Last February I was wandering around a Florida gun show when I saw a Norinco Poly SKS in mint condition. It was calling out to me so after getting it down to $400 from the asking $450 it was mine. I immediately went on line to educate myself about all things SKS. About a month later a mint arsenal refinished 1951 Tula Russian found its way into my house. I figured that was enough but then I came across a sad and abused 1958 Romanian CD 420. It was very rough but I have a history of bringing home strays as a basement of old BMW motorcycles will attest to. The stock had nicks and gouges and looked like it had been refinished by pouring glop out of the can. Bluing was about 60%. When I disassembled it the firing pin fell out of the bolt! Not only were the detents on the firing pin worn out but the head was mushroomed and the firing pin retainer had a groove worn through. Amazingly the firing pin bolt hole was still in spec and had not been convexed out. Good old Romanian steel!
I removed the bayonet, cleaning rod and tool kit from the butt and proceeded with rehab. I cleaned and polished all the internals, installed a NOS firing pin and firing pin retainer, touched up the bluing where it was worse (I did not want it to look like a perfect restoration and wanted to keep some of its funky character) and refinished the stock. The stock was so bad I had to sand it down and fill in damaged areas. Fortunately these were not deep and I was able to blend in the repair work. There were no apparent cracks. My local old school smithy examined the barrel and pronounced it to be in excellent condition. This was particularly good news. It has matching numbers everywhere except for the stock. The only thing on it is a tiny “M” just behind the trigger guard. The gun came out beautifully and when it was done I took it out to the range and on the very first shot hit the paper at 50 yards. Not bad for a 70 year old man with cataracts! Most of my other shots were also on paper. Admittedly it was a lucky day. I was even able to get a few rounds on paper at 100 but again that was pure luck as I am pretty blind at that range and need scoped rifles. It is a much better shooter than my Norinco, which is excellent, or the Russian. I don’t know why since they are essentially the same gun but it is clearly better. Maybe the other rifles aren’t broken in. In conclusion I love this gun. It’s my favorite SKS and will not let it go. When I figure out Photo Bucket I'll post pictures.
