AIM recently had "X-grade" (beater) Chinese SKS rifles for $299, so I went ahead and ordered one. I used to have a Yugo 59/66 but sold it. It was bigger and heavier than the Chinese. I liked it okay, but probably sold it to fund something else.
The beater arrived Wednesday and man, was it soaked in cosmoline. It's been a long time since I've bought a gun in cosmoline, and I usually just go straight to the brake cleaner for the metal, heat gun and Murphy's Oil Soap for the stock, but this has way more on it than guns I've gotten in the past, so I decided to take advantage of this heat wave and wrapped it in paper towels, put it in a black plastic trash bag and have it sitting out on my flagstone patio in the sun.
I've always wanted to try this (but as I said, most of the guns I've bought didn't have nearly this much cosmo on them). I'll get down to my usual cleaning methods eventually, but I thought I'd try letting Mother Nature do the heavy lifting. I'm interested to see how well it works. I'll post pics once it's all cleaned up, but I did notice it has some "graffiti" carved in the stock, so it's got character to it for sure. I've got a TS200 Tech Sight that I'll be installing once it's cleaned up too. Had one on my Yugo and have one on my AK and it makes a world of difference in being able to shoot it accurately.
The beater arrived Wednesday and man, was it soaked in cosmoline. It's been a long time since I've bought a gun in cosmoline, and I usually just go straight to the brake cleaner for the metal, heat gun and Murphy's Oil Soap for the stock, but this has way more on it than guns I've gotten in the past, so I decided to take advantage of this heat wave and wrapped it in paper towels, put it in a black plastic trash bag and have it sitting out on my flagstone patio in the sun.
I've always wanted to try this (but as I said, most of the guns I've bought didn't have nearly this much cosmo on them). I'll get down to my usual cleaning methods eventually, but I thought I'd try letting Mother Nature do the heavy lifting. I'm interested to see how well it works. I'll post pics once it's all cleaned up, but I did notice it has some "graffiti" carved in the stock, so it's got character to it for sure. I've got a TS200 Tech Sight that I'll be installing once it's cleaned up too. Had one on my Yugo and have one on my AK and it makes a world of difference in being able to shoot it accurately.