Nice job. I love to see unique modifications to make a one of a kind gun. The SKS is the perfect gun to play around with because a regular refurb SKS jas very little collectors value. I did some custom work on a 1950 SKS to make it look like a nice hunting rifle (that I used for deer hunting with a group of 8 guus, and 5 of them used ruger mini-30s). I removed the bayonet and all brackets that are not needed, then I did some cuttaing/tig welding to make the mottom of the mag so that it was square/flat, without the regular slant. I then completely stripped all the metal and gave it a durable matte black powder coated paint job that made the rifle look like a modern mattle black steel finish. I then stripped the stock and gave it a very nice satin stain/oil of several coats that really brought out a nice looking wood stock that actually had some nice grains, and after that I gave the wood a few light, even coats of matte finish clear coat. The wood actually compaired to a $700-$900 remington model 700 bdl/cdl stock. Then with a little custom work on my milling machine at work, I milled out a type of scope mount that I drilled/tapped into the receiver that looked similar to M14 a.r.m.s. 18 scope mount ( that I actually used as a inspiration/similar copy that when mounted with 4 loctite screws, it ended up being a very clean low profile and was actually looking similar to a stock scope mount design. I was asked to make more mounts but since I made it custom on my work milling machine, it would of cost abouy $600 if I had to pay for the work by the hour...but luckily I made it for free after work during the week and took along time yo mill because a one off design took alot of programming on the cnc and took several set ups. Then I ground a limbsaver recoil pad to size/mounted perfectly and I topped it off with a burris fullfield II 3x9x40 scope, butler creek flip up lense covers, and a nice 2 tone leather/padded sling with a buck/deer design stamped on the leather.
When I was done, I made a $180 dime a dozen sks into a modern looking brand new semi auto hunting rifle that would shoot just under 2 moa with handloads ( about 3 moa with store bought soft points ).
With our group of 8 deer hunters, we have a rifle stand that keeps all guns standing up side by side. We had my rifle, either 3 or 4 ruger mini 30's, and 1 or 2 winchester/marlin 30-30s, and either 1 or 2 bolt action rifles...whenever someone would stop by for a beer after darl, and they came inside and saw all the rifles, every guy wanted to see my gun first, and everyone chose it as the favorite rifle in the cabin...
I ened up selling it to a guy that was about to buy a mini-30 for $650 including the scope that was probably $150 used, so the rifle fetched $500...that was several years ago, and everytime I see the rifle, I regret selling it...Even though $500 is a lot of money for a used refurb sks, the one I made was worth double that price, if I count the hours on the milling machine and hours of labour restoring & modernization ofbthe rifle, $650 with decent glass was a deal.
Anyways keep up the hard work...my current project is a one of a kind Lee Enfield/shotgun combonation gun...that I'm trying to leep ligh, functional, and tactical looking....I can do it, but keeping it light is thard part.
