yes, they are as good or better than a mosin.
a mosin is quite crude in reality, which is part of their charm.
The svt 38 and 40 was russia's answer to the garand.
they have an adjustible gas port which is an atvantage/disatvantage to the garand. One of the issues at the time was improper cleaning which tended to foul them up.
The russians didn't particularly like the rifle because of this, but the germans did like the capture gun. It fires the same round as the mosin from a ten round mag. Accuracy is relative to what? To a mosin certainly.
I have fired both the semiauto and the select fire version and they are a hoot. The gas system, like the garand, takes quite a bit of the recoil out.
The s.k.s is a 7.62x39 and a lighter caliber than either the svt or the mosin.
They were allowed to be imported for a WHILE, but are currently restricted. Prices seem to continue to go up.
The bayonets are quite expensive.
As i remember, there were two different manufactures in russia, and the 38 came first, and was modifyied, thus the 40 designation. One of the interesting things about the svt is that the trigger fire controll group for the semiauto takes very little time to pull out and substitute the class three auto version of same. Thus, any svt can be made select fire with the select fire control group, which if course as to be registered. Any fairly rare in this country.
While i am a garand whore, i can say with some accuracy they are what the garand probably should have been.
