OK - while at Cherry Ridge, I met a A FFL that had 5 Cherrys imports SKS M59/66A1 in excellent condition. The box labels were marked “cosmetically unissued”, but the one I picked appears new with maybe a few test rounds through it. I’m no expert since SKS’s are new to me, but I tried to pick a mint rifle. It has a beautiful stock with all matching stamped S/N’s. There is another set of all matching electro-penciled numbers. I’ve read that these are assembly numbers done at the factory when building the rifle, but I’m not sure if that is true. All assembly numbers match the one electro-penciled under the barrel. There are no marks anywhere except for a dimple in the stock which could be a bolt mark from crate packing. The bluing is immaculate. The rifle was packed in cosmoline, so I stripped it down and cleaned it. The pics aren’t the best, but I’m not a good photographer. I tried to get different shots because the light was creating shiny and dark spots that aren’t really there.

 

 

 

 

Receiver – The shiny spots are actually light reflections. The rails and feed lips are all black. No rub marks.

 

 

 

Barrel (no pics) – looks brand new with a bright and shiny bore. I just needed to put a few patches through with some mineral spirits to clean the cosmoline out. I saw some trace amounts of grey, possible powder residue? If so, only a few shots were taken. No bore brush was needed.

 

Gas Valve (no pics) – Was free, clean, and coated with cosmoline. Again I saw some trace amounts of grey.

 

Bolt carrier and bolt – Both of these look new. If you look at the bolt carrier the machining marks have the original texture where the piston extension hits it. The bolt face is spotless with no case marks on it.

 

 

 

Piston – Perfectly clean, no powder residue

 

 

 

The trigger Group & Handguard\gas cylinder (no pics) – Look new with matching numbers and just needed cleaning

 

I got to hand pick a beauty. It's sweet and I hate to bust the cherry on an older rifle, but I have no safe queens.

Poppin cherries! Woo!

That is a beautiful gun! Congrats!

Wow that thing is mint, I'd be almost afraid to shoot it.

Im still looking for both a nice sks and also a beater one too. any idea where i can find one too?

Wow that thing is mint, I'd be almost afraid to shoot it.

 

Key Words, "Almost afraid to shoot it", I know you would..

That thing is sweet! Mind if i ask what you payed? I really like the look of the yugo's just wish they were chrome lined

Looks like the one I got. Mine came with a log book and it showed a 5 round test fire @ 100 meters august 14, 1978 (if memory serves right, the books upstairs). That was it

That thing is sweet! Mind if i ask what you payed? I really like the look of the yugo's just wish they were chrome lined

 

Thanks - I don't want to say what I paid, but I paid less than what he was asking and at the low end of what they're currently going for. They're going 400+ on gun broker right now for unissued rifles. It's difficult to find truly unissued rifles in excellent shapev for less than this. They're not readily available as they once were. Some of the arsenal rebuilt rifles are done well. Cherry's importer's is known to have some of the better quality rifles. It's amazing how well cosmoline preserves. The bore is clean and shiny liked a chrome lined barrel. I just needed to wipe it clean after sitting for years. It won't matter that the barrel is not chrome lined as long as you take care of it (cleaned and oiled).

 

Unfortunately, i didn't get a log book. From what I understand, the Cherry's imports did not come with log books.

 

Glen - That's awesome you have the log book!

 

If anyone is interested, PM me and I'll forward the contact info. I believe at least one of the rifles were arsenal rebuilds because I saw a "0-00'" P/N in the bolt carrier S/N. You'll need to field strip and check the parts. I think he had four remaining.