Lancaster: Statistically I believe you are correct. The black bear does injure and probably kill more people than the browns, but only because blackies are distributed throughout areas of high population density and most bear attacks seem to be provoked by some sort of unusual behavior by people; feeding bear being the most common. We consider them dangerous to dogs certainly, and I know many cases of bear injuring or killing dogs, but we do not consider them especially dangerous to people though they certainly can be, and even our small ones can take an amazing amount of physical punishment and keep fighting. And they can run forever, and sometimes do!!

As for the meat, it is, in my opinion, the best meat in the woods. Very tender, it tastes much like aged beef and a bear roast is indistinguishable from a fine beef pot roast. It is wonderful!

Mosin's were once VERY popular hunting rifles in the USA, back in the 30's when cheap MN's could be obtained and Remington made ammunition for them. Then, for years, no US company made ammo. Now, there are many, many thousands of MN's in the USA and many have large collections of them. I myself did, but sold my entire MN collection some years ago. The action is indeed strong and bedding for accuracy easy. And they are or can be, VERY accurate.

I have seen some interesting sporters based on both the hexagonal {91} and round {91-30} actions. The bolt is a fascinating design, very sturdy and VERY reliable. I would say probably as reliable as the Mauser 98 and the action very strong. The bolt fit in the action is somewhat loose and not "smooth" functioning.

The real "devil" is the trigger. The stock Russian trigger is a challenge. Some rifles have nice pulls, others....UHG!! It has a long drag, then a spongy and seemingly variable release. After much tinkering, I finally learned how to reshape a stock Russian trigger to give a good pull with a two-stage release. Very nice. The Finns beat the Russian trigger by the addition of two pins creating two humps for a repeatable two-stage release. These are found on Finnish M28-30 and M39 rifles. They can be adjusted very light and crisp. I have reworked quite a number of guns.

Original Winchester 95's here pricey, especially those in .405 Winchester. I have a friend with a large collection of 95's. He has 95's in .303, .30-40, .38-72, .40-72, .405, .30-06. But I do not believe he has a 7.62. They just are very rare here!

And a 95 in 9,3x53R???

Not a chance!