Remington M91 – Bannerman Cadet

Description.

This is a Bannerman Cadet – Remington made M91, a rare and unusual rifle of American origin but Russian design. During the course of the First World War, Russia was unable to keep up with the needs of its army for small arms production and looked globally for assistance. Contracts were entered into with French and American firms for production and this M91 rifle is one of the Remington contract guns. Its history doesn’t end there however. Due to this example’s lack of a serial number and arsenal mark, we can tell this rifle was never accepted for Russian service and exported. The Imperial Russian government was notorious for not paying their bills and this situation only grew worse as the war went on and the government was ultimately toppled in February of 1917. This rifle and thousands more like it were nearly finished when the government fell (with the exception of the front and rear sights) and was put into storage when it was clear that the Russians were not going to pay their bills and no more shipments of M91 rifles would be made.

This example was eventually sold off after the war by Remington in an attempt to recoup their costs to Francis Bannerman, the father of the modern Army/Navy surplus store. Bannerman made his fortune selling US Civil War and Spanish-American surplus across the US and around the world and the surplus of World War I was no different. Bannerman’s arsenal took these incomplete but shootable Remington rifles and affixed surplus Krag-Jorgensen rear sights to them and fabricated right sights for them and sold them globally to small nations, and in foreign commercial markets. Bannerman even took a limited number of these guns and cut them down by several inches and advertised them across the world as drill rifles for military academies and boy’s military schools. This rifle appears to be in excellent and shootable condition and has a highly unique story that got it to where it is today.