Originally Posted by Malamute
I don't mind being the old guy talking about $200 SKSs or $90 Mosin Nagants. I'm just kinda sad that, even adjusted for inflation, milsurps will never be cheap again. I was able to get a Swiss K11, a No4 Lee Enfield, Yugo Mauser, and several others for $300-400 just a few years ago. The days of poor young guys cutting their teeth on some weird gun from a far off land are pretty much over. However, those guys now have a plethora of nice, inexpensive, bolt actions to choose from that will easily accept a scope. Which is really what most of us had hoped for back when we were messing with milsurps.
Not to mention affordable AR-15's. Not necessarily good AR's... but affordable.
"You win 100% of the fights you avoid. If you're not there when it happens, you don't lose." - William Aprill
"I've owned a guitar for 31 years and that sure hasn't made me a musician, let alone an expert. It's made me a guy who owns a guitar."- BBI
As a conflict junkie from a young age, collecting milsurps was more about being able to own the firearms I’d read about growing up. The fact they were cheap was just a bonus (and a hindrance).
A few years ago I realized that unless I was to become independently wealthy and could have a building like Jay Leno’s Garage to store and display them, I wasn’t doing myself any favors. It was fun trying to chase down all the South American Mausers, Finn Mosin variants and some obscure design used by Outer Solgovia in the Third War of Independence and Conquest but then I was left with needing to feed 83 different calibers and sourcing spare parts that hadn’t been made since Stalin was just a Georgian heavy.
In a way, it was a repeat of the epiphany I had regarding the plastic model habit I had for years. The research was always more fun than the building or end result. Same for the milsurps. Once I’d researched all the little details between variants, chased something down and had a range session or two with it, it went into the safe to be forgotten about and a new search was on.
This afternoon I put my last bolt action milsurp rifle that doesn’t have a family connection on consignment locally. I plan to use the proceeds from that and the other stuff I took up there to help fund building up my bulk ammo and reloading stashes, getting my shotgun scene squared away and getting some pistol training. If things go really well, I can fund some shotgun training as well.
Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits - Mark Twain
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy / Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
I had an all-matching Yugo 59/66 for several years. It was as long as, and weighed more than, an M1 Garand, shot slower bullets, and was not accurate beyond about 50 yards.
But it was really cool and I kept it for a long time. I ended up trading it, all of the accoutrements, and some ammo for a Ruger Single Six, and felt like I’d gotten a much more useful gun.
And you're exactly right, $239 rings a bell. I bought a Maadi decades ago for $120 used, and sold it much later for $600. That's where my ridiculously low price memory is coming from. But this is an SKS thread...
You're right on, up until recently I had some of the old tiny cube boxes of steel cased Brown Bear or whatever the brand was, 123 or 125 gr stuff, and they had $2.19 price stickers on them. Finally sold all that ammo at a very good profit.
Until the last 10 years or so I think the most common rifle to come across in backwoods Alaska was a toss up between a 94 or an SKS. I wouldn't be surprised if .30-30 and 7.62X39 have killed more bears than any of the magnums. Just more people walking around with them.
Here in Canada the SKS is possibly the most common rifle available. We benefited from the US import bans on Chinese and Russian rifles and cheap steel core surplus ammunition. Literally every gun owner I know has one.
I got my first SKS, a chinese 18.5” commercial model for 150$ about 20 years ago. Since then I got a refurbed (BBQ paint) Russian laminate about 10 years ago.
Ive put 1000s of rounds of M43 steel core surplus ball of all origins (czech, russian, romanian and chinese) through these rifles.
My take is that they are difficult to put optics on properly, a tech sight is a good upgrade. The recoil with a short conventional stock takes you right off target. I much prefer a VZ58 or Type 81 for controllability. They are easy to do a trigger job on and accuracy is OK but hampered by the leaf sights. With a tech sight and reloaded ammunition I can do 3-4” groups at 100yds which is as good as any of these com-bloc guns in my experience. I wish they made an Ultimak type rail for mounting a T2. That would be perfect.
I do like the stripper clip feed magazine feed and last shot bolt hold open but the rifle is totally outclassed by any AK pattern type rifle. I include the VZ and T81 patterns as the AK itself is banned in Canada. The VZ and T81 rifles are the best we can do and they both offer some benefits over an AK like the last shot hold open and better safeties.
Lately (post covid) SKS go for about 450-550$ here which I still think is a pretty good deal for a versatile, convenient rifle. Im tempted to get another one, possibly a new condition Chinese military one to add to my collection.
I do have a fondness for SKS. I have a couple of ‘54 Tulas (one refurb, one not). A couple of /26\ from the 70’s, a Cugir from the 50’s, and a “Paratrooper “ originally from ‘63.
I'm this old
"Detached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife." - Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Brown v. United States, 256 U.S. 335 (1921)
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