eldeguello

Of all the surplus European rifles available, I would expect the K31 Swiss rifles to be close to the best in workmanship, followed closely by the Swedes, then pre-WWII Kar 98K German issue, and perhaps the Finnish reworkedMosins. I once owned a sporterized Norwegian Krag M1912, made at Kongsberg in 1918. It was a fabulous rifle, with the nicest piece of flame-gained European walnut in the stock that I've ever seen on a miltary rifle. I'll bet the ones made by Steyr in Austria were outstanding!

In reviewing some of my old reloading notes today, I was reminded how accuratea British military rifle can be. This one belonged to a friend, and it was a No. 5 Jungle Carbinewith a 4X scope mounted, but otherwise as-issued. We worked up a load for this thing that was consistently shooting 0.5" 5-shot groups at 100 yards. The load used the Sierra .308", 200-grain bullet with 47 grains of IMR 4350 in WW cases with Fedral 210 primers. The MV from the 18" barrel was only 2150 FPS, but the guykilled a number of big deer in Montana with this rifle.

Ol JohnnyBoy

I too just "inherited" a mosin m44 and was actually wondering the same thing. Mind you this is not my only rifle. I plan to make numerous mods. on the rifle and use it for whitetail assuming I can get decent groups out of it. It seems like it'll bea fun little rifle wheneverythings finished on it. I still have not shot it but plan to get the smith to look it over before I take it to the range. The internet has extensive information about sporterizing a mosin. I've been doing my research and plan to start begining early next year in order to have the rifle ready for next year. Its good to see that I'm not the only one herethat has a mosin.

AmateurHunter44857

My friend owns a Mosin and his anyway is quite accurate. I've fired it several times, only problem is i have a hard time focusing on the Iron Sights so i'd def. have to put a scope or something on it. Its def. a nice gun to play around with. The gun store close to me has the Russian 91/30's for $69 i think. Thought about grabbing one for the heck of it.

BigTiny

A friend of mine with a C&R buys them all the time. He shoots them, and if they are no good, he sells them. He has one that shoots MOA. It's an octagonal receiver gun with the czar's crest on it. He put one of those POSP scopes on it and it looks great. He probably goes thru 50 of those things per year and that's the only one that can do it.

Briman

That sounds about right.

The K-31 is a completely different beast. I've had 6 of them (sold one to a friend) and haven't had a dog yet. Its very easy to mount a scope to- drilling and tapping isn't necessary. Reloading is also very easy- run .284 win brass through a 7.5x55 sizing die, use .308 win load data, and best of all, unlike most european .30 calibers, the 7.5 swiss uses standard .308" diameter bullets (the groove diameters on K-31s are almost universally .3075").

Catus Magnus

I killed two deer with a Mosin this year; passed up on a number of shots I'd have taken with my scoped 336, because I don't feel as confident in the Mosin. It is a powerful round; I used 200gr Wolf SP.

The M44 will kill deer, but is not a very good choice. Rotten trigger, sights, loud, muzzleblast... and a little heavy.

Dougk

well, working in the outdoor store I've now seen sportized MGs. what pieces of total junk.

I just dont see the point of spending any time or effort with something like this, especially considering there are so better guns available.

really, Im not too impressed with any surplus guns. I regard the Lee Enfields as clubs as well.

just hold them to your shoulder-what junk

Briman

LOL. If you ever took a well made Mauser 93,94,95,96,98 made at Oberndorf, CZ, or Carl Gustav(yes there are some mediocre or even bad makes of some of these rifles) apart or shot it, or did the same with a Swiss (made by SIG and Hammerli)or Swedish rifle, You'd wonder what you'd ever seen in a remchestersavage. A Finish built mosin nagant is put together better than anything you are selling under $700, of course most fo them were put together by Sako or Tikka- factories that were filled with real gunsmiths that knew what theywere doing rather than factories filled with button pushers in modern production facilities.

Dougk

you obviously dont know much about guns or have extremely poor taste. under $700!?

let see...Remington 700SPS, and theversion with a laminated stock..

I sell the Tikka T3 in that price range..I also sell the the Ruger Hawkeye..the Savage Euro model..Weatherby Vanguard..

any of those models embarrasses any Mosinigant rifle I have ever seen. I sell Mosigant rifles..around 125 bucks..I sell the old German Mausers as well. being in the business, I deal with firearms regularly, and these old things simply dont compare. Kinda like comparing a WW1 biplane to a F22 Raptor.

my experience is people who want these guns simply cannot afford decent equipment..so they buy them. they are real POS though. and no matter what customizing one does, you still end up with aPOS. had a guy come in the other day with one..even set up with a scope..compared even to the Stevens rifle a real club.

leben_sie_gut

I almost get the idea that Doug up here doesn't like them.

I've got one of these guns to use more or less as a loaner...put a camo mc stockand a Tasco scope on it, both sourced off ebay....I think, including the gun, I have about 160 bucks in this thing....from a bench it'll shoot right at 3" at 100. This is shooting cheap Wolf 200gr ammo, so that say something as well.

All in all though, it was worth what I have in it, I believe four deer have been killed with this rifle, all dead right there. It's not something I'd use if I was shooting 200+, or if my life depended on it, but it's still not a bad rifle.