There is quite a bit of recoil to them but nothing horrible. If you're concerned get a butt pad to cover the metal that is there stock. Being from 42 there is a chance it could have seen WW2, or it was just extra stock that got left around then refurbished at a later date. Most of them are just refurbs with forced to match numbers, restamped repro parts, mix and match, like you'll get a tula barrel, izhevsk bolt, or vice versa. After all they did make some 5 million plus of the rifles, and that's just the 91/30's. Not all went to battle. 115 isn't a bad cost for one. Often you can find M91/30's for 99$ on special at sporting good stores.
7.62x54.net is a great resource for the rifles if you want more information on them.
Ammo is also fairly cheep, you can get 440 rounds of old surplus from anywhere from 99-140$, just be sure to clean out after using that stuff, it's corrosive.
But they are great to shoot, easy to clean and take apart, come with cool kit usually, you can get a synthetic stock cheap if you don't like the wood. Just be sure to clean the cosmoline out of it real well before you shoot. And don't worry about the recoil, it's not that bad if you shoulder it right. I did it wrong a couple times and it let me know, but standing, or with a shooting rest no worries. Prone sucks a bit but no real reason to do that often.