My only SKS...

[SubCaliber]

Hello everyone.  I am new to this forum.  I do really love the SKS but I only have the one, a Yugo... 

I did some work to it...  The rifling and barrel etc were great but the bluing, not so much.  She started out looking like this;





but with a little BC Super Blue now the bluing looks like this;





The I decided I wanted a TimberSmith stock.  I wanted a brown or cammo one but it seems all you can find these days are the black and gray.  The other issue I had was that to me the SKS just isn't proper without the bayonet and the TimberSmith stocks do nto accommodate a bayonet.  So I made it so it did.  I guess technically this may fall into the bubba category now btu I can change back the original stock at will so I am OK with it.  This stock shoulders much more naturally than the original.  So this is what it looks like now with the new stock;





With any luck some day I will come across a good Russian one when I actually have money in my pocket but for now this one works well for me.

[carls sks]

nice job, great work on the bluing. will have to try that on one of mine that has none left on it. 

[Power Surge]

That's a beauty!

[Phosphorus32]

I'm at the far end of the purist spectrum, so I would have left it as found.  However, I do like those Timbersmith stocks; they're certainly the classiest aftermarket stock out there. The cold-bluing is the irreversible part but it does look surprisingly even and lustrous. How do you like the feel of the carbine with the stock and it's built-in cheek rest?

[SubCaliber]

Thanks guys.  Just to clarify I didn't strip it either.  Thats the result of just re-bluing as if I was touching it up.  It turned out way better than I ever expected to be honest.

I actually have a simple silly slideshow video of each of the changed here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPbIPz6NR_Iv2Unz9r2DhAQ

You can thank my wife for the videos.  I watch a lot of gun stuff om there and when I did these she said I should put up something showing this stuff because she thought is was kind of cool and I should kind of give back in a way.  However I prefer not to have my ugly mug or my voice on video.  Also all I have to film with is a phone and I wasn't planning on making videos of either of these when I did them.   As such they are pretty much slide shows of some of the photos I took during the process but maybe you may find them interesting, maybe not. 

I am not sure if I will ever do another firearms related video.  These are the first two and perhaps the last.  We'll see what comes up that I think might be worth showing.  There's so much already out there.  However I didn't see anything for the bluign in between tiny touch up and a complete strip and re-do so this does show that.  Also as far as i can tell my TimberSmith is the only one I could fidn that has ever been so modified to hold a bayonet.  So I think it was worth showing too.

[SubCaliber]

I'm at the far end of the purist spectrum, so I would have left it as found.  However, I do like those Timbersmith stocks; they're certainly the classiest aftermarket stock out there. The cold-bluing is the irreversible part but it does look surprisingly even and lustrous. How do you like the feel of the carbine with the stock and it's built-in cheek rest?

I am a bit of a purist too, thus the want to keep the bayonet.  However the questions you ask are the reason for the stock swap.  I am 6'2" so the longer length of pull is very welcome.  The higher comb gives you a very good cheek weld that lines right up with the sights.  For shooting it's a MUCH better stock than the original.  However being a purist of sorts I did keep the original.

As for the bluing I see what you mean but this is not a collectors item where the original patina would matter.  So many Yugo's and SKS's in general exist out there with perfect original bluing.  Touchign this up so it looks near new I don't think changes it's value in the least.  I'd go so far as to say if I didn't tell someone I did it that they'd never know or even question it.  Now if it was a WWI 1903 or 1911 or some other war relic or even really old gun that had history then I would never touch that.  In this case however I calculated that bluing it could only raise its value if anything.

Also I read several places that the TimberSmith is a pound or more heavier than the original.  So I weighed the TimberSmith stock and handguard (+rubberband holding them together) BEFORE I routed out the groove.  So mine is technically a tad lighter than this now that it's met my router;



After I removed the handguard from the gas tube I used the same rubber band and banded it to the stock and weighed it as well;



So the difference in my case is barely over a half pound and with the bayo channel removed maybe even slightly less than a half pound.  However stock woods very greatly in weight and time in cosmoline combines with the type of stock wood can add who knows how much weight to any given stock so your mileage may very.  All I am saying is that in my case the weight wasn't that different and well worth the extra shooting comfort.

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