Hello everyone, I am a new member here and this is my first post.
I am not new to firearms, and while I am far from an SKS expert, I have owned a few and feel like I know just enough to be slightly dangerous, heh. I certainly do enjoy the SKS rifle.
Thank you all in advance for the things that I will most likely learn on this forum.
Anyway... I will try to keep this as short and as organized as possible but I will be posting a number of notes and photos of this particular Albanian SKS that I purchased last week so it will likely turn out to be a slightly long first post.
I am just looking for any information that you all can give me about this rifle. I posted about this rifle over at AK Files and after people speculated about it there, they suggested that I create an account here and ask you all... so here I am.
I purchased this from the West Chester, OH Cabela's store in their Gun Library. There were actually 3 other Albanian SKS's in there too. They did not match numbers, two of them were in comparable condition to mine and one of them was considerably rougher. Three of them were priced at $475.00 (including the one I purchased) and the rougher one was $399.00. Unfortunately, only one of them included the bayonet and it was not the one that I purchased (the rough one for $399.00 was the one with the bayonet) This was as of noon on 1/16/20.
Here's where things get a little different:
-all 4 rifles were Century Imports (the import stamp under the barrel says exactly: "C.A.I. Georgia VT Albania SKS 7.62x39")
-all 4 rifles had regular SKS bolt carriers (as in, they did not have the curved AK-ish Albanian-style bolt carriers) but they did show all other major identifying characteristics of an Albanian SKS (longer handguards, 3 vent holes on the gas tube, more pronounced curved magazine, dual trap door butt plate, etc.)
-the Cabela's sales rep said that these rifles were a Cabela's Corporate purchase... and that they purchased about 100 of them and they are sending them to Cabela's stores around the country. I tried to talk him down from $475.00 to $400.00 because of the missing bayonet and the bolt carrier but he wouldn't budge. He said they had $400.00 into the rifles... but, frankly, who knows if anything this guy said was true or not... that's just what he said! I ended up paying the $475.00 and I don't feel bad about that... despite the questionable nature of the rifle.
So... the reason that I chose this one particular rifle out of the four was because it has an all-matching serial # of 66879 with no date code on every part that you would expect to see it on... but it is all electro penciled... except for one stamping of the number on the bolt and a stamping of the number on the stock. I do not see any evidence of any other older or scrubbed out serial numbers on any of the parts. I know that most Albanian serial numbers start with 0 and have a 2 digit date code. This one is just a 5 digit number. Maybe 66879 is the 879th rifle of 1966 or the 668th rifle of 1979? Haha, the way the numbers seem to be one year before and then one year after the known dates of Albanian SKS production is also sort of interesting.
Here's a bunch of photos of the rifle... what do you think we have here? Something interesting or just a mis-match of Chinese and Albanian parts, perhaps? The serial number thing does have me curious though. I will say that all of the parts appear to me to have very similar wear and machining patterns and chatter marks... and, while it might be difficult to tell by the pictures, the rifle just appears "complete" to me... if that makes sense. All of the parts also fit together very well, the stock has a very good fit and again the rifle doesn't feel "cobbled together" overall... again if that makes sense. This rifle doesn't have a date on it... but does that actually make it a "no date" model or something else?
It was packed with cosmoline, so it has likely been left untouched/unfired since it was imported. It certainly has been fired and issued but the bore is in very good condition. I wiped out the majority of the cosmoline but you'll still see some in the photos.
Anyway, no need to ramble any more, please let me know what you all think. I'll be around to respond and answer any potential questions too. I'm not terribly concerned about value, although knowing an approximate value would be nice, but really I just want to learn more about this rifle.
You can click the photos for larger images and more detail. I added some captions to some of the photos.
Does anyone know anything about these stampings on the bolt carrier? Looks like circled R's or K's and a circled P.
More bolt carrier stampings. Any thoughts? Has Albania ever produced a regular-looking carrier or is it perhaps Chinese or Russian? There is a triangle with an A inside, a circled M, a circled X and what looks like maybe a C.
One of the only stamped serial numbers (the other is on the buttstock.) The rest are electro-penciled.
Looks like there are two number 8's stamped on the rails here. There is also a number 6 stamped on the barrel near where it meets the receiver and another 6 on the receiver (both of these are covered by the buttstock in this photo but can be seen in a photo further down.)
Missing the sling loop. Some sort of sticker remnant. A close look looks like some of the "strong men" or "bikini girl" stickers that you often see on rifles from near this part of the world. The only other stamped serial number (again, the rest are electro-penciled.)