I would like to see your face the first time you shoot that M-44. In bright sun light you will see a FIRE BALL about the size of a basket ball or larger. I have one that is super accurate though. It has been sighted with the bayonet extended. With out being extended it will shoot to the left quite a bit. You will have to tap the front sight to the left toward where it is shooting to get your sight alignment. It will look like you are almost removing the sight it will need to go so far but just stake the sight down good by tapping on both sides of the dovetail with a punch and it will not came out.
You sure are right about the fireball 
My one and only Mosin was a M44. My thoughts were to make a pick-up gun out of it. I did a Bubba job on it(I know) Cardinal sin)but I did it anyway. There are only a Gazillion floating around out there, and the chances of them becoming rare are slim to none. On one of my range trips with it, I forgot to put hearing protection on, and I couldn't hear normal for about a week.You couldn't run fast enough to give me another 44 or 38. I would like to Bubba a 91/30 though 
I did make a few bucks on the 44 after the Bubba job.
Yup!
That looks sweet!
You won't hear me saying its a sin.
I don't know what collectors are so concerned about with others modifying a gun.
Heck, if anything, you would think that they would encourage it for the simple fact that it makes their collection just that much more rare!
Besides, not everyone is a collector or carries the collector mentality.
My guns are my guns.
I buy them as users, and if I feel a gun needs a tweak to make it more usable to me, then thats what I will do!
I mean seriously, say you have a new girlfriend and you talked her into doing something different with her hair and bought her some new clothes, then you run into her last boyfriend, is he going to berate you because you defaced her?
Another example: You buy a somewhat well used 1968 Camaro SS, the first thing you do is have it re painted because you don't like the color or think it needs to be freshened up and you replace the wheels and tires, do the Camaro collectors come around and scoff at what you've done because you didn't leave it in its original untouched condition?
With that said and out of the way.
I took these out a few weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised.
I was using Mil surplus ammo, from factory 188, manufactured in 1976.
The M44 performed as expected, plenty of BOOM and fire balls, it shot a decent group at 100 yards, without a rest, just an elbow on the table I was able to get 2" groups.
But the 91/30, oh man!
Same shooting as above and was getting 1/2" groups with 5 nicely compact holes of touching groups that a nickle or there abouts would cover.
Talk about being tickled pink!
