Anyone purchase a non refurbished sks lately

Northern Amateur

Northern Amateur

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What is to be expected when buying one of these?
What does 'Super Select' actually mean?
What kind of magazine pinning can be expected from a 'Super Select' non refurb?

Bought a couple 'Super Select' non refurbs recently with high expectations (of course). Not overly impressed. One has some stock damage. The other has a 'Franken pin' job on the magazine.
Just reaching out to see others experiences with these rifles.

cheers,
 
Thanks. I would expect to see some signs of use (even heavy use) on a typical non-refurb sks, if there is such a thing. The term 'Super Select' is what sold me to buy a couple. Did not expect to see stock damage and a Franken pin on the mag.
I am not b*&ching off about it either. Not like I lost thousands of dollars:p on these things. Just curious on what one should expect and possibly learn some more on the language describing these rifles.
 
Northern Amateur said:
Thanks. I would expect to see some signs of use (even heavy use) on a typical non-refurb sks, if there is such a thing. The term 'Super Select' is what sold me to buy a couple. Did not expect to see stock damage and a Franken pin on the mag.
I am not b*&ching off about it either. Not like I lost thousands of dollars:p on these things. Just curious on what one should expect and possibly learn some more on the language describing these rifles.
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You should receive an "un-refurb" with the cartouches present around the front stock bolt, bluing instead of black paint and because they are
calling it ''super'' I would expect it to be reasonably good looking overall without large rust spots or damage. The franken-pin is a fact of life.
If they were calling it "un-issued" then the internals had better be new looking as well.
 
Robert Nicholson said:
You should receive an "un-refurb" with the cartouches present around the front stock bolt, bluing instead of black paint and because they are
calling it ''super'' I would expect it to be reasonably good looking overall without large rust spots or damage. The franken-pin is a fact of life.
If they were calling it "un-issued" then the internals had better be new looking as well.
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Thanks. Seems like the franken pin can be fairly typical. Both rifles are blue (no paint), numbers match, bayonets are gold in appearance (looks like oil staining if that's possible). Overall they are still nice rifles for sks's. Thought I'd keep these in the cosmo and squirrel away as I have a 'bubba' sks to play with from time to time.

Thanks for the feedback thus far folks.

cheers,
 
Northern Amateur said:
Thanks. Seems like the franken pin can be fairly typical. Both rifles are blue (no paint), numbers match, bayonets are gold in appearance (looks like oil staining if that's possible). Overall they are still nice rifles for sks's. Thought I'd keep these in the cosmo and squirrel away as I have a 'bubba' sks to play with from time to time.

Thanks for the feedback thus far folks.


cheers,
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Nice! The gold appearance that looks like oil staining is a bonus that adds to the collectable value. It is possible to scour
it away so you will want to go easy if you clean the bayonet.:wave:
 
Funny subject - I was hanging out by the Wholesale Sports gun desk when a sales member asked me if I wanted to see a 'super select sks'? Little did the guy know that in the SKS world - I have been around the block one or twice.

He proceeded to show me a 'super select sks' - and what I expected to be junk was actually a very nice 1955 all matching SKS - it even had the serialized electro-penciled butt plate and the strongest stock cartouches I had ever seen. The magazine was even matching - but it was frankenpinned - blame the government for that - but for $240 a pretty good deal. None MOLOT refurb.

The last ones I saw were a select few Molot rifles were all matching/non-refurb but the mags were internally pinned - and thus MM - but the rest was lovely. You would have to go back in time about 1 1/2 - 2 years to see nicer Ukraine examples.
 
Northern Amateur said:
What is to be expected when buying one of these?
What does 'Super Select' actually mean?
What kind of magazine pinning can be expected from a 'Super Select' non refurb?

Bought a couple 'Super Select' non refurbs recently with high expectations (of course). Not overly impressed. One has some stock damage. The other has a 'Franken pin' job on the magazine.
Just reaching out to see others experiences with these rifles.

cheers,
Click to expand...

