Sporter Refurb

[Bacarnal]

This is a Sporter I got a while back that originally came in a bubba'd TAPCO standard SKS stock made and filled (with spray foam) to fit a Sporter.  Also the stock was painted a bilious green.  Nuff said.

First, I cleaned up the replacement stock (a very rough gun show find) as far as I wanted to go, did the inletting work and filled the channel.  Since it was chu wood and I couldn't find any around, I resorted to pine for the plug.  Did some inletting for the cleaning rod and used brass stock repair pins in addition to Gorilla wood glue to secure it.   After a few years, it seems to have worked fine and matches halfway decent.   Finished it out with several coats of BLO.

At this point I found out that all SKS stocks are not created equal.  The stock bolt didn't meet with the shoulder on the barrel, being a few millimeters off.  After a bit of trial and error and a lot of time fitting, I finally got the stock bolt worked to seat correctly, not wanting to do anything to the barrel shoulder.

The muzzle brake took some fitting, being limited to a Dremel and files.  Got it to seat snug, then cold blued the work areas and oil sealed. 

I'm contemplating filling the bayonet channel, but that would just be cosmetic. I left the stock with some of the imperfections for looks and also to not take off too much.  Oh, and being basically lazy.

I use Hungarian 20 rounders with her just because they look right to me.

I know this isn't on par with some of the other work I've seen done in other posts ("joe" or an RPK, among others, comes to mind ), but she suits my needs.

[firstchoice]

I think you did a fine job of returning the Sporter to a good functional carbine. I like the commercial AK-mag conversion rifles. The SKS-30 is my favorite for standard length, but the rest with the Para-length barrels have all the possibilties of being modded into whatever you want out of it.

A member on another board (Sarge or SgtRock?) posted a rework that he did on a SKS-M of his. He pulled the FSB/neutered bayo lug off and replaced it with a standard FSB w/functional bayo lug. It came out really well and I always wanted to do the same with one of mine.




Your Sporter would use the same Para-length bayonet, so it would look pretty much the same as this one.

Your Sporter now looks pretty much identical to the earliest Sporter imported with the 88 prefix serial numbers. They were the only Sporter imported with the military style stock, unlike the M's Monte Carlo stock. You can see a pic on the Weebly site for reference.

http://chinesesks.weebly.com/sporter.html

(3rd pic from the bottom, serials 88 00000-88 018XX)

Nice job Bacarnal!

firstchoice

[Larry D.]

Nice work.
This is why there is the old adage "when life give you lemons, make lemonade."

You've made great lemonade!

[Bacarnal]

FC, I was going to switch the FSB and bought the short bayo for it, but after I did the stock work and had her together, I discovered the 922r's (still can't make much sense of them, personally) and thought I might be pushing it adding the pig sticker.  After considerable contemplation (and time, remember the lazy part about me), I decided on the muzzle brake.

Thanks, LD.

[Larry D.]

Looks like you have a bit of cash tied up in tanker mags, too.....

[Bacarnal]

LD, I've got four of the "tanker" mags. Don't know what they are going for now.  I got them when I was working in MD when they only allowed 20 rnd mags.  Now they allow less.  Glad I don't work there anymore.

[firstchoice]

FC, I was going to switch the FSB and bought the short bayo for it, but after I did the stock work and had her together, I discovered the 922r's (still can't make much sense of them, personally) and thought I might be pushing it adding the pig sticker.  After considerable contemplation (and time, remember the lazy part about me), I decided on the muzzle brake.

Thanks, LD.

I'm no expert on 922r, at all. Never tried much in the way of swapping parts myself and I'm not sure how the member mentioned addressed 922r per the FSB changes, either. I wondered if changing something back to original configuration would constitute a violation, or not. (Technically, I guess the AK-mag conversions are all non-standard anyway, though.) I would imagine it would depend on what configuration the SKS was imported into the US as, although I'm not sure how anyone would know, as there are SO many configurations existing. I wouldn't want to test the laws until I was sure, though. I can understand your reasoning. 

Looks like you have a bit of cash tied up in tanker mags, too.....

Larry, those Tanker mas in pouches shown were owned by the member on another board that had swapped out a FSB on his SKS-M. I guess the Tanker mag prices did get a bit pricey, though. I haven't looked for a while on their prices but I hear folks talk about paying high prices for them if they can find them. I always liked the 20rd mags. I wish I could have found some of the original Chinese 20rd mags. (not the Type 63's)

firstchoice

[Greasemonkey]

And dont forget the Type 84... it came with all 3 features, a para length barrel, high cap mag and bayonet.

[Bacarnal]

GM, that's what I was originally going for then, for the reasons given, decided to stick with what I had.  I'd love to have one of those (and a North Korean, an East German, and the first one I ever had (bring back) from Gart Brothers in 1980 ) but Ducats are limited.  Still trying to get rid of my M1919A4 Semi that I built to fund further lunacies, I mean purchases.

[echo1]

FC, I was going to switch the FSB and bought the short bayo for it, but after I did the stock work and had her together, I discovered the 922r's (still can't make much sense of them, personally) and thought I might be pushing it adding the pig sticker.  After considerable contemplation (and time, remember the lazy part about me), I decided on the muzzle brake.
Thanks, LD.

I'm not certain, but I don't think 922r comes into play. Your rifle IS NOT a military firearm to begin with. A bayo installation MAY have some potential impact though. PAX