I have an M48, which I bought from a friend of a friend for $90, about 8- 10 years ago. It has become my only rifle, as I love it so much. I shot it in the standard configuration for years, all the while experimenting with such things as improved iron sights and glass-bedding the action in the stock, as well as hand loading for it. The barrel was somewhat pitted when I got it, but it shot well with my hand loads (but was finicky).
A few years ago I re-barreled the rifle myself, using only hand tools, a large bench vise and homemade action wrench.....and a pristine Yugo "takeoff" barrel I got from Numrich for $34. The re-barrel wasn't really that difficult. I have since cut and crowned the barrel at 17.5".....and bedded the action into a cut down ("sportered") 24/47 walnut stock, from the 1930's. I reconfigured the stock to look like a pre-war Mauser sporter, complete with schnabel fore end.
The finished carbine shoots 1.5" 100 yard groups, with cast paper-patched bullets (a hobby all to itself I took up to get a cast load which had enough oompf for hunting deer). With 175 grain Sierra soft-points and 39.5 grains of Hodgdon Benchmark, it will produce cloverleaf groups at 100 yards, with iron sights. ( I switched back from a scope to irons recently, after getting a proper eyeglass prescription which allowed this.)
I also load on the light side, approximately equivalent to 30/30 specs. This amounts to around 2100 fps with my cast PP loads and the Sierras. This has proved to be plenty for whitetails....and gives me stellar brass life (sometimes more than 20 firings). I also make most of my brass from 30/06 or 270 Win., due to the cost and availability of 8 x 57 brass.
I got rid of all of my other rifles years ago, in favor of the M48. It has everything I ever wanted: accuracy, extreme reliability, interesting history, etc. I get quizzical expressions and enthusiastic questions, almost every time I take it to the range (I guess that's MY 15 minutes of fame). With it, I've also become the local "paper-patching guru" (more questions), which is fun.