School me on the SKS

[Metal god]

Hello all :-)

I remember back in the 90’s being told I should get an SKS when they were like $150 and all I could think was boy they are ugly . Fast forward 30 years and I think I like the look but now they are not available like they once were if at all here in CA .

Id like to know the good , bad and the ugly about this firearm ? Generally anything will help but more specific, who made them originally and who made them the best . I recently had a chance to handle both a Chinese and Russian models and they both seemed fine but not knowing much about them I really didn’t know what to look for . If you could buy one would it be Chinese or Russian. What should one look for to know if it’s a quality weapon ?

Thanks
MG

[44 AMP]

Arguably, the SKS isn't a "quality" weapon, but they are rugged, serviceable, and made more than well enough to do their job.

Wikipedia will give you a ton of info if you look.

Soviet design, also produced by China and many of the "satellite" communist nations.

Lots of discussion among fans about which version is "best".

I was never that interested in them, have shot a few. Could ring the 200yd gong no problem. For me the issue stocks are a bit short.

10rnd mag (loaded from strippers) is standard. I have seen guns modified to take larger and detachable mags, none of them worked very well, but admittedly my sample size is small.

[Wag]

I absolutely love mine. It's Chinese with a threaded barrel and all the part numbers match.

And it still is a crappy long range rifle. I don't like any of the scope mount options available so I just use iron sights. But it's like 44 Amp said, it's not really a "quality" rifle. Just fun to shoot.

I wouldn't feel comfortable hunting with out out past about 100 yards but on the range, pinging a 200 yard metal target is fun.

--Wag--

[stagpanther]

I had a norinco SKS back in the early 1980's--it was basically the gateway drug to AK's and 7.62 x 39 ammo. Mine cost a whopping $75. It consistently shot about 7" or a bit less at 100 yds using the stock irons.

They are not known for accuracy--but that said I once met a Marine back from Iraq who decided they were the bee's knees and he made his own custom SKS--lightweight chassis, custom trigger job etc and his shot very well, right there with a quality AK. He even painted it a Marine cammo pattern and put the American flag patch on it, nifty little carbine and great conversation piece.

[tangolima]

I have a yugo. Older model without grenade launcher or adjustable gas valve.

It wasn't doing well when I got it as surplus. A lot of work to make it right. First is the grease, especially on and inside the wood. Then the negative engagement angle in the trigger. Some Russian document I got proved that it was designed that way to lighten the trigger pull, an acceptable method at the time but dangerous. I have seen multiple samples with it. I recut the angle to correct that.

Of course it has reputation of slam fire, and some would insist modifying the bolt to put return spring on firing pin. I found it unnecessary. But I handload with NATO spec primers.

Accuracy was not good. No better than 4 moa, even I had tried everything in tool box to improve, including glass bedding the action. As the last resort, I recut the crown and that did it. Now it better than 2moa.

One last thing that I will tinker is the over gassing. It rips the brass rim. I have an idea but haven't had a chance to try yet.

Mounting optics is difficult to work well, similar to AK situation. I'd rather leave it without. But lately I start thinking about a red dot sight mounted where the rear sight is.

I don't like AK. But SKS is ok. Simonov was a real firearm designer. The rifle fought the Nazi in WWII although very briefly.

-TL

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[Metal god]

Alright thanks guys , I’m remembering back in the early 90’s something like . Best $150 rifle you can buy and I think ammo was like $3 for 20rds if that , which made it quite attractive to a lot of shooters . Now based on what you all have said and at $600+ I again can’t see a reason to get one .

[44caliberkid]

I would agree they cost to much these days, plus most of the examples I see at gun shows are in poor condition. I bought a Norinco and a Russian SKS back in the late 80’s. Paid less than a hundred for the Norinco and about 125 for the Russian. They both looked like brand new, never fired guns. In the mid-90’s I went in on a crate of Yugo SKS with a friend, I don’t remember now but I think there was 10 to a crate. They averaged out to $90 a piece. Ten years later we were selling them for $300 - $350. Again, they were like new.

[Shadow9mm]

What i know, they are prone to slam fires and have a fixed 10rnd magazine. If you want to modernize you have to comply with 992r, basically a certain number of specific parts have to be us made. Mounting optics is difficult at best, plan to shoot irons.

