I have had several dozen of these rifles come through my shop in the last 2 years and I have to say without any hesitation, that the ones with perfect bores shoot quite well. I am getting old, and I can't shoot as well as I could when I had younger eyes, but I have fired several groups at 75 yards and 100 yards that have proven to me that some of these rifles shoot better then most folks think they can. I own one with an octagon receiver with a great bore, and it's giving me 1.5" CONSISTANTELY at 100 yds.
Most of them with frosty bores shoot about 3 to 3.5 inch groups at 100, and some will only do 5-6 inches, but they are no different than any rifle. No rifle will shoot well if the bore is rusted out.
The trigger pulls are strange to the western shooter. They can be cleaned up to be glassy smooth, but they don’t “break”. They only compress until the rifle fires. I’d compare them to a well tuned Glock or Springfield XD pistol. With a bit of dry-fire practice, they work just fine and any one can learn to use them.
The safeties are a bit odd. You pull back about ¼’ on the cocking piece and turn the piece 45 degrees counter-clockwise. It takes some getting used to. However, it’s not all that hard to learn to use them.
All in all, they are a super good buy. I know a few men that think of them as a basis for a nice sporter. Why do we feel it’s necessary to spend larger amounts of money on an action than $70 when we don’t have to?
If we were to spend $600 on gunsmithing in addition to 600 on an action, is that somehow money better spent than putting the same $600 on gunsmithing in addition to a $70 action?
Here is a picture to illustrate what I am talking about. I didn’t build this rifle, but I have done 2 very much like it.
Now, I believe this is a better 'all around rifle" then a 30-30 lever gun. The price is close to the same. It’s more powerful, and in many cases more accurate. It can be had with the correct length of pull that the customer wants. It can be had in price ranges that fit budgets. It can be scoped with no more effort then scoping a military mauser. If the customer wants it can be had with a Timney trigger which has a conventional safety on it, just like those made for Remington M-700s.
And it can be had pretty inexpensively. Cheaper then a new "budget rifle"? NO But not much more either, and I think some men (including myself) think such a rifle is classier then a plastic stocked "modern American Budget rifle"
I have nothing at all against the Savage, Mossburg, Weatherbys, TCs and so on. But that's why we have more then one color of shirt too.
My point is simply this:
The MN rifles are very much worth the price and they can even be worth the money it would take to make something really nice out of them, or just hunt with one as it came from Russia and you'll probably be a happy camper.