1968 Albanian

[Greasemonkey]

This is the latest, pretty much hot out of the car and I didn't even clean it yet, a 1968 Albanian I flushed out somewhat locally. I will gladly venture out of the hills to snipe one of these jewels, especially one thats priced nice..
It is one of the lower production years, the numbers vary, but all the estimates are only a several hundred produced that year. The stock in un-numbered, likely a replacement at some point, missing most of the finish from wear, no major dings, cracks or splits. The carrier and bolt, while correct for an Albanian, may have been serialized to a Chinese rifle at some point, as that is not an Albanian serial number, it's way to high and then the matching pair found their way back to an Albanian rifle. Mystery parts and funky numbers add to the joy of what you could find. Everything else is matching, it has pretty decent bluing and just a few small spots of inactive rust. The seller had the wonderfully grimy sling(it will stay that way), cleaning kit, oiler, a couple of loaded strippers with 4 boxes and some loose rounds of ammo thrown in with the deal.

I keep saying if you see one and want one, snag it.. ugly, matching, mismatched or not, they are and will keep getting harder and harder to acquire

[Mark AP]

Very nice! Congrats!

[Junk Yard Dog]

[Lotema]

Nice!

[Longcolt44]

Interesting Albanian, I snagged an all matching 1978 from the last and final bunch that came in back in 2012. It was estimated that only about 800 came in at that time.

[Greasemonkey]

Thanks.

Interesting Albanian, I snagged an all matching 1979 from the last and final bunch that came in back in 2012. It was estimated that only about 800 came in at that time.

This one near as I can tell was an older import based off the import stamp, its the very small and neat TG Knox Tn stamp, not the larger dot matrix style stamp, which supports what the seller said, he said he had had it for about 15 years. The first batch came in around 2000 or so.

[Cj556]

Nice

[entropy]

Nice find. They are getting harder to find. Last one I saw was one the other gunsmith that worked at the shop I did had, and he wasn't selling it.

[SA1911a1]

That is a nice rifle. I do not think that I have seen one in person. What would be a fair price if one surfaced?

[Mark AP]

$500/$900 depending on condition, year and matching or not. Is how I've been looking.

[Titanium Hammer]

Very nice Greasmonkey! I would love to add an Albanian to my collection but I've never seen one here locally.

[capt14k]

Very nice. I need to travel where you do greasemonkey. Most of my buying is online and the few that fall in my lap locally.

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[Greasemonkey]

Very nice. I need to travel where you do greasemonkey. Most of my buying is online and the few that fall in my lap locally.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Nooo, I prefer to snipe them somewhat locally.. juice up the 'ol Honda and go for a ride ..

I do the online thing too with my C&R, but paying 30-40 bucks in shipping gets old. Auctions, I only participate in a little local one..I got a decent SC 03a3 a while back for under 600...GB and the like, nope...prices of stuff there in my book, have gone stupid and outta wack, so much so, I'm glad I don't even have a GB account anymore, it's gone. Ok....wifey fixed that..after a Luger purchase years ago..

$500/$900 depending on condition, year and matching or not. Is how I've been looking.

This is correct.. however, one must beware of a fluff and buffed refinished one, they are out there, this can be a drastic price killer, for me, it would be a deal breaker. And the year of production can drive the price almost as much as a matching one, a rare unmatching year could sell for the same or even slightly more than a matching more common year. Different years had vastly different amounts of production.

Based on existing serial numbers and ranges found and tracked over the years.. this is a fairly close est. on production, not at all complete, so it's still a "work in progress", we are always looking for numbers, especially outside of these known serial ranges to help refine exact production
1967: 0701 to 0969, total of 268, likely total of 969.
1968: 1118 to 1492, total of 374, likely total of 523.
1969: 1915 to 4562, total of 2647, likely total of 3070.
1970: 4847 to 8577, total of 3730, likely total of 2694.
1971: 7735 to 10270, total of 2535, likely total of 3014.
1976: 0186 to 0288, total of 102, likely total of 288. Albania restarted the serial number at 0001 this year.
1977: 0286 to 0302, total of 16, likely total of 302.
1978: 0138 to 05046, total of 4908, likely total of 5046.
1979: ?? There were '79s built, we just don't have any S/Ns in our database.
Undated: 9 to 284, total of 275, likely total of 284. <--- these are always hotly debated..were they the first production, last production or '72-'75 oddball production(no rifles have been seen or even documented from those years).. one day we will find out.

[RazorBurn]

Congratulations! That one looks nice!

I passed on a 1968 Albanian a couple of years ago. At the time an SKS was low on my list so I passed on it for various reasons. At this time I still don't own one. I figure I'll pick up a Yugo or Norinco sooner than later. It's the only Albanian I've ever seen out in the wild. I should have bought it as the price was cheap, but I wasn't in the market for one missing and mismatched parts.

Thread about it is here if anyone's interested in the details.
http://www.russian-mosin-nagant-forum.c ... 45&t=25305

[krazy_horse]

Very nice, Very scarce in my local

[steelbuttplate]

Fine and tough. You like to shoot against my Tula? Let's do an online 50 yd. group with your best SKS,everybody that wants to, then post your rifle and target, best two out of three 10 shot groups..........NO cheatin!