I know how you felt, M1QJ...
I recently acquired a Swedish M96 and a Mosin Nagant M91/30. Shot both for the first time. I lack the bolt tool for the Nagant, so I was "guessing" on the amount of firing pin protrusion and hoping against a face full of hot gas (or worse yet, a bolt to the forehead or a receiver explosion!). There certainly is a lot of tension behind pulling the trigger on that very first round in an old milsurp rifle, that's for sure.
On the plus side, both of these rifles I'm certain outshoot me - best I could do with 'em offhand was approximately 6" groups at 50 yards with a slight breeze.
Unfortunately, I'm still waiting on my updated prescription for my contact lenses that will hopefully remove the fuzziness associated with my astigmatism.
s0ulzer0, myself, and my fiancé's father got together on Sunday and shot quite a bit. Between the three of us, we have a total of 9 to clean - 3 ARs, 1 AK, 1 Sig P226, 1 M96, 1 M91/30, 1 SxS 12Ga, 1 Ruger 10/22. Fortunately, the bulk is in s0ulzer0's corner... [;)]
...and I learned that a 7.62x54R round will not only go through a 1/4" steel plate, but it will core the sumbitch, too! [:D]
the_reject