1950r Russian SKS fills the void. How did i do?

brapjack

brapjack

CGN Regular
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I have been craving a Russian SKS for some time now. I have several Chinese, a shooter and a back up in the cosmoline. But something was missing deep inside. The Russian SKS was missing, and with all the lovely things happening across the world and in Ukraine particularly, the time seemed right.

After deciding that yesterday was the day, i spent the better part of the day driving around the city. First to Canadian Tire in Leduc, to only be let down by poor service, and a pile of ugly looking SKS's. Last time i was there the guy had no problem bringing out a few dozen to satisfy my friend with a 1951 non refurb gold bayo SKS. Not the case this time. I was told it is against store policy. Which i said ok, ill take my money else where despite the great price of 179.99. Next was wholesale on the south side. Even worse service, they only had one on display and they employee was quizzing me why i wanted this ####ty old Russian junk, and refused to look in the back for a nice rifle. Finally the Wholesale on St. Albert trial which is like 5 mins from my house and really should have stopped there first, had amazing service. An asian fellow who had sold me my 1925 mosin, was extremely helpful and wouldn't stop bringing out rifles. Also ,informed me that they are stamped at the muzzle under the barrel on the bayo-lug with ether a 1, 2, or 3. Indicating a 1 for most accurate and 3 for least. Never heard of this before.....

Anyways i ended up with this great looking rifle. 1950 tula. now it has the ###xx on the stock, but no other refurb marks, and the only thing that does not appear to be original is the gas tube.

If you know something about this rifle, please share! Did i do well for 210.00 out the door?























 
Looks pretty good, fairly standard price, I have never heard about numbers indicating how accurate the rifle is though.. Your rifle is a 1950, which means if its original barrel, its not chromed lined so clean well after surplus ammo. Also your rifle has the early style spring loaded firing pin. I've had a couple of 1950s, all good, no issues.
 
Looks great! I have a 1950 laminate refurb. I think the firing pin is not spring loaded on mine how can I tell for sure without dismantling the bolt? It rattles when I shake it.
 
Look at the disassembled pic of the parts, the bolt has a tapered cylinder at one end, which will be different than your if yours is not spring loaded. Also take the bolt out of the rifle, and press the back of the firing pin, its easy to tell if its spring loaded.

kgb81 said:
Looks great! I have a 1950 laminate refurb. I think the firing pin is not spring loaded on mine how can I tell for sure without dismantling the bolt? It rattles when I shake it.
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Mine is defiantly spring loaded firing pin, and appears to be the original barrel. besides the gas tube and stock i think its all original. it looks like it has not seen many rounds if any.


And no matter what gun it is, what ammo it fires, it gets cleaned like the queen is inspecting it!
 
Thats a nice looking gun! I can't wait to get my own in a few weeks.

Whats that about it not having a chrome-lined barrel? I thought all Russian SKSs had one? Is it easy to tell by looking at one, or would you have to rely on the dates on it? I thought I had done my research on the SKS but I missed this part.
 
Common opinion is that the 1 2 or 3 on the front sight is not an indication of accuracy. It was apparently a tolerance used for fitting the front sight ring on the barrel.
Nice quality bluing on that gun. You did well.
 
LarryG said:
Common opinion is that the 1 2 or 3 on the front sight is not an indication of accuracy. It was apparently a tolerance used for fitting the front sight ring on the barrel.
Nice quality bluing on that gun. You did well.
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ya i was like....ummm ok, i had never heard of that, but that didn't mean it wasn't true.... but what you say may make more sense. Where did you hear that?
 
Maybe not, but of the several I have, the "1" is definitely the shooter. And if it was indicative of fitting the site to the barrel, why would they stamp it, wouldn't they just stick it on, no stamping req'd??
Tim

brapjack said:
ya i was like....ummm ok, i had never heard of that, but that didn't mean it wasn't true.... but what you say may make more sense. Where did you hear that?
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Very nice indeed! Congrats!!!

On another note,,,, poor service is getting so common that it is hard to find good service anymore. Young folks have no idea about taking pride in their work and some of the older ones just can't be bothered. If it is busy in the store I let it go but I always ask for the manager if the poor service is due to laziness. In most cases the manager deals with it right away and often serve me themselves.
 
Man the safety on this thing is #### stiff!!! Any ideas? I really prefer that chinese snap style or later russian. Do i atempt to "upgrade" it or will that effect my historical value? I know it is supose to be the way it is but man its not easily manipulated.
 
first all don't recall where I read it, either on cgn or the sks forum. second there are all kinds of press fit tolerances, so maybe they didn't want the front sight to fall off in battle.


timandkimandshea said:
Maybe not, but of the several I have, the "1" is definitely the shooter. And if it was indicative of fitting the site to the barrel, why would they stamp it, wouldn't they just stick it on, no stamping req'd??
Tim
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AJones said:
Look at the disassembled pic of the parts, the bolt has a tapered cylinder at one end, which will be different than your if yours is not spring loaded. Also take the bolt out of the rifle, and press the back of the firing pin, its easy to tell if its spring loaded.
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Do the spring-loaded pins even shake? My 1953 Tula has the non-spring pin and I shake it every time I strip it (slam fire paranoia I guess!). I'm considering a pin retrofit...

Regards,
Peter
 
FirearmsEnthusiast said:
Do the spring-loaded pins even shake? My 1953 Tula has the non-spring pin and I shake it every time I strip it (slam fire paranoia I guess!). I'm considering a pin retrofit...

Regards,
Peter
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Dude, i had this paranoia your talking about when i first got my norinco. I bought the murphys firing pin with spring, broke 2 within 6 months. If your gonna shoot surplus ammo i guess the primers are really hard and the pins WILL break.

Stock firing pin had now seen over 2 crates, no issues. Just clean that thing like a black cadilaic!!
 
Im sure someone else will post, on this issue, but 49-50 sks, do not have chrome lined barrels, I have read that the switchover occurred in 1951, some people have said 1953. Its possibly to tell by looking at the crown, Blueing will not work on chrome, so a definitive black/chrome interface on the crown, is a good indication of chrome lined barrel.

Suther said:
Thats a nice looking gun! I can't wait to get my own in a few weeks.

Whats that about it not having a chrome-lined barrel? I thought all Russian SKSs had one? Is it easy to tell by looking at one, or would you have to rely on the dates on it? I thought I had done my research on the SKS but I missed this part.
Click to expand...
 
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