I just got an unfired unrefurb'd one from weimajack. I have not shot it yet. It was still in cosmo. Except for some handling marks on the stock, it is flawless. You can really tell an unfired bolt and carrier. It's a '54 Tula.

I'm not sure if I'll ever shoot it.
 
Everything Russian I (we) buy comes from Westrifle. We've picked up several dozen rifles collectively and not one complaint. If they don't put some good ones aside for their own customers, We've been super lucky several dozen times. I have several SKS rifles that are immaculate and non-refurb, as well as M44s and museum quality M38, it doesn't look like its ever been fired.
 
Great info folks, thank you. Mine are all number matching including the butt plate and magazines. I don't see any of the obvious re-furb markings either though I am no expert. The metal on both is really nice/excellent. Caught off guard with the franken pin as I had not seen one before. One of the stocks has some damage though it's on the surface and not sure what would have caused it. Will take pictures.
 
Northern Amateur said:
Great info folks, thank you. Mine are all number matching including the butt plate and magazines. I don't see any of the obvious re-furb markings either though I am no expert. The metal on both is really nice/excellent. Caught off guard with the franken pin as I had not seen one before. One of the stocks has some damage though it's on the surface and not sure what would have caused it. Will take pictures.
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Many rifles that were refurbished have no refurbishment marks. Read the FAQS/stickies at the top of this section.

6MT said:
I just got an unfired unrefurb'd one from weimajack. I have not shot it yet. It was still in cosmo. Except for some handling marks on the stock, it is flawless. You can really tell an unfired bolt and carrier. It's a '54 Tula.

I'm not sure if I'll ever shoot it.
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The pinning method ruins any potential collector value that SKS has, so, you might as well shoot it.

fiddler said:
Everything Russian I (we) buy comes from Westrifle. We've picked up several dozen rifles collectively and not one complaint. If they don't put some good ones aside for their own customers, We've been super lucky several dozen times. I have several SKS rifles that are immaculate and non-refurb, as well as M44s and museum quality M38, it doesn't look like its ever been fired.
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Their recent shipment of SKS rifles have butchered mags and their customer service is terrible.

The immaculate, museum quality M38 is no doubt heavily refurbished to that condition and is far from being of any value to a museum.
 
Nestor said:
Yes, but it's still $300 firearm so I'm going to use it a lot.
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Value is subjective and appreciates and depreciates all of the time. A $200 rifle and a $2,000 rifle have the same value to a collector who really appreciates them.

I fire all of my firearms no matter how rare. They're firearms.
 
fiddler said:
Everything Russian I (we) buy comes from Westrifle. We've picked up several dozen rifles collectively and not one complaint. If they don't put some good ones aside for their own customers, We've been super lucky several dozen times. I have several SKS rifles that are immaculate and non-refurb, as well as M44s and museum quality M38, it doesn't look like its ever been fired.
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I got a terrible Mosin from them. I would have returned it but the cost of shipping back across the country made it not worth the return. Live and learn I guess. It was my second rifle purchase after my first SKS from Marstar which was also a heavily refurb POS. lol!

Weimajack is now my goto guy for milsurp. Accurate descriptions and pics. There's never any surprises. I've also gotten on the good side of the folks at Lever Arms because everything I buy from them has come exactly as I wanted or even better! I usually pay for their select grade though.
 
I'm sure the "P.O.S." rifles will be the norm going forward. Most, if not all of the really good ones are gone. Prices will creep up for the good ones. Gone are the days of the $175 premium quality SKS's.

All is good though. I still have three really beautiful examples. When I'm ready to sell, the prices will probably be high.... and they'll sell fast.
 
A week ago I got a heavily refurbed 1954 izzy, and a non refurb 1953 izzy at CTC here! the 53 is really nice but the mag was swapped at pinning, stock has a few gouges but cartouches are brilliant and no refurb marks, internals look mildly used, they were and are on sale for $169. , they also have the super duty whatever, that are all matching and non refurb for $ 269 I. Think! There are still a few non refurb Tula in there and some nice refurbs as of a couple days ago for $169. Might have to pick up another!!
Now I will have to sell my 49 to pay for these !
 
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