It's a beautiful rifle, it's how a rifle should be in my imagination.And the most recent arrival, which I picked up Friday:
Money shot:
1944 ST-block all-matching Izhevsk 91/30 sniper, not counterbored (and the bore is amazing), metal is not refinished (just patched in a few minor areas with the infamous black paint, which is wearing off just from handling so I'll probably remove it as carefully as possible), new stock was installed during refurb when they de-snipered it. I plan on picking up a 1944 PU and restoring it to its original state (and if anyone finds one serialled B-143713, please let me know!
In Australia, where I live, you're lucky to find an ex-sniper in good condition for less than $500. In the US they usually sell for maybe $2-300, often less. Not sure about anywhere else, but Mosins are generally pretty cheap. It's finding a good one, especially with the ex-sniper rifles, that's the issue.
I would seriously recommend you do not try and scope your SVT unless it already has the requisite notch on the rear of the receiver. Adding said notch will devalue the rifle (and in the US, they are actually worth a fair amount thanks to import laws) and will earn the immediate distrust of collectors since people try and fake SVT snipers all the time. I'm not saying you will pass it off as a real article, but it happens so often you'd be likely tarred with the same brush. At any rate the SVT was a less-than-stellar sniper rifle, so don't expect much accuracy from it.
![[Mad_Murdock]](/data/avatars/s/9/9417.jpg?1568638684){kind=avatar}
