All matching 1950r SKS, anything special?

OP - since stock is replaced your SKS falls into the "shooter grade". There's nothing special about it, most of skss on market are force-matched refurbs. Even though it might be "light refurb" with only stock replaced - it's still "shooter grade" category where most ppl don't care about originality and niceties of the look but rather about functionality and rifle condition. "All matching" means almost nothing in this category. Because all imported refurbs were "all-matching", with some exceptions when mags were mixed.

P.S. Original factory serialization included EPing gas tube, piston, rear sight, extractor. Some types of refurbs (but not all) also had these parts EPed.
 
Horilka said:
OP - since stock is replaced your SKS falls into the "shooter grade". There's nothing special about it, most of skss on market are force-matched refurbs. Even though it might be "light refurb" with only stock replaced - it's still "shooter grade" category where most ppl don't care about originality and niceties of the look but rather about functionality and rifle condition. "All matching" means almost nothing in this category. Because all imported refurbs were "all-matching", with some exceptions when mags were mixed.

P.S. Original factory serialization included EPing gas tube, piston, rear sight, extractor. Some types of refurbs (but not all) also had these parts EPed.
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Gotcha, so at the moment they have to be perfect, not just close, makes sense.

The sight, tube, mag, receiver, bolt, all matching, but then again those could have been forced.

I just sold a 1952 for $600, so this would be in this same ballpark then.
 
Tomasaurus said:
Most of the skss I've seen are letter series. There's nothing special or rare about them.
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agreed. i can see the attraction to 49 altho westrifles brought in alot of 49 and they charged more so there are worth more plus its the first year of production and only that year it came with different square gas block and spike bayo. i never saw one (or pic) thats not refurb, quite often the wood have been replaced or repaired.
 
another russian sks i dont understand why they are asking sooo much money for are the the IZZY. its not that rare.

a dealer here is asking $1245 and also one on GP.
 
Asking is not equal to market price.
Izhevsk on GP is not factory matching, so it's nothing special indeed because of that. Izhevsk manufactured fewer rifles and only limited numbers of years so they are harder to find, even more harder if you are collector and after factory matching rifles only. Same with letter series, statement that letter series comprise most of SKS is incorrect, they are special in several ways (if you know the history behind them) and there are fewer of them. At the end of the day, scarcity of variant can influence only so much on demand, collector market is very saturated, number of years ago anyone had an opportunity to grab as many collectible skss as he wanted for retail prices of 150-200 if I'm not mistaken. It used to be the cheapest and easiest rifle to collect.
 
When it come to rarity, how about the 1950 SKS with a spike bayonet. In Oct. 2,1949 it was decided to change from a spike bayonet to blade. But it was given 3 months to switch over, or until they ran out of spike bayonets. Here is an example of one. Also the stock has been sanded, but you can faintly see the original markings. Remember one month or less of production - less than and a 53 or 54 izzy.
https://ibb.co/album/QFgHjN
 
I avoid all franken pinned ones, no matter how rare they are. And so do most people. I sold 10 SKS this year alone on gp and buyer tend to agree with me.
 
Another thing to mention, is that on 49s and 50s they had a matching number on the bolt and carrier. But on this one(50 with spike), rather than a number it has a Q. Why????
 
fritzhanzel said:
I avoid all franken pinned ones, no matter how rare they are. And so do most people. I sold 10 SKS this year alone on gp and buyer tend to agree with me.
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Of course frankenpin is worse than internal pin, however sometimes we have to settle, in the same way as some US collectors have to settle with import markings.
 
jstin said:
Another thing to mention, is that on 49s and 50s they had a matching number on the bolt and carrier. But on this one(50 with spike), rather than a number it has a Q. Why????
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The bolt is stamped with same serial, you can see on this pic - https://ibb.co/QKk38dK
This "Q" in not actually Q, some QC, technological or acceptance marking.
What's interesting is that extractor is EPes in two places. I don't usually remove them to tell if it's normal or not.... Might want to check the two last factory matching SKSs I have.
 
