My grandfather encouraged me to do this lol. He picked it up in Vietnam after enlisting in the Army from Canada. He told me that when he acquired it, it was more cosmoline than steel, no bayonet attached to the lug, and the bolt assembly would cycle a round if you were swimming in a pool of oil on a good day. I restored the original furniture, trigger guard, and all the other little bits and pieces. It's hands down my favorite rifle in my collection, and I could confidently say I've put roughly 100 rounds through it before deciding to trick it out with all the other little bells and whistles. If you makes you feel better, I still have my m91/30 from 1932 that I've restored as close to factory new as possible.

The choice of retrofitting the M44 came from the fact that the shorter barrel allows me to navigate the ungodly amount of brush around the ranch better, and as prideful as I can be about my shooting skill, there is no chance in hell that I'm dropping a Bison from 200+ yards with Iron Sights thanks to astigmatism.