The vaguely toylike feel of the Number 4 is down to an utterly superb design: the absolute simplest mechanism which could do the jobs demanded of it. I think that James Paris Lee was the single finest rifle designer of the Nineteenth Century; he built but a single prototype and it went into production and sold. That was 1879. The last major mod on his design was in 1887 and his rifle is still in production 123 years later. Pretty hard to beat.
The Moisin-Nagant was a different story, designed later, under different circumstances. It assembled mechanisms which already were proven and put them together into a package which was near idiot-proof, near soldier-proof and rugged in the extreme. Better yet, it was made in Russia, so it was something that Russia could make without having to buy a whole new factory, using up what slender resources they actually had. Captain Moisin was, in his own way, another genius who is underappreciated.
Between the two men, forty million rifles were made to their designs. That's saying a lot.
You have a beautiful specimen of Captain Moisin's design. If it shoots half as good as it looks, you have a winner for sure; I only wish that some of mine looked half as good!
BTW, if you are handloading for your Moisin-Nagants, be sure that you feed them the same bullets as you use in your Number 4. The loadingmanuals say to use a .308" bullet, but a Moisin-Nagant will nearly always shoot its best with a .311" or a .312". Nice thing is that they dote on those boat-tails which the Enfield rifling of the Lee rifle doesn't like all that much.
You have a Very Fine Toy, friend.
Have fun!
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