RE: russian m44
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