Sweet.  Now you all you need is a hot VC chick in Black Pajamas. (lol).

Nope -

The bayonet mount/front sight assembly would complete the restoration.

Chinese Norinco SKS Rifle Front Sight with Bayonet Lug

SKS complete barrel and bayonet. 20"

I disagree by one year, and say 1966 production. Here is my reference: http://chinesesks.weebly.com/26-progression.html

I think the stock is correct, China switched to spike bayonets in 1964. The year of OPs rifle was the first year for stamped trigger groups.

It COULD be a "bringback", but highly unlikely that someone would "bubba", it by grinding off the bayo lug. There are quite a few rifles that I beleive simply got overlooked at the import stamping procedure. I have seen a few, and I am NO professional.

In the late 90's, during the AWB, someone might have thought they had to remove the bayonet lug IOT keep it legal.  Hell, in Kalifornia, they might have had to for all I know.

Had a fail at the range. The rifle would not cycle--most likely due to a pitted chamber, although I failed to check if the gas port was restricted.

Function tested with 10 rounds.  Rifle's action had to be (gently) mortared open by hip-checking the charging handle against the face of the bench.

Groups shot at 25 yards.  Adjusting sights at this point made no sense as the rifle's harmonic will change drastically if/when it cycles in semi-auto.

The plan is to polish the chamber, and hope it can be smoothed enough to cycle.

Is it correct to assume that steel case ammo is more forgiving of rough chambers, vs brass?


A

B

C

D

E

Generally brass is easier to extract than steel, as it tends to contract more.

Wow! 15 thousandths headspace plus!

The primer is really backed out more than that!

Yeah OP that chamber is rough!

Polish with a piece of Scotch Brite pad loaded with polishing compound on a cleaning rod section chucked on a drill at low speed.

Tried polishing the chamber using a dowel with 600 grit paper first--bound tight and snapped the dowel (lol).

Went with a oily (Marvel Mystery Oil) bisquit of 00 steel wool, attached to a dowel, spun by a drill.  Kept adding steel wool.  Felt like I made some headway.  

Finished with .45 cal pistol brush wrapped in patches and slathered with automotive rubbing compound.  Kept adding patches and rubbing compound until I saw some shine in the chamber.

Cleaned the chamber and reciever well, many patches on bore brushes.

Hit the range (finally) today.

Brass-cased ammo would not cycle--but I could manually break the action free.  I was pretty bummed--figured the unit was a wall-hanger.

I had picked up some steel-cased ammo on a hunch, Wolf Military Classic, and SHAZZAMM!--the rifle cycled absolutely beautifully.

I proceeded to sight in the rifle (close enough) at 50, and checked the Zero at 100.

The rifle shot Wolf Military Classic into 4" at 100 yards from a rest--not great, but hey, the rifle was cycling nicely.

I'll post pics next range trip--but for now, the good news is that she cycles steel-cased nicely.

You've got more room in the chamber up front than in the rear, I'll bet, even though it's smooth now.  The steel case works b/c it doesn't expand as much as the brass.

And isn't as malleable--so it can't form-fit the pitting in the chamber.

The steel-case showed no texture imprint at all, as opposed to the brass.

I do have some older brass ammo that I have never tried in my older SKS... This thread makes me wonder how well it would function.  Since some of it is hunting ammo I just saved it, even though I have much better hunting rifles and plenty of other ammo.

Nice to hear the steel case ammo is working.  4" at 100 yards isn't too far off what these were designed for anyway.