With relatively few remaining SKSs around the globe that can legally be brought into the U.S., prices began rising as soon as availability went down. law prevents any new batches from being imported from these countries. While China, Russia and a few other nations still likely have warehouses full of the things, U.S. Photo: user Thirwell1216.Īs with all surplus firearms, SKS stockpiles eventually began to run dry across the world. A 1994 Shotgun News ad for probably some of the first Russian SKS rifles to be officially imported. While these were also very affordable at the time, they never reached the same levels of abundance or inexpensiveness as the Chinese guns. Yugoslavian models began to come in along with Romanian and Albanian guns. While not nearly as abundant as Chinese models, a healthy number of Russian guns were brought in as well.įollowing the cutoff of imports from Russia, SKSs from other nations began to fill the void. Most of the Russian SKS examples in the United States were imported during these four years (as well as several other classic Soviet military surplus firearms). The end of Chinese imports was conveniently timed with the fall of the USSR, however, resulting in the newly formed Russian Federation satisfying SKS demand until it too was cut in 1998. Literally, millions of SKSs (along with plenty of cheap 7.62×39 to feed them) were imported from China between the mid to late ‘80s and 1994 when President Clinton signed the Norinco Ban, making them the most abundant SKS variant in the United States by far.Ī Russian Tula SKS brought back from Vietnam. and China improved they began to take advantage of Americans’ love of cheap, reliable firearms. In the 1980s, however, that began to change. With ammunition for them being both rare and expensive, they were far more collector’s items with interesting historical provenance than they were shooters. For several years these were the only ones that could be found in the country. were brought back by veterans during the Vietnam War as trophies. The first SKS carbines to come into the U.S. This guide will show the easiest ways to determine an SKS’ country of origin and what you should generally expect to pay for one in the current market. To be fair, identifying and appraising an SKS is not always the easiest of tasks, but it is very doable if you know what to look for. Irrespective of the confidence with which they assert such claims, individuals like this typically do not know what they got. You can still find abominations like this at just about any gun show, usually sitting in front of someone who says things like “I know what I got.” Bubba, no! When shopping for an SKS watch out for atrocities like this. Their extremely low prices caused many Americans to view them as poorly made garbage guns not worthy of respect, leading some to victimize them with amateur gunsmithing projects that resulted in poorly welded-on scope rails, home-modified stocks and distasteful rattle can jobs. Regardless of the specific make or model, the sheer abundance of these rifles and the circumstances under which they were imported made them Fudd fodder. There was a time when an SKS could be had for around $100. With so many different kinds imported over the years, it can be difficult to know what kind of SKS you’re looking at, this guide will help you identify all manner of Simonov carbines and roughly estimate their value.
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