The Finns are anal about accuracy and if the crown was messed up at all they wanted to take care of it. However, doing any kind of barrel work that would shorten the barrel at all was no good as the bayonets would not fit properly. Thus the counterbore technique. Perfect rifle to the end of contact with the bullet, but with the factory length barrel. Bayonets ARE hard to find. Like others said, they sold replicas a few years back fairly cheap, but they might even be all gone by now. Originals are probably near the $250 range. What kinda M39 did you get and where? BTW, the Finns made all their rifles off bought and captured Mosin receivers. Pull the action and look on the underside of the tang. There usually is a manufacturer mark and date stamped on there unless the Finn's scrubbed it. I have a few M39's that are pre-1898 and thus antiques in the eyes of the ATF. Terry