Terminology discussion

[Loose}{Cannon]

What he said.   

Dont get any more simple then that.

[montigre]

Resurrecting an older topic cuz I've been at this long enough now to have an opinion...

I agree with RM's last post, but would add that an SKS offered for civilian sale that cannot be placed back into military service without alteration should be considered a commercialized carbine.  But, if it can be taken from a civilian's collection and placed directly into military service, then it should be considered a milsurp.

I do not feel that simply scrubbing the gun or changing SNs constitutes altering it from its original military purpose.  However, doing so can make it much more difficult for collectors to determine its true pedigree...

[Loose}{Cannon]

Great thing about sksfiles.....  opinions are allowed.   

[rwhite135]

To me, the definitions are very simple....

Made to be issued to military or other government agency - surplus.

Made to be sold to civilian market - commercial.

It doesn't matter if it's a new production model, or a model rebuilt from a surplus gun. If it was made to be sold to the civilian market, it's a commercial gun.

This is my view, as well.  I will also add that adding an import mark, in order to comply with importation laws, does not make a surplus rifle a commercial one in my opinion. If original markings are scrubbed and replaced with a new serial number specifically for the civilian market, I see it as a commercial rifle at that point. This is why in the altered rifle subforum I say my son's bubba was made from a commercial rifle.  It has a 94 S/N with no military markings on the receiver. As the Chinese military was no longer using the SKS in 1994, there is ample evidence that it was intended for the commercial market where bubba got his hands on it.

[Loose}{Cannon]

We at sksfiles recognize the grey area and dont flame anyone over their interpretation of commercial/not commercial.   

[Dannyboy53]

To me, the definitions are very simple....

Made to be issued to military or other government agency - surplus.

Made to be sold to civilian market - commercial.

It doesn't matter if it's a new production model, or a model rebuilt from a surplus gun. If it was made to be sold to the civilian market, it's a commercial gun.

I have to agree with PS on this one, this sums it up nicely in my opinion.

I'm in this camp also, there is nothing complicated about this except what we might make of it. One can take a turd, dry it out, paint it, put cologne on it but it's still a turd.

[running-man]

Good input guys.  Glad to have you thinking things through like this. 

In the end, "commercial vs military" is really just a tool used by the collecting community to help sort/categorize things just a bit better.