Hungarian M44
Tinker, I have an M44 which is the Hungarian Carbine decendant of your rifle. I'm with the others about leaving your rifle as is. My rifle set me back $89.00 and the ammo is $2.83/20 and it's non-corrosive. I restocked mine with an ATI polymer sporter stock. Since I planned on using this rifle for hunting I've removed the bayonet. I have seen some Mosin Nagants that had a bayonet that folded against the stock with sufficient force that the only way to accurately shoot was to extend the bayonet. If you are struck by the bug to trick out one of these rifles, B-Square makes a scope mount that you can install yourself by driving out the rear sight pin. The mount consists of an aluminum picatinny rail with a lug base which fits into the ladder base of your sight assembly. You'd need a long eye relief scope but I'm thinking about putting a red dot sight on there since they are generally cheaper and I'm not expecting this rig to be a tackdriver.