trentatron

A couple of months ago I got on the hunt for an SKS D, M, or Sporter that would take AK mags. I ended up buying a Sporter, but in the process was turned onto this page, http://chinesesks.weebly.com/m.html, it is also a great reference for the ole SKS.

Thank you both for your advice. A little steel wool, WD40, mineral spirits and elbow grease. Every part of this rifle got degreased, scrubbed with WD40 and 0000 steel wool, then oiled and sat aside to soak the oil in. On the stock, I buffed it with steel wool followed by mineral spirits. Here are my final results... At the end of the day, as bad as I wanted to strip both the metal and wood down to totally refinish them, I'll wait until I get a real turd rifle, this one has too much original finish left on it. Thanks to you all for the advice, this was a great little project. I definitely won't be so quick to over look old .22's when I see them at pawn shops or gun shows.

If I rub the stock down with wool, obviously that is going to leave some of the original finish...do we know what that was? For example if the factory finish was linseed oil can I go back over it with tung oil, linseed, etc? My other concern is when I sand out some of the blemishes and remove the factory finish in the process, then refinish, if I don't sand/strip the entire stock will the new finish come out even?

Good tip, I'll try that tonight.

My trigger guard seems to be in good shape, and for it's age I was s little surprised that it was plastic. As far as the stock, that was pretty much my plan. Did you remove any of the old oil or finish? There will be some places on the stock that I think will require some sanding due to blemishes. The only reason I considered stripping the entire stock was to make sure that the finish was even when I applied the linseed oil.

Last night a good buddy of mine graduated from college, so his parents had some friends and famliy over to celebrate. His dad, knowing of my firearms habit, gave me the tour of his gun safe in the basement. Oddly enough on the far side of the basement, leaned up in a corner with a Benjamin air rifle was this Mossberg. I almost over looked it, but then noticed the "bullet door" in the stock. Long story short, this thing is crusty, rusty, and largely forgot about...it wasn't even in the gun room, much less the safe. lol When I saw the rust on it and mentioned having done some recent research on cold bluing, browning, coatings etc, he sent me home with it It is a Mossberg S51M, the S designating Spiegel Catalog Company. These rifles were sold in the 30-40's through their mail order catalog. This morning I cleaned it a little, oiled it up, and got it to function. Now I've got it torn down to refinish....I took a bunch of photos, but damn I hope I can get this thing back together. I originally thought I would try to cold blue the entire gun, but considering what it is, I'm thinking I may Durablue it....not sure. The stock appears to be solid walnut, so it will just get the bumps and bruises sanded down and refinished. I'm always interested to hear what you guys think. I'm open to any advise or tips. Thanks!

Is the finish wearing off in contact areas, or is the finish just fading? If it's wearing off in contact areas you might consider just removing the finish all together and either leaving it satin or polished out. If the finish has just faded, depending on what kind of finish it is, I would hit it with Aluma Hyde and pop it in the oven. Surface prep is everything, which is why it's current finish is significant. If it's parkerized, your good to go with just a thorough degrease. Just my .02

Will the dog be 100% companion, or will it have other "jobs"?

I had a similar problem with my 7.62x39 AR pistol, and an overpower extractor spring seemed to fix it. In full disclosure, I had already cut the M4 feed ramps out, and polished it down to one large ramp for the 30 cal round. I don't know if that helps at all, but it's cheap, and can't hurt to try if it's not an ammo issue.

I would totally buy it....but then I would have to clean it. Seems like a lot of work, I'll pass thanks.

+1 on a rescue. All the papers in the world don't guarantee a healthy, trouble free dog. Not to mention the thousand(s) you spend on the dog, could go a long way towards vet bills IF anything were to pop up. *In full disclosure I should mention that we have fostered and re-homed several dogs in the past, so I'm a little biased.

It's funny you guys mention "buying in celebration", because that is almost exactly what I did. Admittedly I had bought a few evil rifles in the weeks leading up to the election. As I sat in bed Tuesday night with about $1000 worth of ammo in my Sportsman's Guide cart watching to see how the election went down...TRUMP WON! I was thrilled! I woke the wife up, did a few Tiger Woods fist pumps, and then was in such a good mood, I thought "F' it, I deserve a new rifle after the last eight years of tyranny!"....Then I realized it was 2 am, I could hardly see straight, and decided it was probably best to gun shop with a clear mind the next day. Woke up in the best mood since I was 10 on Christmas morning, did some clicking around on Mr. Gore's interweb, and picked up a 9mm AK pistol....weird I know, but it was the perfect "I'm buying this for no damn good reason other than I want it" firearm. So I concur, let the celebration buying commence, we've earned it ladies & gents!

