Did I score?! (Russian SKS)

From what I've seen Westrifles are light refurbs. It could just be the gas piston or handguard that was replaced.
I haven't checked their site lately but a lot of them were in rough shape.
 
Mayday_ said:
From what I've seen Westrifles are light refurbs. It could just be the gas piston or handguard that was replaced.
I haven't checked their site lately but a lot of them were in rough shape.
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How can you tell if a gas piston was replaced from pictures???
They had rough ones for a while. Looks like the current stock is back to what it was. Maybe Al cracked a few of the old crates.
 
I'd asked where this one came from, since i was pondering getting one and was hoping to find one that hadnt been beat on as badly as the ones ive already seen. Good news, I found what i think is a beauty last night, i dont see any obvious signs of wear, numbers all match, no electropen i could see, described by the deal as collectors grade unrefurbished. If i ever get it de-gunked, might post some pics. :)
 
Ghillie Man said:
You cannot tell which are refurb and which are non-refurb by looking at a single picture...
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First you look at the dust cover. If no refurb mark, pay attention to the bluing of the dust cover. The ends should be darker and the middle lighter colour. If so, it's original bluing, no BBQ paint. Check if the stock, receiver,bolt carrier, trigger guard and magazine has the same s/n with SAME FONT. If so, you know it's not forced matched numbers.
Then you take a chance and buy it. Then hopefully the s/n on the gas tube, gas piston, the back of the rear sign ladder, back of the dust cover, bolt and the extractor match.
And if the rest of the metal has bluing and stock is not touched ud you know you have non refurb.
 
jaroslav said:
First you look at the dust cover. If no refurb mark, pay attention to the bluing of the dust cover. The ends should be darker and the middle lighter colour. If so, it's original bluing, no BBQ paint. Check if the stock, receiver,bolt carrier, trigger guard and magazine has the same s/n with SAME FONT. If so, you know it's not forced matched numbers.
Then you take a chance and buy it. Then hopefully the s/n on the gas tube, gas piston, the back of the rear sign ladder, back of the dust cover, bolt and the extractor match.
And if the rest of the metal has bluing and stock is not touched ud you know you have non refurb.
Click to expand...

Oh I forgot: Westrifle posts several pictures, so you can take a clue.
 
Sadly the quality of SKS rifles are pretty bad right now and they have been getting steadily worse over the last couple years. I only got into Red rifles in 2013, when I got back into shooting regularly. One thing for certain, what we are seeing today are no where near the quality of 2015, and 2015 they were crap compared to what we were seeing in 2013.

Westrifle has some of the nicest now as he did in 2015, and also 2013. But his are also scraping the bottom of the barrel by the pictures. And that Frankenpining of the mag...... No THANKS!! That is FUGLY!!

That said OP you got a beauty, shoot it, clean it and enjoy it
 
In an ideal world, with a rifle that you know is 100% numbers matching and original (as if you were there when it was built), there are parts which would otherwise be impossible to recognize as matching or not to anyone else. Those would be;

- Gas tube
- Gas piston (primary and secondary)
- Dust cover (if sourced from same year, same factory)
- Magazine release (from matching early or late prod.)
- Sear
- Trigger
- Hammer
- Cover latch
- Cleaning rod
- Front and rear sights
- Handguard cover
- Buttplate
- Cleaning kit
- More that I'm forgetting

Assuming that the aforementioned parts LOOK original, with their original bluing, there is no way that anyone with any level of knowledge (other than you, the time traveler) could differentiate whether they came from that rifle or not, as they are not serialized. However, there are parts that are serialized, that you can confirm are from the rifle in question without a doubt, such as;

- Bolt carrier
- Bolt
- Trigger housing
- Receiver (duh)
- Stock
- Magazine

100% obvious signs of a non matching or refurbished part are as follows;

- Sandblasting of any kind
- Paint of any kind replacing factory bluing
- Refurb marks (duh)
- Stocks with crossed out serials, missing shellac, dual recoil lugs, most laminated stocks
- Sanitized metal parts, most have obvious signs of metal removal
- Electro pencil marks on anything

That only covers 1949 - 1955 Russian rifles made in either factory. The point being is that even if you receive a rifle that's full of cosmoline and that outwardly looks original, there is absolutely no telling if 100% of the parts are originally from that rifle, because most of the parts are identical to the last rifle made in the factory from the same bin of unserialized parts.
 
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