I have the big long one and I killed two deer with it over the years.It is not as accurate as my AR-15 but it is accurate enough to kill a guy or deer out to 100 yards or better.My Nagant does not have a scope on it,I hear that if you have a scope on it that it shoots alot better.

My first rifle was a Mosin Nagant long rifle, there's a carbine model as well which I've never tried, but anyway, mine was very accurate, I'm at about sharpshooter level and I could easily do a 2" group at 100 yards.

I have several of them and the most accurate is and 1894 dated M91 long rifle. These tend to be the most accurate as you've a longer barrel and longer distance between the sights. The carbines are also capable of good accuracy though not as precise as the long rifles can be, still they are quite good enough for hunting purposes. If you are looking at them for hunting purposes I would recommend the carbine as its shorter and handier, they can still be had dirt cheap (under $120.00 easily) and ammunition is readily available (plenty of old Combloc stuff around though its corrosive so clean your gun accordingly, also newer manufacture stuff is available in hunting loads). Scopes can be mounted on them and hte bolt handle bent to accomodate the scope pretty easily. Either an M38 or M44 should do fine, though with the M44 you may wish to remove the side-folding spike bayonet before sighting it as they are actually sighted with the intention of having the bayonet fixed when firing and my M44 would shoot three feet to the left with the thing folded. Aside from the bayonet the M44 is basically the same as the M38, Russians liked the shorter M38 but felt its lack of a bayonet was a handicap in close fighting like in urban areas so M44 was developed to replace the M38.

Very rare to find any military rifle of that era that will consistently shoot under 3" groups at 100M. The standard that most had to meet for acceptance was 3.5 -4" in most cases with the 98K being 3". But they only had to do it from a machine rest.... I've had several Mosin's two that could pass for un-issued and even they were 3.5-4" guns with any consistency. But of course only on the internet do you find all these tack driver surplus loose tolerance when new... military rifles. You NEVER see them at the range... The ones you do see,are always pie plate guns which is what they all really are when you get down to it