New Ghost SKS

[K.Campbell]

I’ve always had an SKS rifle in my gun safe for as long as I can remember, not always the same one, but at least one has resided there. So all the time I’ve collected these I’ve not paid much attention to serial numbers until I found this forum... anyhow, I stumbled upon this rifle at my buddies house and immediately purchased it. Stock has seen some use for sure, blueing is nearly all worn off, so I was able to get it at a fair price. It’s a 37,XXX all numbers matching ghost gun.  Which places it at 1956-1957 range... I was so stoked to have found this!

[Phosphorus32]

Nice find!  These early Type 56s are direct copies of the SKS-45 and my favorite of the Chinese SKSs.

Mine is just slightly newer, 39653.

[echo83]

Man, I'd be stoked, too. I like the wear on it, and it looks pretty much corrosion free. What a nice looking specimen!

[K.Campbell]

Thanks guys! It shoots flawlessly as well!  The guy I got this from has three more, slightly newer, one with a single letter prefix ...

[carls sks]

nice, have one similar(17XXX).  call mine Silver Ghost (yes, i named it). 

[running-man]

Nice one K.C., but I have to disagree that your bluing is badly worn.  Some of them *really* have the bluing gone!  The 'silver' guns  like Carl mentions are unique!.  Here's mine, I probably coldn't get it more in the while unless I took a scotch brite pad to it!  Almost no bluing on the receiver sides or receiver cover.  It's a low six digit /26\, in an Albanian replacement stock, but pretty close to a ghost gun. 

[K.Campbell]

Nice one K.C., but I have to disagree that your bluing is badly worn.  Some of them *really* have the bluing gone!  The 'silver' guns  like Carl mentions are unique!.  Here's mine, I probably coldn't get it more in the while unless I took a scotch brite pad to it!  Almost no bluing on the receiver sides or receiver cover.  It's a low six digit /26\, in an Albanian replacement stock, but pretty close to a ghost gun. 

Cool! Whatever they used for bluing on mine, it’s wore off in places that hardly never gets touched... it’s very faint in places and non existent in others. Even on the front and rear sights. How can that happen? Thanks for your input!

[K.Campbell]

By the way  Running man that’s a pretty cool look!

[running-man]

Cool! Whatever they used for bluing on mine, it’s wore off in places that hardly never gets touched... it’s very faint in places and non existent in others. Even on the front and rear sights. How can that happen? Thanks for your input!

Yeah, it's funny some of the places that you would never think would get worn *do* on some of these obviously well-used and sometimes poorly-cared for guns!   

Did you or your buddy find much rust under the woodline when you/he cleaned it up?  Some of them are notorious for looking absolutely beautiful on exposed metal, but once you take a look under the woodline where moisture and metal have been in contact for long period of time they are found to be in bad shape with heavy rust and deep pitting.   

[Bubbazinetti]

Before long those guns will look just like ceremonial parade rifles.

[Larry D.]

I like it!

If that thing could talk......

[echo1]

That's pretty nice. I've got a few Ghosts too. Sadly, one of them, a SARCO barreled receiver I butchered, had the serial number 333010, which makes it the oldest in my heap. It got built with all scrubbed Chinese bits, blued bolt & carrier, a Yugo mag, P50 (yes it had the hacksaw to it), rattle can BBQ park, all in a Ramline conventional with cheese grater. Turned out good. PAX

[K.Campbell]

Cool! Whatever they used for bluing on mine, it’s wore off in places that hardly never gets touched... it’s very faint in places and non existent in others. Even on the front and rear sights. How can that happen? Thanks for your input!

Yeah, it's funny some of the places that you would never think would get worn *do* on some of these obviously well-used and sometimes poorly-cared for guns!   

Did you or your buddy find much rust under the woodline when you/he cleaned it up?  Some of them are notorious for looking absolutely beautiful on exposed metal, but once you take a look under the woodline where moisture and metal have been in contact for long period of time they are found to be in bad shape with heavy rust and deep pitting.