As I mentioned, early SKS had matching numbers on bolt and carrier(not the serial number). This was discontinued in later years. Kind of pairing of bolt and carrier before assembly. I have recorded several instances of markings that are numbers, not a Q on the bolt and carrier. Also if you have an 49 or early 50, you will find that the ep S/N on extractor was on the inside of extractor only. EP of extractor was made simpler by just doing it on the outside. For some reason, on mine it was different.

https://ibb.co/album/qCPshB
 
jstin said:
As I mentioned, early SKS had matching numbers on bolt and carrier(not the serial number). This was discontinued in later years. Kind of pairing of bolt and carrier before assembly. I have recorded several instances of markings that are numbers, not a Q on the bolt and carrier. Also if you have an 49 or early 50, you will find that the ep S/N on extractor was on the inside of extractor only. EP of extractor was made simpler by just doing it on the outside. For some reason, on mine it was different.

https://ibb.co/album/qCPshB
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I see what you mean now. I don't know the meaning of these numbers, it could be as I said technological/acceptance/quality markings (and they are the same as same person processed both parts), it also could be "assembly" numbers, however I am skeptical to this theory because of I haven't seen anything similar to assembly numbers in Soviet 1930-1940x firearm manufacturing.
 
Horilka said:
Of course frankenpin is worse than internal pin, however sometimes we have to settle, in the same way as some US collectors have to settle with import markings.
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not the same. US import markings are mandatory so buyers has no choice. canadian frankenpin it was chosen by the importer, not only was it fugly but it devastated the serial number on the mag. luckily, they stop doing it.

ofcos we have a choice, i manage to buy over a dozen without it.
 
Curtton said:
not the same. US import markings are mandatory so buyers has no choice. canadian frankenpin it was chosen by the importer, not only was it fugly but it devastated the serial number on the mag. luckily, they stop doing it.

ofcos we have a choice, i manage to buy over a dozen without it.
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There are so many things wrong in your post. And I don't want to go into legality of one the mag limitation method. So I will just limit myself to two questions.

1. You're saying that US buyers have no choice. What happened to milsurplus imported to USA before 1986 when marking became mandatory? ATF destroyed them? They vanished?
2. You, as well as fritzhanzel are clearly missing my point. Same question to you - would you buy this refurbished frankepinned rifle?

 
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Horilka said:
There are so many things wrong in your post. And I don't want to go into legality of one the mag limitation method. So I will just limit myself to two questions.

1. You're saying that US buyers have no choice. What happened to milsurplus imported to USA before 1986 when marking became mandatory? ATF destroyed them? They vanished?
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you are sorely mistaken, it was mandatory in 1968, not 1986. before nixon signed a trade deal with china in 1972 and before in 1987 congress amended gun laws allowing importation. in 1993 almost a million sks was flooded into the US so i would say yeah, they had no choice bcos majority would have the marks except a handful that slip thru the cracks and ofcos the bringbacks. WRT to frenkenpin, it was just that one year so we do choices.
 
Curtton said:
you are sorely mistaken, it was mandatory in 1968, not 1986. before nixon signed a trade deal with china in 1972 and before in 1987 congress amended gun laws allowing importation. in 1993 almost a million sks was flooded into the US so i would say yeah, they had no choice bcos majority would have the marks except a handful that slip thru the cracks and ofcos the bringbacks. WRT to frenkenpin, it was just that one year so we do choices.
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I stand corrected, 1) what happened to firearms imported to USA without markings? Is it not a choice for collectors? and 2) would you take this refurbished and frankenpinned SKS?
 
If I would try to sell some ugly franken pinned SKS's for $1,500, I would probably also argue like this. And I am not even talking about that ugly paint on the magazine and heavy worn finish overall. The reason the Ruskies did not refinish them is that they were probably destined for the dumpster but somehow somebody thought they could still get $5 for them.

There is also very few if any SKS collector in Canada, because there are trillions of them, unlike the US.
 
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