The only proper way to find out is to take it to a lab and determine exactly what it is.
Mine smells creosote, no doubt about it as I'm quite familiar with it. The russians and eastern europeans in general used coal distillation creosote, I remember the stench coming from piles of railroad ties; it may smell different than the north american product though.
I'm not intimately familiar with the soviet military production system but I suspect they may have used other impregnation substances as well, e.g. used motor oil.
From what I've seen so far, looks like some of the SKSs are heavily impregnated while others are not; my older SVT was impregnated too, but not that heavy.
Mine smells creosote, no doubt about it as I'm quite familiar with it. The russians and eastern europeans in general used coal distillation creosote, I remember the stench coming from piles of railroad ties; it may smell different than the north american product though.
I'm not intimately familiar with the soviet military production system but I suspect they may have used other impregnation substances as well, e.g. used motor oil.
From what I've seen so far, looks like some of the SKSs are heavily impregnated while others are not; my older SVT was impregnated too, but not that heavy.
Could it be something else like pine tar? Finns used it on some of their arctic birch stocks, sometimes in combination with melted reindeer tallow or turpentine and beeswax (depending on the districts) and they are beautifully preserved.
Pine tar has that creosote smell although less stinky. You can get something really approaching in liquid pine tar concoctions sold in ski shops for conditioning wooden cross-country skis. Easier to apply, too.
PP.
