AntiqueDr - believe me, I have no desire to modify this rifle in the least. It is in such perfect condition that, heck, I may never fire it. There are plenty of SKS rifles of all sorts out there that I could shoot. This rifle is a collector or will be some day. That is why I am hoping it is legally pre-ban - so that I can keep the bayonet that is already on it when I bought it. The condition od the rifle makes me think that it must have been someone's closet queen and that the person who owned it before me never did anything of any sort to it, including mounting an illegal bayonet - heck I don't think he ever even fired it. Of course I am trying to verify this, since I do want to comply with th law. I've laready been to Simonov.net , but that has not been much help. According to him, no one really knows, including the BATF.
As I recall, there was a series of serial numbers that the BATF published that identified the pre bans, back when the law was passed. You know what I mean - all rifles of xxx manufacture with serial #s between xxxxxxxx - xxxxxxxxxx are legal. I even remember seening the list somewhere a while back. I went to the BATF web site but a serach for SKS didn't produce much of anything useful. I'm still looking elsewhere.