When I walked up the next aisle, I found the one that had to come home with me. A nice gentleman was selling some of his personal collection, including a beautiful '42 Tula SVT and a '52 Polish M44. The Polish M44 has been on my short list for a while but the only one I've seen in person was $400 and looked like it was run over by a tank. This one was in excellent condition, not unfired but still in great shape for a shooter. The price was really appealing at $200. Only problem was that my quarterly gun fund money doesn't come around until April 1st and I only had $69 left in the current fund. My friend and I caught up with the wives, who had shuffled off to look at knives. My wife asked if there was anything that had caught my eye. I told her that there were two that had though there was one I would really like. I asked whether she'd let me get some of my funds a week early to get the Polish M44 since he wasn't likely to be selling at another gunshow. She, being the amazingly wonderful wife that she is, said yes! Woo hoo! I quickly walked to the ATM, grabbed some cash and went back to grab the rifle. I handed the guy the cash, got the rifle and brought it home. I cleaned it up and was going to put it into the safe but just couldn't. How could I let this new rifle sit in the safe on such a beautiful day like today? Well, I couldn't, so I grabbed 20 rounds and went to the range to see how it would shoot. Unfortunately everyone else in the greater Seattle area thought it would be a good idea as well and there were no rifle benches available and people were stacked deep waiting for one. I grabbed a 20 yard pistol bay and did my shooting, much to the chagrin of all the folks around me
The trigger on this one is absolutely amazing. As much as I love the trigger on my Finns, this one is absolutely better. By far the smoothest and lightest trigger pulls on any of my rifles. Nice, crisp and clean. At 20 yards, I'm not going to judge accuracy for this one, that'll have to wait until next week. Needless to say, there was a very nice hole right on the bullseye. I have very high expectations of this one next time I go out!
Enough of the story! Here are some photos for you to look at. Like I said, it's not a un-issued but it's reasonably clean and at the price, there's no way I could say no.
Quick outdoor shot after I got it cleaned up.
Barrel shank - 1952 (11). The blueing is pretty good overall. There's a few spots on it under the wood line where the blue is gone. I'd say it's probably 95% overall.
It's not 100% matching. The barrel, mag floor plate and butt plate all match but the bolt does not.. If you have my bolt, lets talk
Very pleased with the bore. Still have to work on these shots, they don't tend to show the "shininess" all that well. All the rifling looks really good.
