SKS Chrome Lining Question

[p.Rundle]

Hello folks,

So recently I was perusing a forum from our southernly border brothers and saw that individuals were claiming that all SKS's were chrome lined as long as they were made after 1951 or 1952 (there was a lot of unsure opinions in the forum) which seems weird to me. I always wondered about SKS's and chrome so I figured I'd chuck out the question here, and see what comes up. What years of Russian SKS's were chrome lined and if there were chrome lined and non-chrome lined produced at the same time, why??

BTW I know all the chinese ones are chrome lined, I'm asking about the Russians here.

Thanks for any replies, this is a neat topic to me.

 

[BlackPowderBurner]

From what I understand, the early production rifles (1949-early 1951) had no chrome lining. Those made from the latter half of "51 on had chrome lining. Many of the not chromed rifles were re-barreled in the refurbishment process so finding an original non chromed bore rifle can often be more of an effort.

 

[p.Rundle]

Interesting that every store I've ever shopped in has said their SKS's were not chrome lined despite the fact that they had production dates as late as '54 in stock. Probably just ill-informed employees. Thanks for the response BPB, btw that P14 I got off you has been redone in a duracoat and looks much, much better.

 

[ljones]

It is possible to find 50/51 SKS's with chrome lined barrels as well as some would have had chrome lined bores installed during refurbishment.

 

[fiddler]

I have a later model SKS of unknown date that has a non-chrome barrel. It shoots great, probably one of the best shooters I have.

 

[Eaglelord17]

Also to add to that, non-chromelined SKS were made after that date however it was by Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia for whatever reason didn't believe in chromelining.

 

[dand883]

I have a later model SKS of unknown date that has a non-chrome barrel. It shoots great, probably one of the best shooters I have.

I have heard that many people find, depending on barrel condition, that the non chrome lined early models (1950-early 51) to shoot more accurately than the chrome lined versions, that to chrome line they oversized the bores a bit, which the chrome lining then shrank back down to size, but because of the state of the technology/tooling at the time it wasn't as exact as it can be today, so the normal steel barrels ended up with tighter tolerances.