Albanian SKS - To Buy or Not To Buy - Advice Needed

[RazorBurn]

Went into a local shop a couple of days ago, and noticed they had three SKS's for sale. I've been wanting to add an SKS into my collection, but haven't yet. I don't know a heck of a lot about SKS's other than what they look like and if one's a Norinco, Yugo, or Russian.

The cheapest, ugly duckling of the group is a 68 Albanian SKS. The factory magazine assembly has been removed, and I really didn't spend any time checking the bore. Just kept looking it over for marking I'd hope I would recognize. Eventually I saw it was a Century marked import and it has "Albanian" in the import mark. Went home and looked into it a little bit. It has the longer Albanian hand guard, has the bayonet, but I can't remember if it has the proper Albanian charging handle or not. I swear I remember it was round and not the AK style that from what research I've done seems to be what the Albanian should have. Wood is in decent shape, but I didn't pay attention or see any numbers on the stock to match the receiver. If I remember right the rear cover was numbered and I think it matched the receiver number. Stock and hand guard look mismatched to me as they're different colors. The barrel crown looked ok, not great but I've seen worse.

Also, I couldn't tell from looking at the crown/bore if it is a chrome lined barrel or not. Were the Albanian's chrome lined?

I'm going to go down and look at it again tonight. Long story short, is $195.00 plus tax a reasonable price for an Albanian SKS in what I would consider decent shape? My gut feeling based on what I've read is yes, but I'm a pessimist at heart.

Thanks,
Ray

[Ironnewt]

A big selling point (to me) is the fact that the factory magazine assembly has been replaced.

[RazorBurn]

A big selling point (to me) is the fact that the factory magazine assembly has been replaced.

That was something that really turned me off to it too. It did have a Tapco 20 rounder with it, but I don't like it when things have been Bubba'd.

[SA1911a1]

Isn't any functional SKS going for well North of $200.00? I am looking at one today for around $300.00.

[racerguy00]

A friend of mine has one of the most complete Albanian sks collections in existence. Neat rifles, I'd love one. It would be hard for me to buy a bubba one, but for that price I would if for nothing else to use as trade bait later. Its a shooter now, could be a good one too.

[martin08]

The 1968 is a very low production year, with only an estimate 570 units produced. More than half of these are likely destroyed.

The majority of Albanian SKS's are mismatched, so if you could find an Albanian mag (unique shape from other SKS's), you could have quite a collectible year carbine for reasonable money.

Bore will be chromed. Charging handle should be hooked.

[racerguy00]

I believe a 68 is one of the few my friend is still looking for.

[RazorBurn]

I went back and looked at it again this evening. It's a 67, not a 68. Still a low production year. Seems like it has the correct style of stock, but no number on it. Nothing numberswise matches, and the charging handle is not an AK style charging handle. The shop didn't have an original 10 round magazine for it. Bore doesn't look chrome lined to me either. I'm going to pass on it and look for something nicer as an SKS hasn't really been real high on my list.

[bunkysdad]

We're the other 2 anything to consider? You don't seem to be impressed with any of the three. Keep looking and you will find one you really want, although the price may not be 195.00

[RazorBurn]

We're the other 2 anything to consider? You don't seem to be impressed with any of the three. Keep looking and you will find one you really want, although the price may not be 195.00

The other ones were a Zastava and a Norinco. Both of those were missing the bayonets, and priced at either $325.00 or $350.00 each. The Zastava didn't have the factory 10 round magazine either, and since both were missing bayonets I figured I'd wait until I found something down the line that was complete and calls out to me.