I actually saw a post on armslist that was something like "spend too much before the election, credit card bills piling up? We'll give you pennies on the dollar for what you paid for your mags, ammo, etc". It was crazy...$5 for P-mags, and .06 per round of 7.62x39...CRAZY. I just went back and tried to find it, but they must have gotten flagged, or swapped with hateful emails (rightfully so). Seriously....I'm a capitalist, and I'm all about playing the market, but as I read the ad all I could imagine was a vulture circling the sky over roadkill. As far as the "extra" stuff you bought....trade it! Fortunately I don't think that there are many aspects of the gun market that are going to get cheaper anytime soon. If anything it will be the imports, but except some of the AK's, the imports are already pretty cheap!

Maybe this is one of those things we're I'll just have to buy some land and make my own damn range. I know that sounds drastic, but it can't be the only one in Blount county that needs someplace to stretch out their rifles. My wife has said, if we move off the lake it will have to be for acreage, so it's not out of the question. Perhaps a poll is in order, does this forum have that capability?

No it's not THAT bad. When I'm surrounded by acreage in Louisville, Friendsville, Maryville, Greenback, etc... I guess I just can't believe that there aren't any better options. Hell if someone had the right property close to my house, and similar interests in shooting, I would probably go to some lengths to lay out a really nice range that we could all enjoy. A little fill dirt for a berm and a healthy variety of steel, we'd be good to go!

I guess that leaves Oak Ridge or private property, and based on what you guys are telling me, the 45-60 min drive to Oak Ridge is about as close as it's going to get. What if I went about this another way...I'd also like to find a place to hunt hogs and coyotes, plus it would probably also serve as a place to plink. I've never done a lot of "big game" hunting. Any suggestions on finding a place to hunt varmints?

While they will let you shoot an AR in their range, the ventilation was so bad it was pulling tears and I couldn't hardly see my sight pictures. Not to mention the lights aren't the greatest to begin with. It's better than nothing, but I'm probably done spending much money at Gunny's.

Greetings all! I moved from Oak Ridge to Louisville,TN about three years ago, and can't seem to find any outdoor ranges in Blount county. Over the last few years I haven't had a lot of time to shoot, but I have continued to acquire new rifles. Now I've probably got a dozen rifles I haven't shot, and it just isn't practical for me to drive out to Oak Ridge. Any suggestions for ranges that might be closer to Maryville or Friendsville? Thanks in advance!

Louisville here. 

^^^^ This.   There are a ton of guys using  Brownell's Alumahyde II in the AK world with good success. Google image search it, and you'll see all the different finishes you are able to get, some even replicate factory park-ing and bluing. There are also a lot of guys that swear by the different Rustoleum Epoxy paints in a rattle can. The trick is to bake it. This will not only remove some of the glossy sheen, but it will harden the paint/epoxy. I've got one more AK to finish, and then I'll be refinishing three of them at once, and potentially a VZ58, and a Yugo under-folder. I'm going to try a cheap gravity feed blaster gun with cheap play sand in it. This way I can take it outside and not worry about a blast cabinet, or reclaiming my media.    Last year I ran some duracoat through an airbrush, but the spray was so fine the paint dried in the air, and I ended up with a really rough finish. After seeing what results others get from some of the rattle can products out there, I doubt I'm going to deal with the mixing, and clean up of duracoat again.

I had a similar problem with my 7.62x39 AR pistol. It would leave the spent round in the upper, and then wedge a live round up against it when the bolt came back forward. I always figured it was because the extractor spring wasn't strong enough to "bite" into the steel case ammo I was using. Sounds like our common denominator may be the .30 cal casings. Just a guess, but perhaps there is a difference in the way .30 casing expand vs the .223/5.56. For example, maybe the .30 cal casings expand their over all diameter more, where the .223/5.56 casings stretch and increase over all length. That line of thinking could be total garbage, but it's interesting that your pistol did the same thing with brass case ammo mine did with the steel case. My issues seem to have been remedied by a Wolf extractor spring. Time will tell, but with a 7.69x39 AR, I'm always waiting for my next malfunction. I wouldn't rely on that gun to save my life, but it's a blast to shoot. 

  A lot of truth in this. I just completed two Hungarian under-folders, and "the files" was an invaluable resource. I still have a Polish fixed stock kit to build, and a few other projects in mind. I was a solid few months into what you might call an "AK binge" when Barry's e.o. hit, and 41p became reality. Unfortunately I've had to put the Ak's on hold, and shift my focus to the NFA variety. I'm fiending to get back to the AK's, they are addicting!