Well put. My k98 doesn't shoot well but I still fell in love with the bolt design and overall look and feel of it. There's my exception.Call me petty, but if a rifle doesn't shoot well, I can't fall in love with it. I might spend a foolish amount of money "accurizing" a rifle I really like to coax better precision from it, but if the dog don't hunt...
I have a soft spot for a m44 too. I knocked the sights and bayonette off mine and changed the stock. Trigger job. Polished everything (bolt lugs chamber) and ended up with a MOA shooter. A lot more work than its worth. But I had a good time with that thing.Mosin M-44. It was cheap, the ammo was cheap and cycling that stubborn bolt was oddly fun. I could never achieve anything greater than 10 MOA at 100 yds.
hey Chich, I coulda written that myself. In fact, I was going to until I read our post. So I just quoted it!My Norinco SKS. Even with trigger work, the trigger stinks. Even with careful aiming and good ammo, it is unsatisfying to shoot at tennis ball sized targets at 25 yards. But, it is the first rifle I bought myself and is in fantastic condition. So, I'll likely never part with it.
If he still has the rifle, that's a fairly easy fix if the dimple isnt too far from the end of the barrel. Either cut the barrel a little shorter, recrown and reset the sights. Or even simpler have the barrel counterbored back past the deformation. It wont matter if the screw hole is exposed in the counterbore as the bullet will be free of rifling and lands before it passed by.My B.I.L. had a Marlin 336 that shot very well for a while, but the hole for the front sight ramp was drilled too deep and eventually, a dimple formed in the bore. After that, bullets would keyhole at 50 yards and would barely stay on a 100 yard sighting-in target. He kept it, because he had shot a few deer with it before the problem occurred. (R.I.P. Slabsides.)