[tahunua001]

hello all,
as many of you may know I gave into the pandemonium and bought a Chinese SKS for the simple reason that my LGS was selling them for their actual value rather than profiteering prices. after sneaking it into the house and hiding it under the bed I started doing a little research on them and found out mine is a 1959 manufacture from factory 26...wherever that is. now I've owned combloc rifles before and never cared for them. I own a pair of mosin nagants and even sporterized one to try and make it a little more user friendly but alas, that failed miserably. I used to own an AK clone and hated it so much that after 3 years of trying to adjust/adapt to it I finally sold it. now there I was, sneaking around with a gun that I never wanted and more than likely would not like.

once I got an opportunity to clean the grease out(there was more than an old Ford tractor) I found out that the stock had shrunk and is now so poorly fitted that it wobbles in place. the handguard looks like it's rotting in place and obviously does not match the stock. added was the fact that it had the same iron sights as my much hated AK47 so needless to say I was not very happy with myself for giving into panic buying and getting the scariest looking thing on the rack just because it was there. so then I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to try another one of my projects:
build a serviceable, affordable evil black rifle. the criteria I placed on myself were;
1. final budget must not exceed $400
2. must be able to be used for both home defense and hunting(my definition of hunting is able to kill a deer out to 150 yards).
3. must be able to to this with only commonly available tools so no lathes, drill presses, or other expensive equipment.

first order of business was the sights. iron sights are my Achilles Heal and combloc leaf sights are no exception so given some TFL member's suggestions I decided to go with a Tech-Sights TS200 aperture system(cost $59 dollars) as I tend to do better with peeps. next came stock, a poorly fitted stock is not only irritating but can be downright detrimental in more than one way so I decided to go with a tapco T6 stock with the ever so tacticool pistol grip and 6 position M4 stock.(price at Midway:$76). last was ammo capacity. though stripper clips are easy enough to use and work very well with this particular rifle I decided to upgrade to a higher yet still reasonable for hunting 20 round magazine also from tapco(price at midway $18).

the tapco parts are backordered into next week so hopefully I'll have them by the end of the month but the sights shipped right away. they aren't as simple as many people make them sound. removing the leaf sights is necessary as they will impede your sight picture as well as the existing take down pin and this is no easy task on a rifle filled with dirt and grime and a lot of parts brazed in place. it took me a couple hours to change between actually working and trying to find the proper tools. today I decided that rather than wait on the stock and mag I would take it out and at least get it hitting close.

my first shot was a shameful flinch as I was expecting a shoulder crushing kick like my AK but about slapped myself for the action as this thing barely kicks at all, comparable to an AR15. adjusting the TS200 is also a huge PITA but I accomplished this using an unspent bullet to offer adjustments and a bent staple to depress a retention detent. I only brought 2 stripper clips with me and spent 13 of my 20 rounds of russian surplus just getting to the bullseye at 25 yards. figuring that this was about as good as I was going to get on a cold day like this I decided to just waste my last 7 rounds seeing if it was possible to hit a standing oxygen tank at 200 yards.

First shot: Bang...looking for dust cloud... PING! a hit, ok lets try that again
second shot: Bang...looking for dust cloud... PING! a hit, shot after shot gave that satisfying ping telling you that it is doing what you want it to. only the last shot missed and quit narrowly to the left and just about inline from where I was aiming. for me with irons this is AMAZING accuracy for lack of a better word to to think it came from a cheap, beat up, Chinese piece of junk chambered in 7.62x39mm.

overall I am starting to eat my own words about this rifle and can't wait for the stock and mag to arrive so I can give a complete report but for now I am willing to say that for $239+59+18+76=$393 this gun may actually turn into a regularly used range toy, hunting gun and maybe even home defense if nothing else is within reach.