deutschland", the Austro-Hungarian ministry of war gave out detailed guidelines on how the rifles were to be adapted for use with their forces.

Adapting the sling attachements to allow for the carrying-style of the Mannlicher M.95 by means of adding sling swivels in the corresponding positions
Rechambering the rifles to the M.93 8x50mmR cartridge to ease logistical demands. These conversions are split into two types, where Type A would see the barrel bored out to accomodate the larger cartridge and relined, and Type B where only the chamber was re-cut. These are commonly called "squeezebore" conversions. As the action was capable of withstanding the higher pressure generated in these, it was likely done to speed up the conversion process further.
Restamping the rear sight for 200-600 Schritt (0.75m) and adding a Stutzen front sight post

Not all captured Mosins were modified for the new cartridge as the captured ammunition supply proved to be sufficient.

The two minor powers in the central alliance would also use the Mosin in some quantity, likely provided by the German Army first and foremost.
These were generally left as issued, Bulgaria merely adding a stock stamp in form of a pinecone and the Ottomans only restamping the sights with Perso-Arabic numerals. Occasionally the sling attachment was changed, but this was not universal.