SKS not refurbished, how to tell?

Black bayo is a sign of refurbishment. It is a beautiful gun but a refurb nonetheless. Not all refurbs are marked on the receiver or the butt stock. You didn't show the Date/Factory/Serial number side of the stock. Many of these will be lighter where the stock was sanded and restamped. The factory stamp and date will also be missing on the stock too. It will just be a serial number. Another dead giveaway of a refurb. This one looks like a Wholesale sports gun. I got 5 of them. They are in great shape. All black bayo. No import marks. As has already been stated best I have seen too in a while.
 
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Black bayo and reblued metal parts are clear signs of refurbishing. Find my post on EE whre there s stilll one truly unrefurbished sks and you'll see the difference, especially note muzzle end - it should be bare metal.

P.s. And I agree that there is a reason we have stickies, such simple questions were already answered there. So pointing to stickies is not an attitude, it's just a way to help any novice sks owner or collector to be.
 
^^^Thanks for the info about the bare metal muzzle end. Mine must be a refurb then but it's a matching number 56 which is what I wanted. Mine is still strange not to have any date stamp, Tula stamp or Refurb stamp but I also don't have the original stock, mag or bayo. Now I have one of these I now know what all the fuss is about Russian Milsurp guns compared to todays half plastic or mostly plastic guns that you pay a $1000+ for. :eek:
 
Ontario597 said:
^^^Thanks for the info about the bare metal muzzle end. Mine must be a refurb then but it's a matching number 56 which is what I wanted. Mine is still strange not to have any date stamp, Tula stamp or Refurb stamp but I also don't have the original stock, mag or bayo. Now I have one of these I now know what all the fuss is about Russian Milsurp guns compared to todays half plastic or mostly plastic guns that you pay a $1000+ for. :eek:
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All of them originally use to have date stamp, either explicit on the cover, or as serial number letter suffix for 1956-1958. Now after refurb you can very strange combinations and no way to determine the date, but it's only true for refurbs and as you can see it's pretty easy to tell refurb or non-refurb.
 
Ontario597 said:
^^^Thanks for the info about the bare metal muzzle end. Mine must be a refurb then but it's a matching number 56 which is what I wanted. Mine is still strange not to have any date stamp, Tula stamp or Refurb stamp but I also don't have the original stock, mag or bayo. Now I have one of these I now know what all the fuss is about Russian Milsurp guns compared to todays half plastic or mostly plastic guns that you pay a $1000+ for. :eek:
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In late '55 Tula started stamping their star on the left side of the receiver and no longer stamped the receiver cover with the date or their arsenal marking. I have both a early and late '55 in my collection. I am at work so pictures don't show up in the threads so I'm not sure if you've posted a pic of your serial with the letters but it can be 'decoded'. '55-'56 last production years of these rifles saw a Frankenstein approach to some of the guns by using extra parts that were around and were in some cases force matched to the receiver's serial. If the original stock was bad enough not to be sanded and re-stained, a spare stock was fitted and force matched to the serial. There are lots of different ways they did that too. I have come across many original stocks that are true to the rifle, but they have been gone over and repaired anyway. All Canadian guns with a pinned mag were touched by an arsenal at some point, it was a requirement to import them into Canada. I agree with Horilka, there are some really strange combos out there!
 
Not all refurbs received refurb stamps, some were missed. So be sure to look for other signs of refurb mentioned in this thread.
 
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