SKS stock question?

[Sentryduty]

It could have been done anywhere. People look at these with far too much romance and imagination...it could have been done by the last man to own it in the US...

Precisely bang on, Jane's suggests there are more than 15 million of these guns produced, not counting spare parts and pieces, and many of these guns ended up in places that where not known for record keeping or following any sort of modification standard. To further worsen the verification process these guns have been in civilian circulation for over 40 years, during that time it is anyone's guess the history, repairs, and maintenance. As much as it might strike a chord, trying to play historian with an SKS is much the same as an AK family, we can only tell where a part originated by it's shape or manufacturing variances, how that part came to installed on a gun is pure speculation.

If we somehow had Peter's Albanian (and all other former SKS users) cousin arrive on the forum and expertly verify their guns we would have something to go on. The SKS and other modern rifles come from a time when the transition from hand-fitted craftsmanship to total interchange and mass production was in full swing.

100 years ago, a rifle would be stamped with it's unit and modification history, by the 40's we were down to serialed parts and maker's stamps, in modern times the receiver (and MG barrels) carry's a serial and everything else is just parts. This makes future history detective work problematic.

Although, all this reminds me that I should run my SKS out at the range again, it does shoot quite nicely.