I am a purist a heart and it saddens me every time I finally see a K98, M38, or m1917 that has been sporterized however I have to remember that not long ago, within my short lifetime even that all of those rifles used to cost less than what a mosin costs today. I've seen sears catalogs that advertise enfield no4 rifles for $10, $15 for a pre sporterised model, who wouldn't buy one of those and chop them up for the hell of it at those prices today?
I chose a mosin nagant because I really couldn't justify chopping up a $350 enfield, $800 springfield, $400 arisaka, $500 1917, but I could justify chopping up a $125 dollar chunk of russian trash with 10 million clones running around. I figure that nobody is going to be missing my mosin for some time, once they stop being kept readily available at big 5, cabelas, grafs, KGCO, JGsales and the price shoots north of $500 then some may start calling me a bubba and saying that I am a fool for cutting up a timeless piece of history but for now I'm in the same boat as all of those guys that chopped up all the mausers:
mosins are cheap, I am bored, meh...why not?