I want to apologise for the pretty poor photography in this piece – all the weapons were behind dusty glass, in an unlit room, and the firearms themselves had (criminally, in my opinion!) been painted in cheap flat black and gloss brown paints on both the metal and wooden parts.
These eight Mosin Nagant Model 1944 Carbines (M44s) were sitting in a displaycase in the ‘Weapons Gallery’ at the Củ Chi Tunnels complex, just outside of Ho Chi Minh City (AKA Saigon), Vietnam. I’m told that many (most?) of the tour guides bypass this room during the tour as it is out of the way, dimly lit and, frankly, probably not that interesting to a lot of people. I eschewed the guided tour, as I normally do, and instead spent the majority of my time here, and at the range. Of the eight examples here, five different manufacturers were represented, from four countries: Russia, Poland, Egypt, and China.
