#'s match, but shes goofy...

[NeighborWilson]

First post, new to the SKS world. Recently acquired my first SKS from my late grandfather. Back story: Grandpa was a Marine(1961-65),  i grew up with the safe in my room, was raised to respect the tools and appreciate them. I remember this particular rifle being in the safe since i can remember, but do not remember him telling me any history on it besides that it was Russian.
Fast forward 30 years, now shes home with me and need help on what exactly is up with this fine piece of steel and wood.
What I know so far:
1951 Tula stock ( restamped 1 time to current SN)
Imported by CDI
Norinco receiver cover with see-through rail
Norinco 4x25 scope
Numbers matching mag cover, reciever, trigger assembly, stock, and gas tube
Pinned barrel
Heres the kicker and the mystery.... shes missing the front sight, bayonet lug, and has a muzzle brake attached. Gpa wasnt one for messing with things, so anyone have any insight as to possibly why or how? Have tried to track down a matching brake to no avail, have found no other info or another rifle in a similar situation

[Greatguns]

Howdy NeighborWilson and welcome to the Files from Kansas City, MO.

As concerns the SKS, definitely an early Russian as it has the 45 degree sloped gas block as an immediate tell. The muzzle brake on the front is an old Capco brand silver solder brake. (NOT threaded on) That is something that if you can find and early Russian Front Sight assembly the brake can be removed and thus restore the rifle. The harder, more expensive part will be finding the correct blade bayonet. They are out there but you will usually pay around $100 for one. Then there is finding an original receiver cover with, at least, the correct year stamped on it. Again, they are out there, but not cheap. Patience will be your friend for finding these parts. On the other side of things, you could just keep it as is because that is the way you remember it from your grandfather and that is how you received it so, memories to retain in that aspect.
Regardless, looks like a good clean shooter SKS.

[running-man]

Welcome to the Files!  Glad to have you here.  I'd say GG has covered you extremely well.  I've never seen that style muzzle brake before, so that is a neat bit of info for both of us  to learn!

As for the gun itself, depending on the complete feature set it could be anything from a late '50 to an early '52 Russian SKS.  This is a CDI import, these were brought into the US in the '91 to '92 timeframe. 

I believe you might be incorrect in it having a pinned barrel, all Russian SKS45s have a long lug style threaded barrel: 




The stock having a restamped number indicates it was refurbished in the USSR long before it was imported.  After import, one of the original owners pulled the front sight base and soldered on that brake and swapped out the original receiver cover for the scope mount cover.  This is what we'd call a 'bubba' here on the files.  The collectibility (and price) of a gun like this is unfortunately on the extreme low end of the spectrum and returning it back to the as-imported condition will only marginally improve this as refurbished guns are less highly sought than pristine as-issued guns.  If it were mine, at this point I would keep it as your Grandpa had it and enjoy shooting it. 

[Phosphorus32]

GG and RM covered every base as far as I can tell. Nice to have those memories of your grandfather associated with it. I’m a purist but I’d just leave it as he used it at this point Restoring it would take quite a bit of time, skilled work and money to bring it back to correct configuration but mismatched.

[echo1]

If that's a Leapers scope, they're decent enough glass for an SKS. The weak link is the receiver cover mount. You can make it work and prolly won't hurt the value, since it's kinda destroyed already. PAX