a member who made the above comment was referring to SIR offering russian SKS to the customers who had outstanding orders for new norinco SKS at $165.99 . this prompted me to disclose part of my research below on the russian SKS. altho im not quite finish but i thought i need to inform the buying members know that the russian SKS as surplus may be not be new but certainly its not "old" as in falling apart bcos they were refurbished and used to some extent thereafter .
how much useage thereafter? i dont exactly know cos i dont know what frontier means when they say its "shooter grade" nor do i know how thats compared to SIR in "very good condition" , all i know that approx 95% of russian SKS that exist are refurbished .
majority of the russian SKS came with chrome barrel , the only years it didnt was before mid 1951 to 1949, however during refurb some/most has been replaced with chrome.
so should you decided that this is not for you then by all mean cancel your order . i will post a pic of what the paint over metal looks like . left is russian , right is chinese factory 26 1965, this is probably what it looked like when the russian first came out of the assembly line.
"in my opinion workmanship on a russian sks are one of the best among SKS, extremely well made , unfortunately its gonna be hard for you to see when its covered with black paint but thats what they did during refurbishing instead of re-blueing they painted the metal black, the refurbishing was done at the factory, if the russian tech felt it needed work then they would do so but only if it needed it, therefore not all refurbishing are the same, they would change the barrel , buff and paint the metal, replace wood and other parts, from what i read the refurbished work done are as good as if the rifles were new.
does the refurbishing drop the value of my simonov? no , it doesnt bcos a simonov was in production for a very short period (6 years)and one hasnt been made for over 50 yrs, most were in service at one time or another as a second line rifle , some were loan out to other countries however should you have one that is in its original form (not refurbished) then the value increases , how much will depend on the condition bcos its a collectors item. matter of fact finding an original russian SKS is quite difficult and even rarer still if it is an unfired original so we can safely assume that the recent shipments would all be refurbished and used to some extent thereafter."-curtton
ps, im not on anybodys payroll.
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