Had a fella on another forum offer to sell me a 1947 Izhevsk M-44 for $50. Said the bore was nice. Hmm...I thought about it for .002 seconds, then decided to buy it. It's my first M-44. Got it in UPS today, came straight home and sawed the bayonet lug off (sorry purists...). Slugged the bore and found it be a smidge over .312" (yeah!). Since I keep one of my powder measures loaded and set for 13 grs. of Red Dot and bags of sized and lubed 314299's pn my bench, I threw together some loads and ran out to the bench to try it just before dark. Due to low light and not wanting to waste time fiddling with the sights, I shot at 50 yds.:
Woo-hoo!! Too bad about the 5 th shot though
The rifle is a little rough with some pitting on the cocking knob and the top of the barrel, but it is to be a project gun. I'll be modifying it somewhat along the lines of Junior42's project, except I'll be welding on a very low bolt handle and mounting a receiver sight as well as a scout scope. I've recently re-Parkerized an Ishapore 2A (first time to do this)with my home parkerizing set up and I plan to do the same with the M-44.
35W