I have fired several Nagants, and they are utter garbage compared to the M21, M24 and M40 SWS's. Your criticism would be valid if you could buy those guns FOR THE SAME PRICE as a Nagant. Since you can't, your statement is comparable to somebody saying that a $15K Honda Fit is garbage compared to a $120K Mercedes.
There are lots of Americans who can get away with spending $200 for a Nagant and some ammo, whose wives would divorce them if they spent $2K on a high-end rifle.
A Remington 700 short action .308 will outshoot a Nagant 10 times out 10
right out of the box with consumer grade ammunition. And they can be had for about $800. Of course a high quality scope, which is essential, is extra. You do not have to come anywhere near $2000 to outshoot a Nagant. I have a long action 700 in .30-06, which I spent about $100 on a B&C composite stock and another $40 on a Harris bipod. I spent maybe another $100 having the bed glassed and the barrel floated in the composite stock. It still has the
stock barrel. With my handloads I
consistently shoot sub 0.3 - 0.4 MOA groups at 100 yds. That equates to 3-4" at 1000 yds, assuming no wind of course. If you want to spend $200 on a piece of junk iron, have at it. You can get a used Rem 700 for maybe half that that will show up what a POS the Nagant really is.
