Bought a bubba'ed Polish mosion nagant 44, what to do?

[koger]

I recently bought a Polish 44 MN carbine. It has had the rear and ft sight removed, and stock cut back. It also came with a kit to turn it into a scoped version, ie, the scope mt, drills, taps and screws, and a bolt handle to bolt onto the bolt body, to make a bolt with a bolt handle that will clear the scope. The bluing and bore is mint, except where they removed the sights. I have a surplus Burris 23/4 power Burris scout scope and a Leupold 2x IER scope. I am thinking about just turning the scope mount around and drilling and tapping the receiver, and mounting one of these scopes, wont have to bother with the bolt handle, though that would not be much of a job, have done several MN bolt handle conversions over the past 30+ years as a gunsmith
What would you guys do?

[RED BEAR]

sounds like a plan to me.

[leebuilder]

Do the best you can with the knowledge and tooling you have.
Mint polish M44 go for a pretty penny up here.
Be well

[nagantguy]

Shame how many of these suffered under the hammers and soldering irons of Bubba; could be you could find some original sights and restore her. They do go for a lot of money now days compared to the dozen or so I bought years ago for $49 a piece. My brother has a very nice example; and I have one that was done out in a synthetic stock and had the bolt bent and and a scope installed and the bayonet removed, the bore is excellent and it shoots so well I never messed with it.
These are handy little rifles and with a scout scope and some middling cast loads make a fantastic walking around/deer rifle!!! Seems I see more Polish and Chinese 54s in good condition; read that the CHI-COM ones were not issued for a very long period of time and then put into surplus storage; and stored well; I can attest that the grease or cosmoline the Chinese used is by far the hardest to remove from the bore and innards; the color is darker than European or Russian I’ve also cleaned much of and it takes a lot of carb and choke cleaner to even loosen it. Sorry for the thread drift. Nice score on a nice piece of history. I’d love to see some pics.

[RED BEAR]

russians used them for sniper rifles. they are very accurate.

[Earlwb]

Why not finish it up and do it up real nice.

[WILCO]

Restore it.

[Gtek]

If I had known then what I know now, oops! I have a $69 M59 Bulgarian that I molested about thirty years ago, roughest NEW machined bore I had ever seen steering decision. Cut bolt and welded duplicating sniper handle, installed a real (Russian) WWll sniper mount and scope which required stock relief. Was drilled and indexed on mill Thank You, may talk like Bubba but try not to be one, OK, maybe a little! Fire breathing cheek slapping thing will hold less than two inches all day long with the 204 gr. SP copper washed Russian imported many moons ago. Fouled pretty quick but improved every session, it is way down at the bottom of the go to list these days but it is worthy. Those bolt handle kits, uhum! not for me and you said no problem you know what to do. Sounds like a fun project and you will not be destroying a weekend getaway down the road like I did. Scoped will get it done carbine, still relatively cheap blasting ammo, made just how you wanted it, what's the down side?

[Geezer in NH]

russians used them for sniper rifles. they are very accurate.

44's were not the snipers and this one is not Russian.

44's sold for under 50 bucks to dealers $35 buying 10 Tula's in wrap may have been rebuilds but of the 100 I sold in the shop they appear factory new at the first orders. QULITY went down 3-5 years later to the point cracked stocks were 25 bucks but that was not their only problem.

I do miss the import surplus great rifles at affordable prices for everyone.

Snipers seem to be the 91's only and they cost way more when they came with their scope.

I do have a Finn 38 with a mount and scope but that has a Sako barrel.

The platform is however very accurate IMHO

[43PU]

Remington made them too, I collect mosins with over 100 in my collection.. I miss the days of picking up 20 in a crate for 850$ OTD. The polish mosins are the best I have seen made other then the American versions I have a Remington M91 that will shoot the 311299 into 1” at 100 with irons over 32 imr 4064

[nagantguy]

Remington made them too, I collect mosins with over 100 in my collection.. I miss the days of picking up 20 in a crate for 850$ OTD. The polish mosins are the best I have seen made other then the American versions I have a Remington M91 that will shoot the 311299 into 1” at 100 with irons over 32 imr 4064

Agree ;I think the Polish made ones may even be the best made of the lot, behind only the Fins of course. I also really miss buying them cheap; my first batch of Russian “shortys” was $49 bucks a piece cause I picked them up. They were not pristine grade but very serviceable and I leaned a lot about making them! Remember the 98 grain lead wade cutter type training ammo? It was a gray ready made pest remover/reduced recoil round and if I recall in the early fall of 1994 or 95 it was about $60 bucks per sealed 440 round tin.

[koger]

Guys thanks for all your comments, none of the numbers match, so I will be drilling an tapping it, with a scout scope to adorn it!