I got my SKS
 

Well, on Thursday, I finally got my excellent condition SKS from Samco. It looks really nice. It came loaded with cosmoline, so I have taken it completely apart and now its soaking in mineral spirits.

Hopefully next Friday, when my wife isnt home, Ill be able to put the stock in the oven and get all the cosmo out of that.

Then I plan on sanding it down and refinishing it as well.


Too bad there isnt any decent priced ammo around.

Re: I got my SKS
 

Be careful with that stock in the oven, or this could be the end of your gunning around days. On a positive note, you could get barred from the kitchen as well.

Re: I got my SKS
 

Yeah. I cooked my Ishapore Enfield in the oven, and it really got the cosmo out. I put down tin foil to catch any drippings, but I missed some. The next day, I was throwing something in teh oven and my wife asked me what the heck was that smell in the oven. I told her something must have dripped out of that lasagna the other day!

Re: I got my SKS
 

Congrats on your SKS rifle ! :applause_

......funny but mine that came in last week from Classic Arms didn't have any cosmoline on it. I know that's not the norm. :dong:

Re: I got my SKS
 

Cosmoline is the devil. I have spent over 2 weeks trying to get this shit out. I think all you folks just have an acceptable level of remnant. I won't stop till a mineral spirits soaked rag wipes completely clean, no brown at all. You can scrub and scrub and scrub and it keeps coming out. I'm going to get some Easy Off oven cleaner for my stock today and a cork to block the barrel while it soaks in simple green. As for the parts, well, my hands are about bleeding. I've already tried boiling all the parts and that works to an extent. there is no replacement for straight up elbow grease and a whole box of rags and about 5 gallons of mineral spirits.

Re: I got my SKS
 

I am now realizing how lucky I am. I bought my sks from an sks lover who was very anal about cleaning. That baby was clean as a whistle. Tried to find any cosmo hiding but not a bit. I was spared and I'm oh, so grateful. :)

Re: I got my SKS
 

Re: I got my SKS
 

TA, you don't keep a 60+ year old rifle in perfect condition in some warehouse in a crusty cardboard box for decades without some manner of preservation. Assuming the rifle has no rust or water on it when dunked in a tank of liquid cosmo that sucker is going to be in precisely the same condition the day you start trying to get it off. I can certainly see that it works perfectly and honestly, I can't think of any better method. I mean, a cosmo-preserved rifle could be stored in a dank cave for 100 years and then, once cleaned off, would be just like the day it was dunked.

Re: I got my SKS
 

Just received my new stock for my SKS a few months back. Got the light weight M60 stock with tactical accessory rails. Its very comfortable.
Looking for a decent scope at a decent price to go with the extra high scope mount that came in the mail. Its high enough that I can still use the original sites for longer range. I find the sites are more accurate than the current scope.
Buddy of mine has a couple of AR15's with $2500.00 scopes on them.
All together these AR15's are right at $4,000.00 a piece at full tactical with lazer. The short thick stainless barrel on one of the AR's is heavier than my SKS.
A local police officer friend of ours is wanting to buy the short stubby off of him for $4,000.00, but hes not selling for anything under $4,800.00.

Re: I got my SKS
 

Well, I finally got all the cosmo cleaned off. It took a lot of mineral spirits, lots of elbow grease, and finally plenty of boiling in water.

Also I sanded all the wood, ironed out all the small dings, and then refinished it with boiled linseed oil and stained it with watco danish oil.

Im going to let it dry out for a week or so then I am going to coat it with polyurethane and it should be all set. It honestly looks practically perfect now. It was an excellent condition rifle from samco, and it had probably 99% of the bluing intact, no rust whatsoever, just a few dings on the stock.

The stock turned out so well that I think for my next project I am going to do the same thing to my Ishapore Enfield stock.

Re: I got my SKS
 

Congrats--Sounds like you did a great job!

E-A

Re: I got my SKS
 

I'm wrapping up my cosmo-infused project today; actually mine is a Mosin-Nagant. Boiled Linseed Oil is like magic on these stocks. I ended up not using the oven cleaner once I saw that the cosmo was off the surface and that BLO filled in the removed finish. BLO must've been the original finish because it looks brand new. I think the cosmo left inside the barrel (patches never came out fully clean and heating with a hair dryer made it even dirtier on the patch) is just going to have to come out with a few rounds downrange. I let everything sit and last night so the BLO could soak in and the CLP evaporate and will assemble today. I sure hope everything goes back together easier than it was to get it apart. I broke a couple drift punches trying to get the pins out the rear sight base thanks to the gobs of cosmo deposited in there. I should get to shoot the thing in about 2 weeks.

I don't see whay I should try to seal the stock, is there something I'm missing concerning this? BTW, I initially tried to get the cosmo off the stock with a steam cleaner and that pretty much lifted all the dents and dings. I'm not going to bother with sanding as there are'nt really any rough patches on it. I figure if I want to sand later I'll be glad I didn't poly it this go-round.

Re: I got my SKS
 

You dont have to seal the stock. The reason I am going to is just because I want it to have a bit of a shine to it, so I got semi-gloss polyurethane.

Also it will help keep it from getting nicked and scratched easier, I think. The Danish Oil supposedly makes the wood harder, which helps to preserve it as well, but I am pretty much a novice with regards to refinishing stuff and I am just going on what I have read off the internet.