My first though was a 1943 CAI import M91\30 sitting in a wartime stock...
![Image](http://www.szudzik.net/albulms/Firearms/Mosin/1943%20Izhevsk/RightSide.jpg)
BostonMike wrote:My first Mosin and firearm ever. No big story really. After months of research, I came across the Mosin and fell in love with the ugly thing.
Local gun store had $99 sale. So I went and grabbed a box. I got this and guess it's a good one ;)
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That rack was full of 1943 Trials rifles, hex receiver rebuilds, and 1944 Tulas, every one with a DDR stamp, MO, or bothTitanium Hammer wrote:Back around 1997 or so I walked into one of the local gun shops to look at getting an AR. I was staring at all of the AR's behind the counter when I turned around and saw rack upon rack of carbines with folding bayonets on them. I walked over and grabbed one and gave it a good looking over. I was so used to handling Remington's & Winchester's that my mind kept telling me this Russian carbine was a piece of junk and would probably blow up in my face on the first squeeze of the trigger & the $59.95 price tag on it only confirmed my suspicions. I made a mental note to myself to jump on the Internet and see what type of information I could find on these things to back up my suspicions that they were junk and dangerous junk at that! Several hours later after plowing through page after page of confusing numbers, symbols, odd Russian names that I couldn't pronounce, and nothing substantial to back up my theory that anyone pulling the trigger would probably face years of facial reconstruction surgery etc, I gave up and didn't think about Mosins again for 10+ years. Being a bit of a foreign movie buff, particularly foreign WWII movies I would continually see these Mosin rifles. Well I decided it was time for more research on these rifles. Thankfully the Internet had grown up by then and good information was now plentiful. I decided I was going to jump back in and research as much as I could. I spent hours each night on all kinds of Mosin related sites and even hovered on here for a year or two before signing on. My first Mosin was a 1933 hex Izhevsk 91/30 refurb. I had spent the better part of a month running around to gun shops around the area searching for Mosins but the pickings were slim to none. One day I walked into the closest gun shop to my house and didn't see any Mosins. As I started to walk out the door I took one last look at the counter and couldn't believe my eyes! There she was! They had just brought a 91/30 out from the back. I couldn't believe my luck. She was a hex and had the brass tab handguard. I couldn't believe my luck! It didn't matter that the handguard was dark brown and the stock was blonde. She was going to be mine so long as the bore checked out. Sure enough it did and she came home with me. Since then I have often kicked myself and wondered if there were any gems in the racks of M44's I saw when this whole journey started. I've since moved on from refurbs and picked up some real nice pieces and this 91/30 doesn't make it to the range much now but she will always be one of my favorites. Behold, Svetlana!![]()