Is anyone still purchasing the SKS?

stefK said:
I was just on the EE and noticed there is A LOT of SKS's for sale with not a bad price tag attached to them. Is the market now flooded? Are people asking too much? Shortage of ammo? ( I hope not!!)
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You can't throw a rock without hitting an SKS these days.
 
Those Chinese sks rifles from Tradex are the deal of the century. I didn't take them up on the ammo offer. I should have though. $189/rifle and $220/1200 cartridges = free shipping. Whole thing, under $450 including accessories.

The rifles are built to milspecs for the military and are some of the best I've seen in a long time. New, all matching, decent wood, chrome lined bores and no stamped parts, other than trigger guards. They aren't frankenpinned either.
 
There is a glut of Russian SKs's and once the Marstar shipment arrives with more Russians, the price will be much lower than now. $129 Russian anyone?

Aside from a very nice unfired rare year and factory Russian, right now I'd put my money on a Yugo, as no more will be imported - they're all already here.
 
Well well, maybe I could buy one of these cheap Chinese SKS to put a sidemount scope on it and keep my early Chinese one in its original state.
I'm very much tempted by a genuine Russian with laminated stock. Or maybe two, one from each arsenal... Oh, well there goes my wallet again!
PP.
 
Every generation needs a "Lee Enfield", the sks appears to be ours (cheap and plentiful) Who knows, maybe in 50 years our kids will be paying big $$$ for a sks that bubba didn't get his hands on....
 
Just got back from the Saskatoon/ Sk show tonight and me and all the other
guys never brought any SKS's ( Or ammo) back home with them.
All sold .
 
Sooner or later the bubble will burst for the lower priced shooter Russians and Chinese. How many more of this type can our market absorb? There will remain a collectors market though for non-refurbs and very rare refurbs. You will see it start to stratify too as to the rarest,and how the pinning was done.
 
I think that there are really many price-points and grades of Russian SKS. At the top are the unissued non-refurbs - I suspect these will hold value, even more so if they are not franken-pinned. these are probably under-priced already.

Then there are the very nice refurbs and the issued non-refurbs, silver bolt and bayo, nice fit and finish, tight fit in the stock, all the better if laminate stocked. These are worth about what we are paying, around $200-225.

Finally there are the refurbs that seem most commonly available. Mix-match of parts, usually re-numbered matching, black bolt and bayo, painted parts, stocks re-numbered and often poorly fit, etc. These are likely over-priced. I expect these ones to drop to the under $150 price point very soon.

The Marstar guns are not going to be as-new from what I've heard. Many will be in used condition, though they will probably be nice and functional. Not sure ho they'll be pinned and we also don't knwo the country of origin for certain. A lot of ppl are thinking Russia, but that's not necessarily the case.

If the Marstar guns ARE Russian and are not franken-pinned, then watch the market fall like a rock on the existing frankenpinned guns, especially the heavily refurbed ones.

These guns are still a great deal and underappreciated. They are milled steel construction and making this gun today would cost the buyer close to $1000 at retail, if not more. We are spoiled by their cheap availability and a lot of guys disparage them the way Enfields used to be slagged back in the 1980's as a poor man's truck gun.

A dirty little secret is that I've always loved the SKS design - one of the best and most reliable semis ever produced - as an Engineer, I'm jealous I didn't design it myself. Easy to use and clean. Runs like an AK. What's not to like? Mine are all acceptably accurate as well, but I steer clear of the cheaper commercial chicom gun and the poorly and heavily refurbed black-bolt Ruskies.
 
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