Reloading component, both brass and bullets are not scarce, but offer very limited options and cost more than 223 and just shy of 308.

Cool rifles, i had a chinese, got stolen years back. Would not pay current prices unless your looking to collect. If your looking for a shooter in 7.62x39 your better off with an ak or a ruger American.

Friend of mine told me he remembered them being sold out of truck beds for $80 at gun shows back in the day. But that was before my time.

[Fla_dogman]

I paid $75 for mine. It's been a reliable shooter not having any problems. But it's not worth $400 in my opinion. It's not that accurate, a good truck or tractor gun to get banged up but that's about it. That being said I liked it much more than an AK I once owned.

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[veprdude]

Buying as a collector? Get a Russian. The Romanian I owned was pretty nice (by SKS standards). Albanian is the rarest. Yugos have appreciated nicely. Norincos were imported by the zillions and probably will be wort the least over time.

Norinco '90s US imports were New in Box and are still generally in good condition as used. There have been surplus Norincos imported over the last 10 years. Some of them are very clapped out. Dark wood stocks, very little finish left. Countless rounds run through.

Average Norinco SKS is about $500. The drying up of cheap 7.62x39 ammo is hurting the appeal of them. You can get a budget AR for $400 or less and brass 5.56 is cheaper than steel 7.62x39.

So... Average SKS is more expensive than budget AR. Average 7.62x39 round is more expensive than 5.56. I bet budget AR's outshoot average SKS too. These have gone to the Collector's Bin.

I love my SKS's for what they are. Wood stock. No frills old-school manufacturing. But it's not beating an Anderson AR Build on any meaningful metrics.

[Ignition Override]

An add-on aperture sight can easily go on the rear of the action, certainly lengthens the sight distance.
Imagine how much accuracy improves….

Different versions might also still be available for the Ruger 10/22, Marlin 60, AKM, Mini 14/30.

Tech Sights.

Somebody actually asked me about eight years ago how one can read about Tech Sights.
I suggested a secret process known by British MI-6 as “Google”.

To avoid “Slamfire”, make sure that the firing pin rattles when you shake the bolt.
Remove dried cosmoline from the firing pin channel if it won’t rattle.

[bamaranger]

I was never an SKS fan, but like everyone else, when they were $100 bucks, and a 1200 rd case was about the same money, I gave serious thought to buying one as a beater....but never did. Now that they near 5x that in price, and cheap(er) steel case ammo is drying up, I would never consider buying one.

Though they are referred to as a carbine (and I suppose they are compared to a Mosin/Nagant x54r rifle) at 8.8 po unds and 40 inches long, the SKS approaches M1 Garand size. Additionally, there is no satisfactory manner to attach an optic, though some slapstick mounts exist. Like its combloc cousin, the AK, the LOP is short for many of us. Stripper clip loading is an aggrevation in this day of the detachable box, and any of the conversions for the SKS to take a box are reported to be unreliable.

What the SKS did do is introduce sporting U.S. shooters to the 7.62x39mm cartridge. Even though budget ammo is now becoming scarce (in my area anyhow), the compact , rimless, high pressure .30 cal round that approaches .30-30 ballistics has been now chambered in in single shot , bolt and sport semi rifles over a wide span of manufacturers and prices.

[Ignition Override]

Bamaranger: That’s a nice summary. But especially if Tech Sights are still manufactured for the SKS (note: plus versions for the Ruger 10-22 etc)…

…And you have a big chunk of 7,62x39 ammo, an SKS can be fun, despite the fairly lousy trigger.

Even with the iron sights, the sight distance is longer than on any generic AKM.

And a basic scraped-up Type 56, or the semi-civilian, more common “Norinco” Chinese SKS costs Far less than either of my FALs, and the current cheapest ammo is about Half of the lowest-cost brass-cased .308 ammo.

—-Talk about being 15 years too late to the .308 Battle Rifle Party…
An SKS allows Approx. twice as much shooting per dollar spent—

[Ricklin]

89 bucks ea, that is what I paid for the 2 Russians I bought back in the 90's Still have one of them. Should of bought ten.

