Finally bit it and bought a SVT-40, an Izhevsk 1940 production rifle which i got with a blued bayonet & scabbard (hey why not !) that came from the same city ! After removing the cosmoline from the metal parts (& surface of the stock) it almost looks like a brand new gun, no rust at all and the bore looks shinny and the rifling shows its presence ! It aches to fire again for sure after all these years ! 
With semi-complete instructions gathered on the net, this is one tough thing to take down on first time, add the baked/dried/jampacks of cosmoline and you got some serious headache; along removing *&"?$?%&/" bolt cover and the dreaded overscrewed cosmojammed cross pin screw (took an hour to take down, 40 mins just for the scew got scared ok ?) and i had to figure the cartridge trick to hold the *&"?$?%&/" bolt cover to put in back in the receiver rails. (rear spring guide snaped skin off my thumb and got really pissed by that point)
Here is a pic
And another one, highlighted this time for a better sight
When i ordered it, i though it would need stripper clips, to reload by the real way, but original mosin-nagant stripper clips are quite scarce and many repro do not follow the dimensions or correct angles of folding, but i looked at numrich ones (and bought a few) and they looked much like late production ones with a sorta brass look (they said its steel, in the white) but unlike most repro they seemed to have the sharp angles needed to hold the rims of the casings, here i got a pair of pics for your own visual inspection....
They all fit the guide quite well on my svt, as soon as i'll get ammunition i'll issue a review on this hardware and maybe stock up on these pieces.
I also need your advice, i never touched nor seen a reloading press but i really want to get into that hobby mostly for the economy that it brings along with better accuracy possibilities, starting with the 7.62x54R... I used to read that svt's don't like too heavy bullets (say its too hard for the rifle), but there's not much .310 to .312 jacketed bullets that weight around the 150 grains d-ball of the era... But i also read about few shooters that used heavier bullets (i've seen up to 200 grains and working good) and all needed was a lower gas setting, so is any of this true ? What would be a too heavy bullet ? One bullet that seems really nice to me in that panel of size along with great performance possibilities would be this one http://www.sierrabullets.com/index.cfm?section=bullets&page=bc&submit=1&stock_num=2315&bullettype=0 the 174gr HPBT SMK if bore size correctly could it be a possible choice ? Or should i use a lighter one by fear of blowing up my gun ? Or switch to 150 grains .308 bullets and pray for accuracy ?
With semi-complete instructions gathered on the net, this is one tough thing to take down on first time, add the baked/dried/jampacks of cosmoline and you got some serious headache; along removing *&"?$?%&/" bolt cover and the dreaded overscrewed cosmojammed cross pin screw (took an hour to take down, 40 mins just for the scew got scared ok ?) and i had to figure the cartridge trick to hold the *&"?$?%&/" bolt cover to put in back in the receiver rails. (rear spring guide snaped skin off my thumb and got really pissed by that point)
Here is a pic
And another one, highlighted this time for a better sight
When i ordered it, i though it would need stripper clips, to reload by the real way, but original mosin-nagant stripper clips are quite scarce and many repro do not follow the dimensions or correct angles of folding, but i looked at numrich ones (and bought a few) and they looked much like late production ones with a sorta brass look (they said its steel, in the white) but unlike most repro they seemed to have the sharp angles needed to hold the rims of the casings, here i got a pair of pics for your own visual inspection....
They all fit the guide quite well on my svt, as soon as i'll get ammunition i'll issue a review on this hardware and maybe stock up on these pieces.
I also need your advice, i never touched nor seen a reloading press but i really want to get into that hobby mostly for the economy that it brings along with better accuracy possibilities, starting with the 7.62x54R... I used to read that svt's don't like too heavy bullets (say its too hard for the rifle), but there's not much .310 to .312 jacketed bullets that weight around the 150 grains d-ball of the era... But i also read about few shooters that used heavier bullets (i've seen up to 200 grains and working good) and all needed was a lower gas setting, so is any of this true ? What would be a too heavy bullet ? One bullet that seems really nice to me in that panel of size along with great performance possibilities would be this one http://www.sierrabullets.com/index.cfm?section=bullets&page=bc&submit=1&stock_num=2315&bullettype=0 the 174gr HPBT SMK if bore size correctly could it be a possible choice ? Or should i use a lighter one by fear of blowing up my gun ? Or switch to 150 grains .308 bullets and pray for accuracy ?
Otherwise i appreciate it ! 
I'll order some Igman off districorp ASAP to figure if can make it fire, again and again and again and aga.... After this, if the brass is fine, this could be used for a future reloading session ! Future sure looks interesting...
