i own both russian and chinese. With my russian, i noticed that many after market stocks do not fit as well as they do on the chinese model.

I was told that if you look down the barrel of an UNLOADED sks, on the front of the front sight post, you will see a number between 1-5. Suppossedly if it's stamped with a 1, that was considered a better quality made russian sks. A 5 was the bottom of the barrel, hastily made. Now, you really scored if you have an sks stamped with a star. That i've heard is better than a "1" stamp.

Don't know how true that is, but its what i've been told by several independent ameatur collectors. When shopping for used sks's, i've noticed that most guns i've seen either have a 1, or a 2 stamped on the front sight post.

Good luck.