Once upon a time Ivan went to China to show the little yellow people how to build M44s and brought along everything he needed to build them.
The Chinese like to name weapons after the year they adopt them, so instead of calling it just another M44, they called it the Type 53.
If it were not for surplus importers we would not have any Type 53s. When the importers went to China they found that they were scraping all of the old weapons to make cheap tools for Harbor Fright.
They bought Chinese surplus weapons for scrap weight. Omega was one of the largest importers of Chinese surplus weapons.
It was in the late 80s or early 90s that the US Govt. stopped all imports of Chinese weapons. So these T-53s that are hitting the market have been in storage for many years waiting for the value to go up.
I have two T-53's with all matching numbers.
The Chinese T-53 is one of the Mosin sleepers. In a few years there will be none at the importers and the value will jump like crazy. Just 3 years ago you could buy one for $30.
If you do make mods to your rifle it would be in your best intrest to not make them permenet as in cutting or grinding. Because one day down the road you could put it back in it's original condition and have a rifle worth much more then just another Mosin sporter.