[Pahoo]

1) Russian
2) Yugo
3) Norinco

Sold my Norinco a few years back, for $95.00 and wish I hadn't ......
Russians are going for $400.00+' these Days
All the tools you really need, is one bullet....

The SKS (Russian: Самозарядный карабин системы Симонова, romanized: Samozaryadny Karabin sistemy Simonova, 1945, self-loading carbine of (the) Simonov system, 1945) is a semi-automatic rifle designed by Soviet small arms designer Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov in 1945.

Be Safe !!!

[smee78]

I remember getting the Yugo 59/66 rifles for $79, we would go shoot the hell out of them and then sell them dirty for $100-$125 and go buy another for $79.

I only have a Norinco now and its not going anywhere.

[44 AMP]

What i know, they are prone to slam fires and have a fixed 10rnd magazine.

10rnd fixed box is standard. The slamfire reputation is true, but only because a lot of US owners failed to get the cosmoline (or Soviet equivalent) out of the firing pin channel, leading to the pin getting stuck sticking out enough to slam fire.

IF you've ever had the joy of removing the cosmoline type preservative, you know that ordinary cleaning usually doesn't do it.

[JohnKSa]

For awhile, there was a pawn shop near where I worked that was selling Chinese SKS rifles for $49.95 and 7.62x39mm ammo for 10cents a round. That meant for under $100 before tax, you could buy a working semi-automatic rifle and 500 rounds of ammo for it.

Obviously an untenable situation from the perspective of the antigunners and Clinton did an executive action (which, by the way, is still in effect) that halted nearly all small arms/ammo imports from China. That was the end of $50 SKS rifles.

All that to say, the popularity of the SKS rifles has a lot to do with the fact that there were once a TON of them and they could be had dirt cheap. They are generally good rifles, in terms of function, but at today's prices, the interest level in them has, predictably, dropped off tremendously from what it was back when you could pick one up for a song.

[bamaranger]

Been thinkin' about this thread and had this thought......

For about the same money as a SKS with dubious history one could about buy either of the following:

-A VSKA AK47 clone, around $650, shops in my area are running specials on AK pattern rifles as ammo supply dries up

OR

-A Ruger American ranch, about $450, runs Mini30 mags, American made and
Ruger should take care of you if you have any problems. Integral rail takes any optic one should want to slap on, and if such things appeal, suppressor ready (I think)

[Metal god]

Yeah want another AK ( sold my first ) but pretty much a no go in CA . At least any quality ones , I’m looking at the PSA AK’s that look good . Need to wait until our assault weapons ban goes away , maybe in another 2 years or so . Waiting on a Federal ruling now that will almost certainly go in our favor but will get appealed immediately to the 9th circuit which will place a stay then sit on it or over turn the lower court . So at best we have 2 years before SCOTUS gets to hear it . Hoping one of the many other suits get to SCOTUS sooner .

[MTT TL]

An SKS is kind of like going to the liquor store an buying the cheapest mass produced plonk on the shelf. It will do the job but you will have a headache in the morning.

Back when they were $125 and under guns this was just fine. Now you can buy an entry AR for the same price I've seen them going for. You may as well buy the $350 AR.

I also bought when they were cheap and own several. If you do buy one I find them more accurate when fitted with a ghost ring sight. I don't recommend the magazine conversion either. The musket length SKS doesn't lend itself to being a handy SD or HD rifle so a magazine conversion is of limited value.

[44 AMP]

The musket length SKS ...

what SKS is that?? To me, "musket length" implies long, and I've never seen or heard of a long barrel SKS. They are all carbine size rifles with approximate 20" barrels.

[Pahoo]

They are all carbine size rifles with approximate 20" barrels.

What about the "Tanker" model. Never actually measured one but sure looks to be shorter ..

Be Safe !!!

[44 AMP]

Never heard of a "tanker SKS". Are they like the "tanker Garand"? something made up by distributors in the US for the US market, and never an actual military issue weapon???

[tangolima]

Tanker garand didn't exist in the service. Heard it from a WWII tanker veteran. He never heard of that term. There is paratrooper SKS. Fake too. Heard it from a friend from China who served in the armed force. Tanker SKS is totally new. Most certainly fake too.

-TL

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