View Single Post
Old October 7, 2008, 09:27 AM   #4
carguychris
Senior Member
 
Join Date: October 20, 2007
Location: Richardson, TX
Posts: 7,523
Quote:
Some countries did make their guns better than others and some are a higher price only because they are harder for collectors to find.
+1. Since you mention you're thinking of a Mosin-Nagant, the best M-Ns are the Finnish guns because they were rebarreled with higher-quality barrels than what the Russians or other countries usually used. However, if you want a Finnish M-N, you're going to pay accordingly- the good ones fetch at least $300 in today's market.

Second best are the Russian 91/30 sniper or "ex-sniper" (i.e. de-scoped for reissue to infantry) rifles. The Russians hand-picked the best M-Ns and turned them into sniper rifles after they were test-fired for accuracy. However, most of the M-N "sniper" rifles on the milsurp market are fakes- they're actually regular garden-variety M-Ns that have been pieced together by exporters. REAL Soviet sniper rifles command $800+.

The worst M-Ns are, generally, the Russian guns built in the 1942-1944 time frame when they were trying to crank out as many rifles as possible to stop the Nazi juggernaut. Some of these guns display some truly horrendous machine work. The best way to avoid these guns is to opt for the "Hex Receiver" 91/30s currently offered by several milsurp suppliers. The "hex" (actually octagonal) receiver was phased out in the mid-30s, so you can be assured that a hex receiver gun was not built during WWII.

The rest of the M-Ns are somewhere in between. The postwar Polish guns (marked with a big circled "11" on the receiver) have a reputation for good workmanship, but IMHO the ones I've seen don't look superior to the better Russian guns.
__________________
"Smokey, this is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules... MARK IT ZERO!!" - Walter Sobchak
carguychris is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.02101 seconds with 8 queries