I got a 1944 dated ex-pu sniper a few weeks ago at a local gun shop for $125 out the door. It's your basic arsenal re-work job. Non matching stock, non matching mag bottom and welded up holes. The pros of it are: it's not counter bored, the rifiling is very clean and very crisp after spending 2 hours getting all of the cosmoline out of it. The trigger is nice, not too much creep and breaks clean, sometimes sneaks up on you.
I also got a original style repro PU mount from the same shop for $30. It is just the bracket that mounts to the rifle without the scope or the scope mount. I had it installed on the rifle by a smith and found a mount with a weaver rail for $100 and threw a cheapo $70 scope on top to get it out and get rid of some of the 2010 ice age frustration. I didn't want to wait another minute for an original or repro PU to come my way.
The range was a slop hole getting in from all the melting snow and ice over the last few days.
I zero the scope at 25 yds 1st to get dialed in close then off to the 100 yd range. After the initial re-dial for range change I started getting wonderful patterns. I'm using 7n1 bullets pulled from the steel cases and loaded in brass behind 42 grains of IMR 4064. My base load for all Nagant reloads.
Here are the photos from the 100 yd range:
Above are the 7n1 bullets, been getting a flyer on the 1st shot every time after I run a bore snake thru it.
174 grain BTHP Sierras. 13 shots rushed, starting to rain a little and I wanted to get going.
Here's the rifle:
I need to get some better pictures of the marks on the receiver. I added the hand grip piece for my comfort. My wrist is going to crap and the straight stocks kill it. The stock I modified is a gun show pick up with some gnarly scortch marks on the right side by the bolt that I stripped and re stained with dark walnut Minwax. I've got the stock it came on in the safe to keep it looking nice.