Mosins can be really great rifles. I used to have hundreds of them (literally). They are what got me into gun collecting. The M44s were sighted in with the bayonet extended and were intended to be shot that way, so your experience is not surprising in the least. They are great for fireballs, as the short barrel does not lend itself to complete burning of the powder in the milsurp ammo.

If you get a hankering to get deeper into Mosins, find a Finnish Mosin, particularly a nice condition Model 39. The Finns went to great pains to make accurate battle rifles and it is not uncommon to get one that will shoot MOA, even with military ammo. Finnish Mosins were my favorite and I had quite a collection of them at one time. Even ones with worn bores often shoot extremely well. Their bores started out so tight, that it isn't uncommon for accuracy to improve with wear, as the Combloc military ammo uses a larger diameter bullet than is optimal with a new Finn barrel.

Have fun!

I have a 91 and I was surprised to find that I could simply hit what I aimed at out to 150 yards. A friend once brought his 38 to the range, ditto. It works which is an endearing quality.

Bob

Because the one I had, I couldn't hit crap with. Minute of person at best. Almost made me want my $40 back. ;)

Never did try it with any other ammo though, which I should know better. I may have told this story before, but I have a really crude full sized Mosin Nagant that when I purchased it I bought a big load of surplus ammo with it. That rifle gave nice 2 foot groups at 100 yards. Needless to say it didn't get shot much, which also meant that first batch of ammo lasted about 10 years.

When it did finally run out, I took it to the range one day with a different lot of ammo and a friend was shooting it. He couldn't see his "group" through the binoculars he was using. I told him it was because there wasn't one, and if he didn't really try he'd probably miss the backer board the rifle shot so bad.

When we went down range we found that he couldn't find his group because it was all together in a near MOA cluster near the center of the target. I was dumbfounded.

. . . if the bayonet weren't important to you, couldn't you just re-zero the gun with the "sticker" folded up (or removed) and carry on?

Seems like a hassle to have to worry about the position of an accessory when aiming for a shot, unless you're just really "into" the whole historical aspect of the thing.

Not that there's anything wrong with that . . .

E had a couple, Byron. They were fun but I could never hold onto One for long. Probably the idea that there are tons out there or because they are so cheap to replace. I had a chance to stret h one out down at Knob Creek. It was little trouble to hit a BBQ grill sized propane tank on the back hillside which is right around 300 meters. Not bad for a $60 rifle shooting ammo that was barely more than .22lr!

Doug K

I have a M38 carbine and a Finn M39. They both shoot quite well. The Finn shoots very well. Even with cheap surplus, better with steel cased 203 grain Silver Bear soft points. The Finns really did some improvements, not the least of which are good sights with simple adjustments. I see Timney is now offering a replacement trigger for the Mosin. The trigger has a usable safety as well.

If your eyes are as old as my 56 year ones I widened the notch in the rear on my M-44. On yours you might be able to open it up to the proper side in effect moving the rear notch the correct way to center it up.

I was lucky my 44 shot straight after I took off the bayonet and ground down the hanger. Plus it shot the Hornady 165 BTSP in the .308 diameter with 42 grains of 3031 dang good.

Your making me want to get it out and shoot it some

Bob