My Russian "Sneak"

[bbush44]

After drooling over all of the beautiful Russians posted in this section I figured I would post some pictures of my ugly beat up ol Russian "Sneak" 
I don't know why the "Sneaks" appeal to me so much, but after seeing several arrive from Classic and RTI marked as Chinese, I kept trying my luck at the lottery with no luck. I usually scroll through the auction websites a few times daily just to see if there is anything that I can't live without. (or as Blicero would say "tickle my pickle") A few months back I seen an SKS listed as Chinese, and the seller only had a couple of pictures  listed that he most likely took from the other side of the room.  So I contacted him for more pictures, just to see what exactly he was selling. When he sent me several other pictures, I was pleased to see that he was actually selling a Russian with a Chinese import mark. I watched the auction for the next few days, and a few hours before it ended I bid my max, and was off to bed. (Auction ended at 1:00 AM) I lay awake wondering if I should just watch it to the very end instead of live with the frustration of missing it by a few dollars. When I grabbed my phone to check the auction I had an email that I had won it for a whole $250 + $20 shipping. I stopped at the post office the next day, and sent off my money order. About a week later she was in my hands.
 
Here is what showed up.
















As you can see the condition is very similar to many of the other IO imports recently, and I knew that when I bid on it. The stock had one small crack to repair and basically zero shellac left. It appeared it hadn't been fired since it was imported since the barrel, gas tube, etc... was still full of cosmo.
The receiver, bolt carrier, trigger guard, magazine, gas tube, gas piston, and rear sight match.
The stock is force matched, and the receiver cover and bolt do not match.

Here she is after I got her all cleaned up.












The head space checked out OK, and she shoots well.
Brian

[running-man]

Neat story Brian!

You flat out stole that gun for $270 to your door - even with the mismatched receiver cover.  There's a whole bunch of guys (our resident snob who shall remain nameless but who's name rhymes with 'Blicero' included) that don't think too highly of the sneaks.  I'm with you though, they are just flat out interesting - they're 'the cat's meow' even! (ok that might be pushing it a bit, they are darned neat though).

For one, they are not guns that you'll be afraid to take out of the safe for fear of dinging up the finish or dropping while slipping on a boulder.  You can shoot them, or any other Sino-banian, a whlole bunch w/o fear of damaging the 'value' of them.  Second, who knows where these things have been or what kinds of conflict they've seen?  Were they used by ethnic Albanians to protect themselves from ethnic cleansing?  Maybe by Yugoslavian peasants defending their homes and families from roving hordes of looters, rapists, and murderers?  Most of the Russians that are in the states, the best you can really say about them is that they lived a pretty uneventful life: obsoleted almost immedeately after they were built, were used for rear line Cold War training, replaced with newer weaponry, and then stored away for a really long time. 

[Loose}{Cannon]

Dang Brian....   I didnt know you had one of these. Welcome to the (sneak club). 

[Dannyboy53]

I believe that's a real looker, good catch Brian!

[Adam7]

20 rifles later.. And I never got one!!! And you come prancing along with your 'ugly'(I call bs on this statement!  She is a a LOOKER!). Very nice score.  I am very jealous.

[running-man]

Was it really 20 Adam?  Jimminy Christmas! 

Did the you abandon ambitions to get every letter gun or are you still striving for A to Y perfection?

[Adam7]

Was it really 20 Adam?  Jimminy Christmas! 

Did the you abandon ambitions to get every letter gun or are you still striving for A to Y perfection?

Honestly I lost count somewhere after 16 or so... But yes it was somewhere around 20.  I gave up on my letter collection and moved a bulk of my sks collection out and bought several ak's...lol.  I still have about 10 sks left though.

[bbush44]

Thanks guys I am pretty happy with her.
I only ordered 8 of the classic/RTI Chinese hoping for a Russian sneak with no luck. Probably going to sell off a couple of my least favorite Chinese to pick up a nice Russian.
Brian

[running-man]

You got any interesting letter guns in that mix Brian?  I still lack a %$%#$ letter gun! 

[bbush44]

You got any interesting letter guns in that mix Brian?  I still lack a %$%#$ letter gun! 

RM-
I only got two letter guns, out of the 8. 

This one all matching.
http://sks-files.com/index.php?topic=99.0

And this one, non-matching trigger guard and receiver cover. Stock matches, but is rough.
F1911
I don't even have a picture of her cleaned up.

[DesertJarhead]

I don't like asking dumb ass questions, so I won't. Now then, what is a sneak rifle and where or who named them?? Sorry that was a dumb ass question, anyway.............................

[Loose}{Cannon]

I don't like asking dumb ass questions, so I won't. Now then, what is a sneak rifle and where or who named them?? Sorry that was a dumb ass question, anyway.............................

http://sks-files.com/index.php?topic=129.0

Soviet or Russian guns (also called 'sneak Russians'): These guns are just what the name suggests, they are true Russian Type 45 SKSs manufactured in the USSR from 1949 through 1958 and sent to China sometime after their usefulness to the motherland was over.  These guns are easily identified by the single or more usually encountered dual Cyrillic letter prefix in front of the 1, 2, 3, or 4 numeral  S/N.  It is somewhat rare to find an all matching Russian gun in this IO/TGI batch as most seem have had the receiver covers swapped out, but all matching specimens do exist.

There have been some Russian carbines (but far fewer than the ghost or Chinese letter carbines) in this shipment, even though they are all marked "Type 56, China" by the importers.  This led to a bit of confusion when these first came out with many inexperienced owners not understanding what they had.  A true Russian will have one or two Cyrillic characters in the receiver S/N, no /26\ stamp, Russian proof markings, a Russian birch stock (if original to the carbine) with correct red shellac and sometimes a legible Tula/Izhevsk stock cartouche. 

Early on in these imports, it seemed that every receiver cover that bore a Tula or Izhevsk stamp on it was replaced with a mismatched cover.  Then it was noticed that certain covers from Russian guns that have no receiver cover arsenal stampings (ie. later than 1955) were left with their respective Russian guns.  That led to the speculation that that the covers were removed to 'hide' the fact that these guns are indeed of Russian origin and ‘sneak’ them into the country.  It is currently illegal to import Russian SKSs based on 27 CFR §447.52 so either the ATF/Importers missed these few Russians in the shipment, or they (more likely) didn't get caught with them until now, a full year after retail sales began.

I received word from RTI that all Russians sold by them from April 2014 on have been culled from this batch:
Quote from: Royal Tiger Customer Service
We separated the Russian SKS’s from the Chinese SKS’s, as they were sent to us in error.  They were given to ATF to be destroyed, to my knowledge.

[DesertJarhead]

Thanks for the info, I am learning daily.