Trivia question: What is a "three line" rifle?

[Squaw Man Wolfer]

Trivia question: What is a "three line" rifle?

I know, just wanted to float the question for fun.

[49hudson]

A variety of the Russian M/N rifle.

[Squaw Man Wolfer]

YUP! But exactly what does "three line" mean?

[brentwal]

It's an old system of measurement used back in the Czars' day, a rough conversion puts it about the same as a yard or meter.

[Squaw Man Wolfer]

Originally posted by brentwal
It's an old system of measurement used back in the Czars' day, a rough conversion puts it about the same as a yard or meter.

Close, but no cigar!

In what would now be considered a very anachronistic way of measuring things, in the nineteenth century, the English inch was BRIEFLY divided into tenths.

Hence, a "three line" rifle was a .30 cal, a "four line" rifle would be a .40 cal, and a "five line" weapon would be a fifty cal.

Needless to say, Russia was technologically backward, and adopted whatever way of measuring things that was imposed by foreigners. Europe would soon go metric, and the "three line" rifle was soon to be an obsolete way of measuring things. But the basic Russian infantry weapon remained the 7.62 mm, i.e. a “three line” caliber.

Just a bit of trivia, remembered by old farts.

[MrMurphy]

Hey, I'm not that old and I knew the answer.


What's an arshin then? :supergrin:

[Squaw Man Wolfer]

Well, I'm not sure.

But I think the arshin is pretty much a cubit.

Defined as the distance between the the tip of longest finger and the

elbow.

But I'm still guessing.

[49hudson]

1 Russian "lini"= 2.54mm x 3 = 7.62
1 Russian arshin = 0.71 meter

[Butch]

Originally posted by Squaw Man Wolfer
Just a bit of trivia, remembered by old farts.
Good deal! I'll try to remember that!

:)



:patriot:

[MrMurphy]

It's their measurement of sight adjustment on the pre-Revolution rifles. One arshin= 28 inches or so. An arshin is like a "pace" i.e one step.

I knew a guy with a pile of Mosins, a Pre-Revolution 1891, a 91/30, M38 and M44, and he didn't know that answer so I looked it up for him. After about 1922 they went metric.

[kf4zra]

you will also see the rear sights of finn captured mosins have the arshins lined out and renumbered in meters.

[390ish]

So, how many lines are in a verst?

[Squaw Man Wolfer]

I'd guess 420,000