So I got this piece of ATI garbage off the Norinco SKS


I F'ed up by not getting a picture with it still in the Tapco garbage but i guess there's plenty online so here. (not mine)


Got a stock for it, covered cosmaline. So stripped the stock, grabbed some 80 grit, yea 80, went to town, Never seen 80 grit clog so fast. Luckily a brass brush cleans it right up and puts it back into action! Tomorrow I have to go to the hardware store to get some 120, 320 and 400 grit, I got some boiled linseed oil and wiped it down with a good coat, though tomorrow I'm going at the stock with the other grits to smooth it back down. Test fit the action.. No Go! Not even close, the recoil lug is about 1.5mm from fitting, trimmed about 1mm from the front of the stock, the portion that fits into the hand guard cover, meh negligible improvement. Noticed the rear of the action was hitting at the back of the stock, not allowing the action to sit back as far as it needs too to fit into the recoil lug.

Damn that's going to be tedious to clearance. I grabbed my square file and a thin strip of sand paper... yeah fuck that I'll be here all year. I'll have to look for a small wood chisel in the morning to take the bulk of what I need from that spot and then finish with the sand paper. The square file is for metal so it will just clog in two strokes.

1 side

other side

butt

I was a little surprised to find the cleaning kit in the compartment, stock came with a canvas sling too.

Sanded with 80grit, I should have got a better picture, I thought I did...oh well, sorry.

In to see how the restoration goes.  Good job OP rescuing that SKS.

Test fitting

Went to the store to buy a narrow chisel to help with clerancing and fitting the stock for THIS action....

More clearancing, seems everything was to far forward about 1/8"

That's more like it, earlier I couldn't get it anywhere near that far down into the stock


Ugh, got to clearance more shit. It's like they were all assembled by hand or something.

That's more like it.

Test fit pretty much done (or so I thought, had to clearance a small area for the trigger assembly to drop into place)


Stripped back down, sanding went from the initial 80 to get the cosmaline off to 150, 320 and then 400. Here it is after the 400.


Ooooo,

rubbing this shit in little dip of my finger at a time, took about 45 to an hour to do the stock as I took my time went sparingly and rubbing in hot and heavy really working it in.

Fought me and had to fight like hell to get the trigger assembly locked back in. Thing that sucks is I still have to take it back down once more as I removed a tad to much material from the stock behind what i would call the "tang" of the action so there's a gap there now, I'll have to take a thin strip of wood and wedge and glue it in place to take up that gap. And I need to find a internal magazine for it then she's ready to rock!


P.S. that's 1 coat, I'm going to put 2-3 more on it. I went ahead and assembled it though because I figured it's easy enough to do assembled. Oh and I need to find all the pieces to the spike bayonet. Also it's actually a shade or two darker than seen in those pictures, the lights were washing it out a little. I need to take a picture outside with it... brb going to do that.

Ugh still looks washed out compared to the/my human eye.

You're doing a great job saving that SKS, you said you still need a magazine to complete it.  IM me you address and I'll send it out Monday. My contribution to restoring that fine rifle.

Sweet! IM sent.

If you  want to give the Taco stock way I will be willing  to take it off your hands  :)

I cringe even more when i see those cheesy ATI side folders. At least TAPCO’s stuff is decent for what it is. Sounds like you possibly have a stock for a screw in barrel rather than pressed and pinned barrel. You shouldn’t need to grind on the stock bolt (not a recoil lug), at least not much to make it fit.  I always try and find unnumbered parts. Good work on it.

I didn't want to grind on anything on the action, figured it was easier to clearance the wood stock as there turned out to be a few places that had to have material removed for it to fit. The very front of the stock had to be taken down about 1/16" as well as the area where the very back of the action sits in the stock behind the trigger assembly, that slot had to have about 1/16" material removed and the top where the action sits, there was a "shelf" like area that needed just a little trimmed off the end, then it finally sat in it light it ought too. I didn't want to modify the action as I figured I could screw up the stock and just get another one but screw up the action and that might be harder to fix. Anyway, it's in now.

Here's some pictures can't find much on youtube that helps with dating it to figure out much about it. I wish I had taken a picture of the action out of the stock a little closer where the barrel mates but oh well.
Can't read the Chinese characters, but then numbers in a rectangle are 0140 then stamped to the side, 7603216D, then the import stampings



Also sanded lightly on the metal butt and clear coated it since I didn't want to spray paint it gloss black. Not sure I wont do more to it but that's better than it was by a lot and sealed so it wont get any worse.

The one on the left is screwed barrel, on the right pinned. look at the difference where the barred meets the receiver.

Here the 2 on the left are screwed, the one on the far right, pinned

Oh, and dropping off the mag at the post office tomorrow

Can't wait to see it on the finished SKS.

thanks for posting, I'm looking them over while rubbing the stock down with more oil.

Must be screw in barrel, makes more sense for the way I had to fit it. that cut is further back on the pressed and pinned version so that would make sense.

I consider the screwed in barrels better anyway.

You can only date Chinese SKS’s that were made at the jianshe arsenal also known as arsenal/26\.  It’s commonly believed that the rectangular and oval arsenal marked guns were made for export. Might be true, might not.  Yours is a newer one probably made in the ‘80’s. The Chinese characters say it’s a “Type 56”.

