Never fired?

I Dont Care About You said:
ALL guns get fired before they leave the factory. 🤷‍♂️

Also, it's an SKS. That would be like buying a zero mileage Yugo. Seriously, who cares, it's still a piece of commie junk ... and I say that being an SKS owner.
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You're in the minority buddy. Many love their SKS's and appreciate them for their strengths and utility.
 
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paz said:
Asked why he thinks it has never been fired, reply was

“I bought it new from the store”

lol
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That seems like a reasonable response from a regular person. Not everyone is a firearm aficionado/historian. You have to factor in what you're actually buying. Maybe buying military surplus isn't for you.
 
paz said:
How do I tell or how easy is it to find out if an advertised SKS has actually never been fired?
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Funny enough, but ALL SKS manufacturing documentation is still classified. MN and SVT-40 - some topics are still classified, most were declassified. IIRC, and without digging through my books I would say I'm 90% sure that every single rifle was fired before accepted by Army representative at the factory.
Usually, when "unfired" is used to describe surplus rifle it has a meaning of "unfired after it left the factory, in un-issued condition".
If you want to see the difference between all conditions of the rifle you need to dive deep into collecting topics, and this will be a deep dive. If you buy rifle as collectible item, that is something you have to do anyway. And if you buy a shooter - you should not care if was fired or not, see the condition of the bore and be done.
P.S. All "grades" used in description by various stores that sell SKS mean no ####. Just disregard it.
 
There have certainly been numerous unissued surplus rifles over the years. Some were obviously unfired since leaving the factory.
I have a Mark III Ross Home Guard rifle which has no brass smears in the magazine and feed path, no primer ring on the bolt face. Is it unfired? Might be. Hard to prove either way. Does it matter? Not really. Advertise it as unfired? That would be deceptive, given the absence of any proof.
 
tiriaq said:
There have certainly been numerous unissued surplus rifles over the years. Some were obviously unfired since leaving the factory.
I have a Mark III Ross Home Guard rifle which has no brass smears in the magazine and feed path, no primer ring on the bolt face. Is it unfired? Might be. Hard to prove either way. Does it matter? Not really. Advertise it as unfired? That would be deceptive, given the absence of any proof.
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Only "deceptive" if a premium is attached to the rifle being un-fired knowing it had been. As I said, I wouldn't (and didn't) pay a premium for the un-fired SKS. Further, "proof" can only be had with rifle in hand and detailed strip and inspection...as has been said.
 
Painkillers said:
Not so ^^^. I had one very early on that was not fired. They didn't factory test fire every one made like our Western standards dictate.

OP, you can tell if the rifle has been fired by disassembling and inspecting tell tale aspects. Bolt face, gas pistons, chamber, etc. Even one round fired will leave imprints and tell tale indicators. Even if clean, one can tell if it's factory clean or amature cleaning attempts.

Now, whether unfired or fired I wouldn't pay a premium for one over the other.
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😂😂
 
I don't know if the Norinco FTs were made for military or civy market, but mine didn't 'look' like it was fired. The bore was like glass, Not 'scratched glass'. The whole bore looked like Post 14 Pic. I didn't notice anything in the bolt-face, but wasn't looking for scratches there. I know the cosmo doesn't 'prove' it was un-fired, just made it a PITA to clean. Luckily it was last Summer and 28*+ made the chore survivable. Varsol cut it pretty well.
And last Summer they were only $490 + tx, and spam was $210 @ Tenda & the 'Issued' Not-FTs (Jungles) were the same price. Like Pain.. said, for the numbers they made I doubt they 'test-fired' every one. Likely just cycled some dummies thru?
 
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1895GS said:
Like someone said.
Do the unfired ones shoot better?
Probably not.
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I have owned many many SKS's over the years. From BBQ shooters to pristine unissued Izhevsk's. My 3 best shooters were a 1949 laminate mild refurb with a very well worn bore, a 1950 BBQ beater and my sole, current 1954 Tula as-issued early-2008 IZH import. The rest all shot pretty much the same, whether that was a Chinese, Russian or Yugo. I never shot any of my previous non-refurbished unfired collectors, but I suspect they would mostly be average to perhaps above average due to zero wear. For the record, I love all types of SKS's and appreciate their incredible versatility and utility.
 
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I never understood the appeal of these rifles. Kinda crude compared to other semi military firearms out there. Had a Russian and a Chinese version for a short time back in the 80’s. Minute of pumpkin if you’re lucky. However those who love them love them and there’s probably millions and millions of steel casings littering countryside nationwide.
 
johnl said:
I never understood the appeal of these rifles. Kinda crude compared to other semi military firearms out there. Had a Russian and a Chinese version for a short time back in the 80’s. Minute of pumpkin if you’re lucky. However those who love them love them and there’s probably millions and millions of steel casings littering countryside nationwide.
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Well is something that you will not understand if you are true Canadian. We peoples coming from former commie countries , we have a kind of familiarity with Russian type guns. And a kind of love relationship like real Canadians with the ugly Lee Enfield.
 
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