- Location
- Steel Town and The Peg
They all look good!... '52's seem to be far less common in non-refurbished condition.
My Unref SKS Refurbished?
- Thread starter Pcmx
- Start date
They all look good!... '52's seem to be far less common in non-refurbished condition.
I use 3 tests:
1) the original barrel has blue on the muzzle; if it is refurb, the crown was redone causing shiny "kill me" silver round on it.
2) square box with line across it meaning the original as really damaged. The important part here is that the gun smith could have made it a better gun than it was originally. Nothing to do with quality, but good reason to forget "unissued".
3) numbers scratched on parts where the numbers wouldn't go, Xed number, electro pens numbers = gun was taken apart, something was done. Noting to do with the quality, but again you can forget about "unissued"
1) the original barrel has blue on the muzzle; if it is refurb, the crown was redone causing shiny "kill me" silver round on it.
2) square box with line across it meaning the original as really damaged. The important part here is that the gun smith could have made it a better gun than it was originally. Nothing to do with quality, but good reason to forget "unissued".
3) numbers scratched on parts where the numbers wouldn't go, Xed number, electro pens numbers = gun was taken apart, something was done. Noting to do with the quality, but again you can forget about "unissued"
Really? The original barrels are blued but not necessarily on the muzzle. All unrefurbs I have seen have bare shiny metal on the barrel. The refurbs are painted or have the heavy thick blobbed blue on the muzzle. If they were concerned about a bit of flash from a bit of shine on the muzzle, why blue them when it gets worn off with shooting and use anyway, and why did they issue the SKS with polished shiny bolt carriers and bayos then?... The painted and blued crown I would think had more to do with long term rust protection when they were refurbed and arsenalled for long term storage.
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- Location
- Ottawa origanally Muskoka
It would seem to me, at least from a logical stand point that; An unissued gun would be blued on at least part of the crown. The part next to the bore may not be blued as the wooden plug used to keep bluing out of the bore may have prevented bluing from getting to the inner crown.
Yes but he said unrefurb not unissued. The OP's SKS has the bare crown not blued. Thus it is unrefurb but not necessarily unissued. That said some were some weren't. All of my '49s were refurbed but have the shiny crowns. Some of the later are obviously refurb but the crowns are BBQ or the heavy dark blobbed blue on the crown. But all unrefurb I have seen have the shiny crown. Maybe some others can chime in on this subject to confirm...
Not really.
Non-refurb Soviet Mosins that I have seen from Finland don't have shiny muzzle.
My non-refurbs don't have shiny muzzles, but same coat of of blue as everywhere else.
Non-refurb SKSes don't have shiny muzzles.
However, recrowning is not something bad you have to worry about. In many cases it fixes lot's of issues including extensive cleaning by troops.
The ones from Finland may have had different practices used. I am not familiar with other rifles as my focus is on SKS's. All my unrefurbs have shiny muzzles but you can see the worn off areas of possibly the original bluing. The original blue is a lighter color bluing than the later refurb darker bluing of which I too have a couple and they have it spread around the muzzle. Maybe you happen to get some that were truly unissued thus no wear but that is one of the things to look for in an unrefurb is the bare metal on the muzzle not painted or the dark bluing. I will check with my sources to confirm but that is what I have always known to be looked for. Except for the early '49 refurbs which when they refurb they still took the time to use the lighter color original kind of bluing, but all my refurb '49's have a shiny muzzle too. Maybe that process took too long so they changed to the darker style of bluing used later. There were changes made during the years of refurb. So it is again hard to say for sure for sure...
This is one of my sources...
Scroll down to Section 7. Signs of refurbishing. Number 6 in that section...
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/foru...SKS45-ID-FAQ-Collectibles-update-feb-8th-2011
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Section 4. k.Magazines - the one with gap is the one I have and not correct according to the year. Mine is 54 but it says the gap mag goes to 53, unless someone can chime in.
Magazines were subject to damage. It may have been replaced with an earlier one but further refurb may not have been needed. Or somehow they had a new mag in the bin left over from 53 somehow that was put on yours when it was built. The magazine stamping font looks to be a tad different between the mag and trigger group. Hard to say really. This and the muzzles may just be things that more will be learned about in time or may be one of the mysteries of the SKS we may never know...
- Location
- Steel Town and The Peg
I have non-refurbs with both crown "variants": blued and un-blued. It's not a test of refurbishment, but there are about a dozen others ways to tell.
Yes I have done some more research and have asked others and there are examples of both, not one way or the other. Yes many factors, or the gun as a whole must be looked at to determine refurb or unrefurb. Thanks Kurgan for the clarity...
I agree in that they were probably not wanting to waste any parts when building some new ones. Parts from yesteryear, from guns dismantled if from failing inspection, markings sanded and new ones re-applied pertaining to the new gun it became a part of, maybe heat numbers to the barrels indicating/tracking such usage, who knows, I'm just making guesses as though it could have been built as a new gun, using parts... Either way, I like it and the mysteries it holds
- Location
- Steel Town and The Peg
I agree in that they were probably not wanting to waste any parts when building some new ones. Parts from yesteryear, from guns dismantled if from failing inspection, markings sanded and new ones re-applied pertaining to the new gun it became a part of, maybe heat numbers to the barrels indicating/tracking such usage, who knows, I'm just making guesses as though it could have been built as a new gun, using parts... Either way, I like it and the mysteries it holds
Just as an aside, I have seen "parts guns" as-issued. In one case, the receiver cover was dated 1950 and it's serial number was certainly original. The rest of the SKS was at least a late '52 (or later build), with a standard chome lined barrel and later features... all serials matched the receiver cover. It happens.
- Location
- south of Detroit
You should stop talking about this gun, load up a f#*k-ton of cheap ammo and just go shoot the damned thing.
Ideally 95 degrees F warmer, or even a third of that than it is now, maybe a couple ft. less snow, I'd be all over that idea without a doubt 
