Sure the Mosin is dirty and ugly and beat all the heck and gone. Thats cause a couple scared commie kids dragged it all the way from Moscow to Berlin killing Germans and bleeding all over the darned thing.
Why don't you take a classic car, rip out the original engine, throw in an LS2, carbon fiber the entire interior, and replace the factory wheels with spinners while you're at it?
"but Curtis, theres tons of these old rifles laying around." Yeah, and there used to be tons of Garands, Arisakas, mausers, Carcanos, Enfields, and M-1 carbines laying around too, for dirt cheap. Where'd they all go? Some are locked up in collections, some got destroyed because S@(* happens, and a bunch got chopped up and made into a sporting rifles. They've outlasted the warriors that packed them, the gear that came with them, the uniforms, and even the battlegrounds themselves. The rifles and weapons are just about the only things left that a common man with a historic interest can purchase for himself, and hold in his own two hands.
Sorry about the rant, its the Amateur historian in me. *Wanders off to fondle the Mauser I just bought today* "Filthy Hobbitses! Pay them no mind, My precciooouussss!"
