I'd been looking to pick up an SKS fixer upper to drop into a used black polymer stock that someone else had passed on to me cheap and managed to snag one of the cracked stock offerings from J&G about a week ago.
While I had expected a cosmoline and rust covered mix master what got was a bit different. It is a triangle 26 with a 34 stamped by the index mark on the receiver and has the heavy lug and blade bayonet. Every serialized part including the cracked stock matches and the vast majority of the bluing is still intact. There are some light scratches on the exposed barrel and some minor pitting on the barrel lug, magazine catch, and trigger catch.
I do not think the stock (with side-mount sling) is salvageable. The area along the right side of the receiver is cracked all the way through pretty much the full length of the receiver and behind the receiver is an additional crack that extends about an inch and a half towards the butt and goes from top through to the grip.
My question is what are my options regarding a stock for this rifle? Since what I got was in better condition than expected, I've been looking for original type wood. Outside of ebay though, the usual surplus outfits don't have much to offer these days. Staying with the original plan seems a shame...
Welcome to the boards. thumb1
You'd be surprised at some of the stocks that were salvaged by the Albanians, they had some very sharp armorers skilled in using bailing wire and duct tape to get things back into working order. Post up some photos of the stock and some of the woodworkers here will be able to tell you what might be involved in salvaging it. It would be a shame to lose a numbers matching stock w/o even trying to salvage it.
If you do go the replacement route, wood stocks are not terribly hard to find if you are persistent and know how much you want to spend. Bottom swivel stocks might be a tad more prevalent, but side swivel stocks can often be had as well. Make sure to recognize that blade and spike bayos are two different animals too. The bayo grooves on the stocks make them quite a bit different from each other. Gunbroker & eBay are going to be your best bets. After getting the correct sling swivel and bayo groove, you'll want to make sure your new stock is going to be compatible with your long lug gun. Some stocks are for pinned barrels and will require a little (or a lot) of fitment at the crossbolt to work on a long lug barrel.
Good luck!
Given the side swivel, and the types of rifles seen in the Albanian Type 56 imports, you've likely got a letter gun from 1959-60 (a Roman alphabet letter in front of a 4 digit number). A 6 million (scarce) or 7 million series are the other possibilities. I'm far toward the purist end, and I have more than one SKS to shoot, so if it were mine I'd keep the original matching stock and try to make the necessary repairs.
You could always sell this one, probably for a modest profit for a truly matching example, and buy another from J&G if you want one to drop into a plastic stock. I'm sure your luck will turn for the "better" and you'll get a mismatched turd in a broken stock eventually rofl
The wooden Chinese stocks inletted for a blade bayonet definitely pop up rather infrequently compared to the spike bayonet inletted (a few varieties depending on barrel type). I'd just patiently look for one one of these.
Alternatively, "Romanian" blade bayonet replacement stocks are still available at retail. I have no personal experience with these so I don't know if they're really Romanian beech stocks. It wouldn't be correct for a Type 56 but they might look very nice and function well.
http://www.clearviewinvest.com/sks.aspx
Pictures would be very helpful!
Without seeing pictures of the stock, I can only suggest using some very small dowels to reinforce the areas that are cracked and use a really good wood glue if you want to attempt to salvage it. I have seen a few that have been successful using this method. Make sure to bake the cosmoline out of the wood before attempting to use glue on it.
A couple of additional details:
From left to right, it has the /26\ then the Chinese characters then serial 7081073. The leaf site has the cyrillic n. I'm not sure there's a whole lot more as far as distinguishing characteristics.
Here are links to the images...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5F8ohIxMz5GanNyX19YaW9rVEk/view?usp=sharing (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5F8ohIxMz5GanNyX19YaW9rVEk/view?usp=sharing)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5F8ohIxMz5GampDYXlUbnEybUk/view?usp=sharing (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5F8ohIxMz5GampDYXlUbnEybUk/view?usp=sharing)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5F8ohIxMz5GNlY4dU5KRVlodHM/view?usp=sharing (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5F8ohIxMz5GNlY4dU5KRVlodHM/view?usp=sharing)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5F8ohIxMz5GWXpIZmlnWDc3Rm8/view?usp=sharing (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5F8ohIxMz5GWXpIZmlnWDc3Rm8/view?usp=sharing)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5F8ohIxMz5Ga3VlOXVhejVWamM/view?usp=sharing (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5F8ohIxMz5Ga3VlOXVhejVWamM/view?usp=sharing)
take a look at eBay for a possible replacement stock if you want. :o
As others have suggested-- even before you posted the photo links. That stock may still be salvageable. Hard to tell just how deep/extensive the right side crack is.
