I was going to say something really nasty, but in the interest of not degenerating this thread to petty bickering over the "merits" of cheaply mass produced surplus Soviet peasant conscript battle rifles, I will refrain.

What I will say is that if you want to spend money on a custom rifle, there are MUCH better actions out there to base it on. If you MUST have a rifle with "history" (like a history of being the historic arm of choice for Communist peasant conscripts poorly trained to use it to kill Americans), I'd strongly suggest you look for either one of the various Mausers or a '03-A3 Springfield. The '03's are not so cheap anymore, but good Mauser 98K rifles can still be found at great prices, as well as the occasional M93 Spanish Mausers and M96 Swedes.

Mike