Jim,
For those folks residing in the Western U.S., the Big 5 Sporting Goods stores are selling ‘collectable’ Mosin-Nagant 7.62x54R rifles at very good prices; under $200. I don’t know if all the stores have them but a couple of stores in the south Denver metro area have one or two each and they appear to be in acceptable shape. – Ken M.
JWR Replies: Thanks for that tip. OBTW, most Big 5 customers don’t realize that the military surplus rifles in the display racks are just examples of their inventory. Each store typically has from three to five more of each model still in boxes, back in their stock room. If you “chat up” the sales clerks, you can usually get them to either let you look through the back room inventory, or have them bring out three or four more rifle boxes, so that you can hand pick rifles. Look for rifles with no cracks in their stocks, nice bores, and that still have most of their bluing. Parenthetically, I have a friend who was successful at this a couple of years ago at the Big 5 store in Carson City, Nevada. This was back when Swiss 7.5mm K31 carbines were coming in to the country in large numbers. He came home with a nearly mint condition K31 at the same $185 price as the “run of the mill” well-worn carbines.