SKS quality by manufacturer

[bulletpaluza]

You are in my wheelhouse on SKS rifles. I have a Chinese,Sino-Soviet, Romanian, Albanian, Russian and Yugo.

Chinese: Quality is good and quite uniform. I am not interested at $400, smirk at the price at $350, try to negotiate at $300 and purchase without question at $275. Parts need to match because there are WAY to many matching Chinese SKS' out there to settle for one that doesnt match.

Sino-Soviet: The prevailing through is that these are SKS rifles built in China on Soviet machinery at the very early part of the Chinese-Soviet relationship. Some have numbered serials only, some have a letter followed by numbers. Quality is similar to the standard Chinese. Price can be a hair over the Chinese ones, due to the interesting story behind them and there are far fewer. Wouldnt pay over $350.

Russian: Definitely the cadillac of SKS rifles in terms of quality. Stocks have the beautiful "Russian Red" finish that is basically impossible to replicate exactly. These come in two types: Refurbished and Non-Refurbished. Refurbished ones were redone at the Russian arsenals and are forced matched. This will be evident on the rear of the stock where the original serial number has been X'ed out to make room for the new serial number to "match" the parts on the rest of the gun which are of course, electro-penciled. I like to pay less than $400, but $400 is still a good deal. The non-refurbs will go for $600+

Yugo: Actually my least favorite of the SKS varieties. Looks neat with the grande launcher capability but isnt a great shooter, at least mine isnt. $350 is my buy it now price....these have popped back up on the retail online distributors and they want $400 +.

Albanian: Definitely the rarest of the "you can actually find one" SKS varieties. I say that because the East German and North Vietnamese are like bigfoot...you have heard of them, but nobody has ever definitively seen one (kidding....mostly). Very neat looking SKS, evident by its long, three notch hand guard....very distinct looking. Has an AK style bolt handle which makes it stand out as well. Mine is matching, down to the stock and i gladly paid $500 for it. One just sold on gunboards for $500 very easily. Interesting thing about them is the different stock finishes....some are brown, some have a chinese yellow-ish tint and some have an orange tint. I dont shoot it much and I dont plan to....too hard to come by.

Romanian: After the Albanian, the rarest of the aforementioned group. Mine is not matching and I understand you will pay a premium for one that does. Good quality, nothing special about it except for its relative rarity. $450 for a non-matching one.....$600 for matching.

The yugos tend to be more accurate because of the none chrome lined barrels. My yugo is a tack driver. It's weird to hear a yugos not being accurate.

 

[jim conner]

Excellent information that is invalable in my research of these guns !!