I have thought about buying one in 45-70 and doing a little dressing up of the wood, and do a trigger job which every one I have seen or fired were horrendous. I would also, once regulated, would solder it permanently because I have seen several suddenly loose regulation on examples belonging to friends. That would perplex me no end if it did so and let me wound a bear and have to go in the weeds with a $600 double rifle that is not regulated to sort out a wounded bear.

I must say, the first one I saw that belonged to a friend of mine, I was more than surprised at it’s potential for a starting point to build a good, not fine, but good canoe rifle that you don’t have to worry about loosing if you capsize in the rapids. It would be a fine little rifle to sit on a black bear bait or light rifle for following bear/lion dogs.

In my opinion these little rifles would have sold better if it had been also chambered for 30-30. Regulated for Winchester factory ammo with 170 gr bullets then soldered permanently would be a better balanced cartridge to rifle chambering. This would allow a youngster a learner double rifle that wouldn’t break the bank, and would take the abuse of a kid banging the rifle around without bringing tears to the eyes of his father.

Even an ugly child is loved by it’s father, so with a little grooming, the little Russian would be a joy to play with!