I found a Chinese Norinco SKS that has a 16" barrel today and takes "AK" mags and also has a thumbhole orginal stock for $200. After taking it home I found it to be very dirty like the piston rod was never cleaned from when it was new the old cosmo just glued itself on I had to use a stainless steel wheel to get it back to orginal clean chrome plated piston that I knew was underneath all the caked junk. The reciever was maintained and kept fairly clean and the overall condition is very good but the slide does show wear from use and using the wrong lube but since this gun has been used and in still great shape and nothing that needed to be fixed just cleaned and lubed. And which they just forgot to completely "decosmoline" the gun before shooting which is a very hard task on the norinco's because they were cosomolined so bad or should i say "good" and well protected for the boat trip over. The bore is good but I haven't seen any bad bores on norinco's yet since they are chrome lined which comes in handy with using "mildly" corrosive ammo since I don't believe its all non corrosive like they say it is. So if you clean the bores often and take care of the gun it should last 10,000 rds plus. I must add after a good cleaning and using the proper lube(moly) the action just feels so smooth now. I even put moly on the gas piston and rod too so a little less friction helps all over. I guess I saved another sks from early failure and extended its life. BigBill
