Ugly? No, this is what a normal milsurp looks like after years, decades of service. In the normal course of things rifles are passed down from one level of troops to another before ending up as reserve weapons for militia use. Most normal governments do not waste billions of dollars refurbishing obsolete weapons and storing them away as the Soviets did with their Mosins. Anybody curious about why there is no USSR today? This sort of thing would be one reason. Romania got some of these refurbished Soviet weapons, either directly from the USSR as post war aid, or from one of the other buffer states later on. The Romanian communist party under Nicolae Ceaușescu, and his predecessors Chivu Stoica, and other communist idiots managed to run the countries economy into the ground. They had no money to steadily produce their own M44's so they received aid in the form of used rifles from other buffer states. These rifles seem to have received little more than parts swapping with new serial numbers stamped next to the old to keep them working. Stock's were repaired, repeatedly, one I have contains at least eight repairs. They did not waste money on appearance, the rifle you get today looks exactly as it did when it was issued to the last Romanian communist soldier to carry it.
By and large this is how it's always been with milsurps until the Soviets went and spoiled everybody with their pretty refurbs. The Finn imports were not like this, neither were the Enfields, Turk Mauser's, or the US milsuprs back in the 90's. Back in the early days we never saw something like a refurbished milsurp unless Bubba did it, or it was one of the rare unissued models that sometimes came along. Check out the history of Romania under the communists, an interesting story, especially the end when they took Ceaușescu and his wife and.....well, I won't ruin the ending for you
Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.
Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
Theodore Roosevelt
