russian m44

ACE627 · 08-03-2003, 11:58 AM

i just got a russian m44 gave to me by my father. and was just wondering about hunting deer with it. it' s a 7.62x54 caliber witch i' m told is equal to a 308.

BigEd · 08-03-2003, 01:53 PM

Yes it is a good round for hunting. I like my Hungarian M-44, if you want good full charge hunting loads try the Sellier&Bellot 180gr soft point. There is some Russian soft point but I' ve never tried any of it.

diyj98 · 08-03-2003, 03:40 PM

It will mike a fine deer rifle. Just be sure to purchase some soft point hunting ammo as BigEd mentioned. Don' t go out into the woods with full metal jacketed military surplus ammo.

Briman · 08-03-2003, 11:21 PM

Get LOTS of practice with it. It will take time to get used to the mushy trigger that has no distict break and the iron sights other than that it should be a good rifle for hunting the thick stuff where a short rifle is needed and where shots will be short.

rhetoric · 08-05-2003, 07:54 AM

I hunted with mine, ACE, though I never got the chance to shoot at anything. I was invited to hunt in rifle territory (can' t do that everywhere in NY) and the biggest thing I owned at the time was a .22. So for $70 I bought an M-44. My guess is that any caliber that will devistate a human being will probably kill a deer. Mine was a WWII vintage and was reasonably accurate. Good enough for deer at 200 yards (a 1000 yard if you use the handy-dandy elevated sight, though I' m guessing that wouldn' t be too prudent).

Couple words about hunting with it. The safety is a bear. I' m sure that most Russian soldiers ignored the safety but if you have a deer in your sights and you can operate that thing w/o the deer hearing/seeing/noticing you grunt strain and struggle, you' re a stronger man than I. It' s not a handy little lever like the Mausers. Be careful about the ammo you use. I bought some " softpoints" from Dicks a few years ago and when I got it home I realized that it was just old military surplus with the " lead" painted on the tip. Good hunting ammo can be found the the 7.56etc. caliber. Also (and I think this is pretty cool), the gun is designed to be balanced w/ the CRUCIFIX BAYONET in the " fixed" position. If nothing else, you' ll be able to stab any charging bucks, but my hunting buddies sure smirked at me.

Check the mosin-nagent.net web sight and you' ll find boat-loads of guys that hunt all the time with russian guns.

Dasvedania (sp?)
rhetoric