Yeah amazing rifle for the costs. I found a place called Royal Tiger Imports (
www.royaltigerimports.com ) 888-968-4437 that have them for $69 and M44's for $129 and they come with the standard accessory pack of a sling with dog collars, oiler, ammo pouch, solvent can of some sort (have gotten both the round and the square in the same order), cleaning jags, bayonet and flat tool. They charge $20 extra for Hex receivers and the turned down bolt 91's are $119.00. They even had (not sure if they still do) have Finnish M39's and Polish Radom models at really decent prices.
Gunbroker has a ton of Mosins and accessories. I got the stainless steel charger strips and opted for a muzzle brake on my M44 as it truly tames the recoil and blast by about 40%. I made a scout out of my M44 and added a scout scope/mount, rubber butt plate, lapped the bolt and barrel, trigger job to include a slack spring addition. Excellent shooter and handles really well.
I have really enjoyed shooting the Chk 47 grain hollow core training ammo (round nose/grey tipped). Out to 150 yards it has great ballistics but really fades from there. The recoil is close to 3/4 less and when using the brake, it is a dream to shoot, almost like shooting a .22 magnum.
I also installed the .22lr conversion kit from Hunters Lodge (have no idea if they still have them anymore) on one of the 91/30's I have. It is a full length barrel insert with a .22lr chamber. The barrel insert is offset to allow the centerfire firing pin to fire the rimfire. You also have to exchange the extractor to the one in the conversion kit. It makes it a single shot, but still fun and the conversion kit when I got it was just $75.
One of the best and easiest ways to get a refinished look on Mosins is:
1. Get some denatured alcohol at home depot or where ever.
2. Using a soft NON linting rag, saturate the rag with the denatured alcohol.
3. LIGHTLY rub with the grain and the intent is to move and redistribute (NOT Remove) the arsenal shellac finish. This will automatically do your touch ups and create a top finish as well.
4. After redistributing the finish, allow to dry for a day or two. Then use a thinned linspeed/linseed oil. This provides an excellent refinish without having to strip and redo it. The denatured alcohol will also raise minor dents while doing the redistribution. This is also the method to restoring older split bamboo rods that have had shellac laid on them. Makes em look just like new.