The 34 on near the index likely has a matching 34 nearby on the barrel lug.
So far I've heard only good things about this batch of J&G gunsmith specials.
Even if you have to get a new stock you'll still be below the current price range for a fucntioning (or soon-to-be function) rifle.
Getting it into fully function order is a great way to familiarize yourself with the sks platform.
I don't see a Letter on the stock serial. Can you tell us what the serial range is? 6th year?! or More likely a 7th? Or...dare I ask... an 8th or 9th year?!
Nice get!
I agree with carls. Probably just find a replacement stock. If the rest of the rifle is as nice as you describe, it deserves to be well dressed in a serviceable stock.
Yours looks like at some point it was dealt a crushing blow!
If you can get all of the cosmoline out, you may be able to steam the wood to raise the dented areas. If you can get glue into the cracks, I would try a series of small clamps to close the cracks while it cures. It would almost certainly require some sanding before trying to finish the wood. If you have to sand it, wipe it with a damp sponge to raise the grain in between sandings.
Even if you can get the cracks to close and stay after the glue cures, they may still show up when you put on the finish. Looks like you got quite a project if you want to save this stock.
I did one for a friend that was really banged up and it turned out pretty nice, but I did not have to contend with any cracks. He wanted a flat finish so I used boiled linseed oil. As you can see in these pictures, his rifle was pretty rough.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/td3trp56hyhrxdj/2017-01-03%2018.17.14.jpg?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/td3trp56hyhrxdj/2017-01-03%2018.17.14.jpg?dl=0)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x1uf7of3qtprjjy/2017-01-03%2018.17.32.jpg?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/x1uf7of3qtprjjy/2017-01-03%2018.17.32.jpg?dl=0)
7 mil, so 1962. Those cracks in the vicinity of the back of the receiver are fixable, for example:
Drill for a 1/4" hardwood dowel (not all the way through)
Force glue out into the crack by pouring glue in the hole and using the dowel as a piston.
Use a stiff piece of paper wetted with glue to get into the cracks if the dowel doesn't force out enough glue to fill the crack
Clamp and dry
Gently scrape off excess glue with an Xacto knife or similar
Trim the end of the dowel sticking out of the stock and stain the end
Quote from: Phosphorus32 on April 19, 2017, 08:03:10 PM
7 mil, so 1962.
I hate it when I read things and don't remember that I've read them.
Thanks.
I had an idea the crack behind the receiver was possibly repairable using the dowel method - I wasn't so certain about being able to repair the one on the side though. Thanks for the link to the Clearview site, btw. I hadn't seen that one before. I'll keep up the search for a suitable replacement and will see what can be done to salvage this one. I had good success cleaning up an undamaged WASR stock but limited success getting the divots out of a banged up Oviedo M1916 stock.
Don't need to remove divots; they're just part of the character thumb1
If gluing and clamping isn't enough to hold those smaller cracks they can be drilled for a small brad or very small diameter brass screw before gluing. Leave the head of the screw exposed and trim it off with a Dremel cutting wheel after the glue dries so there's very little showing.
Quote from: Phosphorus32 on April 19, 2017, 09:19:50 PM
Don't need to remove divots; they're just part of the character thumb1
thumb1 thumb1 thumb1
I'm going to give the Chinese fiberglass stock a try - that's why they made them, to replace beat up T56 wood stocks, correct?
That stock is pretty beat up, but it's definitely repairable.
My suggestion is to use serrated metal pins or nails with the heads cut off. Serrated pins will hold much better. And metal pins are much thinner than wood dowels so it's easier to repair the top to bottom cracks.