I bought one from West Rifle and am very happy with both the service and the rifle.
If you are looking for a mosin nagant in good condition and want the feel of shooting a war time sniper mosin, but either don't have the funds to buy one, or cannot find one that has all matching parts including a scope this is the one for you.
The stock and especially handgard were not mangled and had
minamal dings and dents. The finish was smooth for the most part and looked good.
I was surprised how little cosmoline came with the rifle. The bore was not counterbored and there was no frosting. After ensuring the whole thing was spotless after a little cleaning, my bore turned out very clean and shiny.
The Windage and elivation nobs do not click; just like the originals and the scope is clear. The mount and scope base were installed well and the cutt-out on the side of the wood stock to accomodate the scope base was cut clean with no wood shavings and resulted in my stock fitting extremely well with the receiver. My scope has the logo for the NPZ factory. Scratching on the metal is at a minimum when compared to most of the m91/30s I've seen. based on the markings on my scope and researching npz on the internet, I believe this scope is being produced by them today and they made the scope which came with my rifle.
For a shooter this is a pretty good rifle!
If you are trying to pass it off as the real war-time sniper, collectors will be able to see it is not. Just as it is stated by Al, this rifle was a regular rifle that was configured into a sniper configuration by adding the scope base, stock cuttout, bent bolt handle and mounting of a pu scope. My scope lacks the war time soviet crest. The serial numbers on my rifle match, but are missing the 2 letters before the 4 didgit number and factory markings like on my receiver. This means my rifle was forced matched.
It is a lot of work to make a regular rifle look like a war time sniper and the same goes for "restoring" an x-sniper. I know I am not capable of doing all the work and making it look this good, so I bought one from West rifle as paying a smith to do all the work for me was going to cost me a lot more and it is possible the resulting project could end up looking just as bad as if I had done it myself.
If you have more questions, send them an email. I talked with them for a few weeks before buying mine.
