Good morning, afternoon, or evening, ladies and gents.
So, I finally caved in and bought an SKS from Wholesale Sports now that some other priorities (furnishing a house, replacing my computer, etc etc) are out of the way. I'm funny that way.
I'm not labouring under the illusion that I found a pot-of-gold or even
+any contribution to my retirement savings. But, when I got it home and started researching, I started to think that I might have happened up on one in terms of "closer-to-original-than-others".
I've stripped it down to decrapify it and oil. Other than the nicely blued bayonet, I find no indications that it's undergone any significant revisions or refurbishments.
It's a three-digit-serial-number Izzy from 1953
-there are no marks on it that would confirm that it had been refurbished
-all serial numbers match, with none ###X'd out. All are stamped except for those parts which are known to be normally penciled in.
-inside the stock, which is hardwood, there is a matching serial number handwritten and obviously decades old and the stock has never been repaired so far as I can tell.
-the stock does have one of those brass-wire screws that we see on every Lee Enfield, across it's width, just below the groove on the fore-end.
-the stock bears legible, if faded, inspection marks, including two, possibly three, cartouches at the cross-bolt.
-the stock has only one line of text- that being the serial number.
-the crown is bare metal
-the bolt and carrier are also bare metal with no signs of ever having been blued or painted
-barrel and receiver are nicely blued with a few signs of wearmarks
I know that if I looked around I could find some really like-new ones, but I didn't want to put out that kind of money. So the thought that I could have picked up something good on a "random drop", for the price that I paid, strikes me as pretty cool. I will say that if this was refurbished beyond the obvious, I think they did a pretty good job of it.
What say, you, Red Rifle Gurus? I think I at least got my money's worth.
So, I finally caved in and bought an SKS from Wholesale Sports now that some other priorities (furnishing a house, replacing my computer, etc etc) are out of the way. I'm funny that way.
I'm not labouring under the illusion that I found a pot-of-gold or even
+any contribution to my retirement savings. But, when I got it home and started researching, I started to think that I might have happened up on one in terms of "closer-to-original-than-others".
I've stripped it down to decrapify it and oil. Other than the nicely blued bayonet, I find no indications that it's undergone any significant revisions or refurbishments.
It's a three-digit-serial-number Izzy from 1953
-there are no marks on it that would confirm that it had been refurbished
-all serial numbers match, with none ###X'd out. All are stamped except for those parts which are known to be normally penciled in.
-inside the stock, which is hardwood, there is a matching serial number handwritten and obviously decades old and the stock has never been repaired so far as I can tell.
-the stock does have one of those brass-wire screws that we see on every Lee Enfield, across it's width, just below the groove on the fore-end.
-the stock bears legible, if faded, inspection marks, including two, possibly three, cartouches at the cross-bolt.
-the stock has only one line of text- that being the serial number.
-the crown is bare metal
-the bolt and carrier are also bare metal with no signs of ever having been blued or painted
-barrel and receiver are nicely blued with a few signs of wearmarks
I know that if I looked around I could find some really like-new ones, but I didn't want to put out that kind of money. So the thought that I could have picked up something good on a "random drop", for the price that I paid, strikes me as pretty cool. I will say that if this was refurbished beyond the obvious, I think they did a pretty good job of it.
What say, you, Red Rifle Gurus? I think I at least got my money's worth.