As soon as I read that I called my buddy while I was walking to my gun safe... he had already took it all apart for cleaning and had confirmed that it was indeed nearly perfect. That was t good enough so I went ahead and took it apart myself.. yup.. he was right and I let out a sigh of relief. I’m not worried about the money so much as I am the fact that I FINALLY got a really really nice collectible sks. The hunt would have been back on... and these are getting harder and harder to find with low serial numbers and unmolested. Thanks guys for all your input!

[Gashog]

Not a "Ghost Gun" but sure nuff not much bluing left. 1962 Chinese/Albanian.

[running-man]

As soon as I read that I called my buddy while I was walking to my gun safe... he had already took it all apart for cleaning and had confirmed that it was indeed nearly perfect. That was t good enough so I went ahead and took it apart myself.. yup.. he was right and I let out a sigh of relief. I’m not worried about the money so much as I am the fact that I FINALLY got a really really nice collectible sks. The hunt would have been back on... and these are getting harder and harder to find with low serial numbers and unmolested. Thanks guys for all your input!

Didn't mean to scare you with that, it's just one of the things that pops up from time to time.  When you've seen as many of these as I have, you tend to think more about it:







When buying one of these at a LGS or pawn shop, it's always best to at least ask if you can pull the TG and mag and pop it out of the stock (even if it is slathered in grease).  You never know what's lurking down there.  If you buy sight unseen from Classic, AIM, or Centerfire you get what you get.

On the other hand, some guns are obvious as to what you've got.  This is probably my favorite one of those, it is a 'gunsmith special' that Loose{}Cannon restored.  I've called it "Mr. Rusty" from day one  :

[running-man]

Woops, I forgot to link LC's "after" pictures:

[carls sks]

Mr rusty can now be called Mr clean. nice job on the restore, that is a beauty. 

[echo83]

Woops, I forgot to link LC's "after" pictures:

That's an absolutely incredible transformation! I don't want to hijack, but what did you use and how long did it take?

[K.Campbell]

As soon as I read that I called my buddy while I was walking to my gun safe... he had already took it all apart for cleaning and had confirmed that it was indeed nearly perfect. That was t good enough so I went ahead and took it apart myself.. yup.. he was right and I let out a sigh of relief. I’m not worried about the money so much as I am the fact that I FINALLY got a really really nice collectible sks. The hunt would have been back on... and these are getting harder and harder to find with low serial numbers and unmolested. Thanks guys for all your input!

Didn't mean to scare you with that, it's just one of the things that pops up from time to time.  When you've seen as many of these as I have, you tend to think more about it:







When buying one of these at a LGS or pawn shop, it's always best to at least ask if you can pull the TG and mag and pop it out of the stock (even if it is slathered in grease).  You never know what's lurking down there.  If you buy sight unseen from Classic, AIM, or Centerfire you get what you get.

On the other hand, some guns are obvious as to what you've got.  This is probably my favorite one of those, it is a 'gunsmith special' that Loose{}Cannon restored.  I've called it "Mr. Rusty" from day one  :

Thanks for the cautionary post!  I guess I never thought of the possibility of alot of corrosion under the wood.  Your rifle turned out pretty good! Thanks for all the replies guys.

[running-man]

Mr rusty can now be called Mr clean. nice job on the restore, that is a beauty. 

For clarification, this was a gun that LC and his dad bought that was part of a group of I think 5 way back in 2012.  The guns were gunsmith specials direct from CAI. If i remember correctly, each could be had for ~$169. My ‘silver salute’ six digit /26\ was one of these gunsmith specials (it has a cracked stock easily fixed with glue and clamps)

That's an absolutely incredible transformation! I don't want to hijack, but what did you use and how long did it take?

You’ll have to ask LC. I believe it happened over the course of many weeks as the gun was up at his dads place. I know his first step was a liberal soaking in WD-40 to stop the active rust while he decided what to do. He reblued it and the stock is an NOS Albanian replacement that was completely refinished.