From Russia, with love

After my recent purchase of a .22 dressed as an EBR(Evil Black Rifle as the anti-gun media hype would have you believe), I decided I wanted a gun to shoot long range.  Very long range.  I decided my target goal would be 450-500 yards.  I have an 03A3 30-06, but 30-06 rounds are expensive, and the rifle it's self is in great shape and worth too much to modify.  I stared kicking around the idea of another military surplus gun, the Russian Mosin-Nagant.  Designed in 1891, it was the standard Russian service rifle up through WWII.  Consequently, there were millions of them made.  By some reports, including all variants, they made 50 million of them.  Every gun shop in the country has got to have at least a dozen on hand at any one time.  It uses the 7.62x54R cartridge, a round that has been in constant military use for 120 years.  This means bullets are cheap, really cheap.  440 rounds of mil-surp for under $90 cheap.  The only thing cheaper is a .22.

Cheap gun, check.  Cheap ammo, check.  Long range capable, check.  Common enough I don't have any qualms modifying it, check.  The Mosin fit the bill.  A few days before Christmas, I stopped down to the local Gander Mountain just to see what there was to see with no intention of buying anything.  I walked out with a new used gun. 

On the shelf, they had a relatively rare Tula Armory all serial numbers matching 1932 hex receiver M91/30.  It was the only hex receiver they had(later ones have a round receiver, and the war time guns were poorly machined).  What really sealed the deal was that they had a rebate on them, so it only cost $130(including bayonet and original Mosin cleaning/tool set).

Given it's age, and the state of the Soviet Union in WWII, there is nearly a 100% chance this rifle has been fired at real, actual Nazis.  The bore is acceptable for a Mosin-Nagant(the corrosive military primers typically do a number on them), and the bluing is in great shape.  The shellac that the Russians used is in pretty bad shape, discolored and peeling in places, but the wood it's self is great and I plan on refinishing it from the get go anyway.