Mosin Nagants

VegasSMG wrote:

mikey67 wrote:Got my three "excellents" from Century last week. Just finished disassembling and cleaning and checking headspace. Got two 1943 and one 1938. All matching except for the mag floorplate on the 38 and all are excellent with dark bores but strong rifling. I'm pleased! Pics later!

It's not terribly uncommon for the floor plates to be mismatches or force matched. I'm up to double digits in MNs and every one except my Sako Finn arrived with very "dark" bores. Each one cleaned up well with a few solvent soaked cleaning patches and a brass brush. I think most are stored and ship with a cosmoline coating inside the barrel so if you haven't cleaned the bore, you may be very pleasantly surprised. I've been lucky and the worst I've ended up with are a couple of dark grooves with dull bores. My Finnish Nagant is absolutely mirror bright and is a superb shooter.

I wouldn't get hung up on the hex versus round receiver. Matching serial numbers and bore condition is more important to me. If price and condition factors are identical, I'd go with the hex receiver rifle. These will typically sell for ten to twenty bucks more strictly for collectability and a misguided perception that they are some how superior.