Man after that first coat, the 2nd really doesn't take much oil at all. Which I have heard it wouldn't but heck I maybe used 15 little bitty dabs on my thumb to rub down the whole stock and that almost seemed like to much. I'm going to wait a week for that one and then apply another.

Look at the stock just forward of the receiver while the barreled action is in the stock.  If it looks like it was cut for a collared barrel then it probably was.

I prefer the screw in barrels over a pressed and pinned. I don’t feel there’s any advantage in accuracy or longevity in either design. The move to the pressed and pinned was a great idea as it makes barreling the action faster and cheaper.

You actually want this thing? The stock moves around a lot side to side when "locked" back. and the Tapco (marked tapco) polymer magazines never reliably fed the rifle if you put more than 8-10 rounds in them. IM me if you really want it, there are no markings on it other than "Patent pending".

Comparing that bottom picture to this one makes me think it's pinned though *shrug* I guess I'll look closer for the pin when I remove it again to fix that small spot where I took a little to much away from the stock.

looks pinned to me.  No big deal though, they shoot great just the same, just a difference in how they were put together.

Not that it matters as those things are junk, but look on the inside of the stock around the barrel groove. It’ll probably have the name there. Probably made by the Combat Exchange or ATI.

I’m 100% sure that it is pressed and pinned. You have to take the action out of the stock to see the pin, but it’s there.

I was kidding.  I have a beautiful  unissued yougo aka.  I wouldn't dream of changing the nice stock with plastic.

You sure its a Tapco stock? It looks like a Choate folder.

Disregard eww, i didnt know tapco made folding stocks. Gross

Looked at it again, and found "The Combat Exchange folding stock" on the inside.

Looked, yeah it's ATI, also noted it's selling on e-bay between 45-75 dollars... I think I'll list it, the sling and the two 20 round Tapco magazines. Would be funny if I come out ahead on this.

Yay!



Damn it, why can't anything on this rifle just "drop in"?? I'm having to take a needle file to the front notch so it will slide forward just a touch, I tried forcing it.. well I sorta got it in, but not all the way then had to take an aluminum rod and tap it back out.

May require a little custom fitting. I don't know what model SKS the mag came from.  Sorry bout the Christmas wrapping paper, it was what I had laying around.

had to take some material off the front of the magazine where it clips into the action/barrel. A lot actually, but finally got it, got it back together, loaded it up. But it's to late to test fire it, I don't want to piss off my neighbors when it wont kill me to wait until daylight tomorrow when I get home.

It looks like an SKS again,great job OP.

It's fine, I looked at my wife and joked "look a late Christmas present!" Thank you again for the magazine. This man didn't even ask me to pay shipping!

Manually cycling ammo through it, oh it feeds way smoother! Can't wait to test fire it!

Test fired 10 rounds without a hitch. I didn't fire as fast as I could, but I'd still call it "rapid" as in a nice .4 sec cadence or so. Action loads a full magazine with ease, like so easy I wondered at first it it stripped a round and had to check.

Hey oldarmy.   WRifle/wood turned out nice.  You did a  great job on refinish of the stock.

I have one of the crappy ATI stocks.   Not even sure where I got it.   U did good on giving her some new life.

Thank you. I like it a lot more now too, actually want to break it out and shoot it rather than hide it lol.

We got one of those folding stocks for my brother's SKS back during the AWB.  It was a fixed stock, and we had to come up with a push button folder part to drop-in to make it fold.  He never really had any trouble with it.

I stupidly opted for the Choate "Dragunov" stock on mine in OD color.  I still have the Chinese stock it came with and am seriously considering swapping it back out again since I don't exactly get sniper rifle accuracy from the old SKS anyway.  

Good job on the re-stock.  I picked up a Norinco M that was in a plastic folder and put it into a yugo M59/66 stock. Not even talking about having to modify the magwell to accept the AK mags I also had to remove some wood to get it to fit.  I know the trigger assembly wouldn’t snap in and I also had to put some weld on the cross bolt in the stock since it was too loose.  I don’t know how well the handguard fit since that got butchered as a filler piece for the bayonet slot.  I will probably get some flak but it now has a ventilated metal handguard on it.

Your rifle, you do what you like or rather what works for you.

I ought to show what the boiled lin seed oil finish looks like now, it's got some color now and doesn't look as blond. Looks a lot better than when I first refinished the stock.

Sure wish I could see your pics...
I bought one one night making snarky bids on Bubba'ed SKS on Gunbroker when I hit the $175 reserve. Fortunately it was down by Springfield here in Missouri, so I hopped on the bike and went for a nice ride.
It looked exactly like your picture when I got it with a 20 round Tapco mag, and I did this to it:



I snagged a stock/magazine combo on ebay for $40 and since the stock was a bit beat up I stripped it and stained it with some Chestnut Ridge and topped it with Tru-Oil to give it that vintage used look. Later on while thinning the herd I put it back on Gunbroker and it sold, and then two weeks later I get a message from the "kid" who bought it with a picture of it back in the newer style ATI folder with a Tapco mag in it. Circle of life I guess... :D

I'm looking for a better host.  I'll see what I can do in the next few days to get them back up and add new ones.

Nice, I know there are a few of us that are looking forward to seeing that beaut you put back together.