Wondering if the stock finish on this Factory 316 SKS looks original?

[Shpagin]

I just bought this today on impulse after walking into a local gun shop "just to see what they had" for $575. It's from factory 316, serial # beginning with 18. Import marked I A C Billerca MA. The rifle is in perfect condition all numbers match, appears unissued, no wear to the bluing whatsoever & small amounts of cosmoline trapped in various places. Bore actually looks unfired to me, or very few rounds put through it.

However I'm wondering if the furniture has the original finish on it or not. Most Chinese SKS I've seen have a much lighter blonde or orangish finish versus this one which is a much darker sort of reddish shellac. There are a few very small areas where the finish can be a bit brittle/flaky like an older finish. The bayonet groove and the inletted areas underneath the barrel/receiver are unfinished.

The shellac itself is a sort of brownish red, it reminds me a bit of the Soviet VK-1 coating used on Soviet/Russian SKS and post-war refurb Mosin's. It doesn't look to have been sanded and refinished but I'm not sure. It's sort of coarse to the touch.

The bolt carrier & bolt also appear to have some sort of very light parkerization finish to them which makes them a bit gray. Versus a few other I've seen which are polished in the white.

[Greatguns]

Pics are almost too closeup to tell, can you take a few and back off a bit to maybe half the rifle at a time?

[PAX]

It's not big enough to see the molecular structure. Looks more or less legit. I'd bet the bolt face and hammer have little or no wear. PAX

[LESchwartz]

Moderator's Note:  Pics resized.  Click pics to zoom in and out.

Larry
Moderator

[Shpagin]

Pics are almost too closeup to tell, can you take a few and back off a bit to maybe half the rifle at a time?

Here are a few pics I tried taking from a bit further back:

[Greatguns]

Yeah, I'd say OEM finish. Thanks for resizing the pics.

[Shpagin]

Thanks for the response, is it very common for the Chinese variants to have this sort of darker shellac finish versus the much lighter blonde finishes I've found much more often? Is there a known reason for this variation in finishes?

[PAX]

They can be any color or shade with any type of finish or stain. There were a zillion unknown number of arsenals building the SKS rifles in China. PAX

[Shpagin]

They can be any color or shade with any type of finish or stain. There were a zillion unknown number of arsenals building the SKS rifles in China. PAX

Thanks for your time and responses. Would these numerous unknown arsenals use the markings of the known arsenals? Such as one with a /316\ marking having actually been manufactured elsewhere, or was it that these smaller arsenals manufactured just parts which would then be shipped from all over to a central assembly plant & assembled?

Edit: Now that I've field stripped the rifle I can tell that the finish on it is without a doubt the original factory one it came with. It looks like it has either never been fired or has a very low round count.

[PAX]

Thanks for your time and responses. Would these numerous unknown arsenals use the markings of the known arsenals? Such as one with a /316\ marking having actually been manufactured elsewhere, or was it that these smaller arsenals manufactured just parts which would then be shipped from all over to a central assembly plant & assembled?

In general, an arsenal stamp on a rifle is where it was produced but sub-assemblies could have been sourced, sent unnumbered then struck when & where built. With the Chinese there's no telling how the production flow actually occurred. Nice gun BTW, PAX