I've had two ChiCom Mosin/Nagant rifles (a rifle and a carbine), two ChiCom SKS's, and a Soviet SVT 40. Of the three, the only one I really had any fondness for was the SVT-40. Both Mosins were not particularly accurate 4-6 MOA typically, and with the straight bolt handle, they don't accommodate sporterizing very well, though it can be done. The SKS's were also very inaccurate, with one shooting at best 6 MOA, and one that couldn't keep 10 of 10 shots on a large pizza box at 100 yards. The latter had a crookedly mounted front sight post, so even with the front sight drifted as far right as possible, it still shot roughly 6" right at 100 yards, requiring "Kentucky windage" to compensate. I wouldn't consider any of them particularly well suited to hunting, but they were fun guns to shoot, and (at the time at least) dirt cheap to buy and shoot.

The SVT-40 was a whole different animal. It was well made, fairly accurate for a semi-auto shooting about 2-3 MOA if I really focused on trigger control (the trigger was a typical eastern-bloc semi-auto trigger, long and heavy, though not gritty like my SKS's triggers). It would have made a good short range hunting rifle provided you can shoot with the crappy Soviet battle sights, but it was very long and heavy, and it had a muzzlebrake, which made it EXTREMELY LOUD. I made the mistake of shooting it once without hearing protection, and my ears rang for hours. The only problem I had with it was that it'd tend to slamfire with anything other than Soviet milsurp ammo because of the rather heavy floating firing pin. It also had a fluted chamber, making reloading for it not practical or maybe not even possible. I do regret selling it as I bought it for a little over $100 in the early '90's (pre-Slick Willie), I sold it to a C&R collector in 2001 or 2002 for a little under $500, and now they can bring in almost $1000 in the condition mine was in (which was 95+).

If you like your Mosin, it's acceptably accurate (which some are, depending on where/when they were made), and you want to hunt with it, there's not reason not to. The 7.62x54R is more than powerful enough to hunt elk with.

I, personally, have been long over my Com-Bloc surplus rifle days. Now I prefer a rifle that will shoot 5 shots into a quarter at 100 yards over banging away with a milsurp rifle and not really hitting anything.

Mike