Have you owned the Yugo SKS: 59, or 59/66?

[Ignition Override]

Was hoping to spot a Sauer 38H or actual German, maybe Franco-German 'Menurhin' PPK, if not a used stainless Sig 232.

Stumbled onto a Yugo 59 in excellent condition. "Ranger", a Mod. at "SKSboards" has a 'scticky' forum with photos and descriptions of tools/techniques to remove the firing pin, in order to clean cosmo from the channel. My other SKS (Norinco) was very clean when bought years ago.

[chris in va]

I had a Yugo for a while.

Cleaning all that Cosmo took north of 4 hours. Boiled the smaller parts, steamed the rest. It worked well enough but I couldn't stand all that heavy crap on the barrel. Grenade launcher and bayo really make it clunky. Removing the launcher isn't an easy thing and I gave up on the idea.

One day the firing pin jammed forward and I stopped firing immediately. Somehow a piece of chrome sliver got wedged in the hole.

Later I discovered it wouldn't feed Wolf hollow points. The flat nose design jammed solid on the chamber face. I had enough of the nonsense and got a Saiga.

[Boomer58cal]

I took mine completely apart and soaked all the pieces in a mixture of kerosene and Engine degreaser overnight, then brushed every part clean with a toothbrush. Super easy.

Boomer

[jim.greenesr]

I have had my Yugo for 3 years. I put small parts in boiling water and cleaned rest with mineral spirits. Feeds FMJ, hollow points and soft points without problems. I always check to see that firing pin is free before shooting. I bought it from someone who had cleaned it buy failed to clean cosmoline from gas port and it kept jamming on him. After I did more thorough cleaning it has been jam free for hundreds of rounds.

[Technosavant]

I have a 59/66. Bought one of the "unissued" ones about ten years ago... it really did look brand spankin' new right out of the box.

As others said, it took hours to get it cleaned up. Lots of Simple Green and hot water. The stock wasn't too bad though; there wasn't much in there.

I left mine as it came with the exception of a light coat of polyurethane on the stock (just didn't want to worry about it soaking anything up). It's been a while since I've fired it but it works great, never one malfunction. Surprisingly accurate too. That grenade launcher fitting does make it a bit unwieldy- it's definitely not what I'd choose for a close quarters rifle. Still, I know if I had to trust it with my life it would do its part.

[Doug76]

Yes, I own a 59/66A1. Mine was also nearly new, and was built in 1986 according to the serial number, and the range book that came with it indicated 50rds had been fired through it before it was stored.
Mine did not have too much cosmoline on it, and none on the stock. It was fairly easy cleaning it up.
IMO it needed lightening up at the muzzle end, so the grenade launcher was removed (I had no trouble doing it), and the grenade sight and bayonet were removed. This helped a lot but it still looked fairly ugly on the muzzle end, so I (gasp!) cut the barrel back to about a 1/2" in front of the front sight and gave it a good crown, and I removed the bayonet lugs (or whatever it's called on a semi-permanent attached bayonet). This made the barrel exactly 19" in length, and it balances very nicely now, not muzzle heavy at all.
I also installed a spring loaded firing pin, from Murray's. No jamming firing pin, no slam fire with soft primer ammo, still works fine on hard primer import ammo.
To complete my abuse, I installed it in an OD color TAPCO stock. It's much more comfortable to shoot, and much more responsive to tracking targets. It's my wild hog hunter.
Forget about scoping it, there just really isn't a good way to do it. It can use a longer sight radius though, and there are several available, and Tech Sights is likely the best. It's a peep or aperture sight, and installs on the very rear of the receiver. It works with your OEM front sight. I haven't done this, but I'm considering it.
At the range it's pretty consistent at 2MOA. I used to shoot most any ammo in it, and found round nose and pointed soft points would not feed well, although hollow point and FMJ did just fine. My ammo now is strictly Hornady's 7.62x39 SST, which is also the most accurate round it has ever shot. Box of 50 for about $38.
If I'm playing, I use FMJ, when hunting the SST's.
Pardon my running off at the mouth, but I'm suffering insomnia.

[stu925]

I bought my Yugo last year, mine's a 59.66A1 also. I really like mine a lot, my only issue with it is the rear sight which is hard for me to make out. Really mine is just a range toy and a part of my surplus gun collection so I'll probably leave the sights alone. It's been utterly reliable with Wolf FMJ ammo which is the only stuff I've used in it since I bought a bunch of it when I got the rifle.

Stu