$220.00 Royal Tiger SKS Before and After

[Chevy57fan]

I picked up one of the Royal Tiger $220.00 SKS specials. After cleaning it I found the metal was in good shape with most of the bluing intact except for the sling swivel and the buttplate. I left the bluing alone. The stock however, was a mess. It had a crack, many splinters/dents and almost no finish left. The handguard was in even worse shape and looked like it had been soaked in very dirty 90w gear oil. The stock was numbered to the gun so I really didn't want to replace it and decided to refurb instead. I repaired the crack using glue and brass screws, cutting the heads off and filing flush with the stock. I stripped the small amount of remaining finish and did a fair amount of careful steaming and sanding. Then I stained it lightly with Minwax Sedona Red and finished it off with two coats of polyurethane. I found a replacement handguard from a Calgunner at a real good price and worked on it to try and match the stock. I know it's not traditional but at least I didn't replace the stock with a Tapco :-) and yes, the numbers are still on the stock. This is going to be my "beater" SKS, the one I let everyone else shoot.

Before:



After:

[louie]

Beautiful job!

[LONGRANGER777]

Very nice work....too nice for a beater now...better get another one!!! Lol

[DesertWalker]

Looks really good. Now I have to get to work on mine.

[Rozzi]

Well done!

[jkgts1]

Good job, I decided to get a new stock for mine. My stock is real bad, I feel dirty shoot in it.

[Tinknocker]

That looks great! for a beater

[Bobby Ricigliano]

He shoots

He scores!

[Bobby Ricigliano]

That looks great! for a beater

FIFY

[BigStiCK]

Nice!

[Chevy57fan]

Thank you everyone for the kind comments. I guess I learned that even a really beat up stock can be brought back to life with some work and determination but my next SKS is going to be one in really good shape!

The odd thing about this SKS is that the one part that was corroded and bent was the cleaning rod. I'm not sure if I'm going to buy another one or just leave it off.

[Capybara]

I normally convulse when I see re-finishes but I have to say, that looks really nice, good job. Don't think I will do that to my beater Chinese but I think you actually improved the way it looks considerably, although collector value in the future will be affected.

[Chevy57fan]

I normally convulse when I see re-finishes but I have to say, that looks really nice, good job. Don't think I will do that to my beater Chinese but I think you actually improved the way it looks considerably, although collector value in the future will be affected.

Thanks! I'm aware of the possible affect on the collector value of some guns, but believe me, this one wasn't shootable the way it was unless I wore coveralls and gloves

I own other C&Rs of various types that show their age and I'll never touch them.

[hermosabeach]

OP


How did you get the oils and grease out of the wood???

[BroncoBob]

Very nice job.

I remember not long ago if anyone dare refinish an SKS ,they would receive the wrath of all the SKS purists.