[wolfen]

So, a local gunshop here has a Mosin Nagant 91/30? sniper rifle. It has the scope, mounts, tools, everything but the ammo. All the numbers match and the metal is in great shape, wood has a few dings, but other than that and being coated in cosmoline it is very good condition. They are asking about $400 for it. Is it worth it?

 

[pisgah]

I may be very wrong here, but I have to say that the majority of the "snipers" you see at that price are not genuine snipers but regular 91/30s that have had the bolt bent and scope mount/scope added. $400 is about the going price for them, and genuine, original, for-sure snipers go for twice that and on up. The problem is documenting a real one. These rifles have been so rebuilt, renumbered, refinished, parts-swapped, modified, etc., etc. through the decades that a genuine sniper is very rare. That said, though, the "fake" snipers can be very nice shooters -- they're just rarely what they claim to be.

 

[wolfen]

thanks for the info I'll pass on it for now.

 

[MikeG]

Century arms has their 'snipers' (and they admin to having repro scopes) for your same $400. Definitely in the right ballpark. Can't comment on how many they actually sell for that price.

 

[pisgah]

I don't want to imply that a fake sniper is necessarily a bad deal -- just that it is not a collectible. If you buy a plain 91/30, then buy the correct mount and scope, go through the motions of bending the bolt and drilling/tapping to mount the scope, well, you'll have something close to that $400 in it.

 

[devil8975]

actually most snipers at that price are real snipers. the russians simply plugged the screw holes with a weld and used them as regular infantry weapons. Sometimes a lucky guy will come across one of these ex-snipers and you can drill out the welds and put it back to sniper form. Easy way to see if one is real? the scope numbers will match the rifle's number.

 

[lazydog]

my 91/30 stock has the cutout for a scope but not on the action.they miss matched parts when the redid them for storage

 

[A Shooter]

I bought an original 1943 91/30 without the scope for about $99. i found a website called www.accumounts.com that will sell a repo 3.5x26mm PU scope for about $300.
So if you cant do the math, it will be about $400 total, so you have a pretty resonable deal

 

[kyew]

I just saw an ad in a magazine (don't recall which one, but I'll see if I can find it again and let you know) that had 91/30's for $68. Don't know what kind of shape they're in - probably not too good at that price - but you can get a receiver mount Weaver rail for about $40. A bolt kit comes with the mount. It's a tap & screw bolt handle. I didn't use that one - bought a separate bolt handle and welded it on, heated it and bent it where I wanted it. If you're just looking for a nice accurate cheap rifle, that's not a lot of cash to put into one. Thinking about buying another one myself and cutting five inches off the barrel, removing the rear sight, chopping the thin forward part of the stock off, and drilling/tapping for scope - cheap sporterized version.