The SKS thread

[awp_101]

Unless I missed it in several searches, it doesn't look like there's an SKS specific thread so here we are...

The Cousin Harry Yugo AK short from 9 Hole Reviews reminded me of an old webpage with info on the field expedient Yugo SKS and M48 snipers used in the fighting during the break up of Yugoslavia in the '90s.

I got nostalgic for my old 59/66 and got to looking around the sales and auction sites. I found this neat carved Triangle 26 the seller claims came from Albania. I know Albania used the Chinese SKS, I just don't know if this one is legit or the work of Freddy the Forger dating to when Balkan Wars trench art rifles were the hot thing to have.





This was on a different one



I've already got a refurb 1954 Tula but I'm kicking around the idea of picking up a Bubba Special as a project. Not sure what kind of project, but certainly not for any kind of serious use.

Feel free to post up your SKS stories and pics!

[jh9]

Feel free to post up your SKS stories and pics!

During the AWB I traded a "milsurp" (practically new) Russian SKS and a cherry Colt Python (4" blued, late 70s) for a Carbon-15 pistol.

At the time trading a low-cap rifle and an old-ish revolver for a BANNED AR-15 PISTOL with a few(!) USGI surplus 30-round magazines felt like a slam dunk. With the benefit of hindsight, it was not a good trade.

Taking a brief look at gunbroker it appears to have been an even less good trade that I remember.

[Welder]

I had an old SKS with a spike bayonet I got for like $89.99 in the Shotgun News days....shot it with steel case stuff, was never serious about it. I carried it groundhog hunting in the fencerows around the farm when I was a teen, I can say that it's qualified to anchor groundhogs. Traded it away later, occasionally think of replacing it, but to me, they're hopelessly stuck in that $90 value range, and I can't stomach paying more.

[Bigghoss]

I've had several SKSs over the years, at least 5. They can be fun guns. They have floating firing pins that are prone to sticking if they get dirty and I have had one slamfire. A can of aerosol cleaner/lube with a straw can be used to flush the firing pin channel when cleaning the gun and that should prevent that. It's not a good idea to neglect these rifles, even if you are shooting exclusively non-corrosive ammo.

The second firearm I ever bought for myself was a Chinese SKS but always wanted one that was shorter and took detachable mags. I would eventually get my hands on both a "paratropper" and a Sporter which is model with a 16" barrel and takes AK mags. I played with them for a bit but at this point I already had a few AKs and the SKS just didn't fill any need for me that the AK didn't do better. And the SKS safety really doesn't give me a warm-and-fuzzy for any sort of practical use.

In that same vein, there is almost no aftermarket products for the SKS that's worth a damn. It's mostly cheap junk that's trying to make them into an AK and fails miserably. Treat them like any other milsurp, buy one because you want an old military gun and don't change anything about it. Excpet the springs. New springs are always a good idea.

[Joe in PNG]

I'm old enough to remember when Combloc guns were rare, and usually came with a dubious story of some sort. Then they became uber cheap for a while, and now they're back to being mostly expensive again.

[BillSWPA]

When I lived in Arkansas in the 1990’s, the SKS was a popular rifle. It was sometimes used for deer hunting. It seemed to fill the same roll that a .30-30 lever action would have filled in prior years.

One friend who was interested in commie guns believed the SKS to be a better built gun than the AK-47. I have ever shot either, but the accuracy I have seen from one friend who owned a MAK-90 did not lead me to respect the AK.

At that time, the SKS was very common at gun shows. Most at the gun shows seemed to have loose stocks. Since aftermarket polymer stocks seemed to be relatively easy to find, and knowing today how expensive these would become, I regret not buying one when they were cheap and widely available.

One less common version was factory-converted to accept AK magazines. That is one of the few commie guns I would have liked to own.

[Joe in PNG]

I like to tell myself that I really missed out on a lot of the then cheap milsup guns available those many years ago... but I then recall the many other then cheap milsurp guns I did buy at the time, and ended up trading or selling.

Those guns were cool, interesting, cheap, and all that- but ultimately unsatisfying in some way. And if I still had many of them, I'd probably be looking to sell or trade them now to make some room in the safe.

[Malamute]

I had one of the new made chinese sks when they imported them as sporters with no bayonet, the example I had made a 7/8" group of 3 off the hood of the truck at 100 long paces when checking zero. I like the guns in general and would like to have another clean one for cheap plinking and multi-state travel.

The first one I ever saw, before they started importing them to sell was reportedly a Viet Nam pickup/bring home. The stock looked like it was made from a board, the outside of the gun was heavily pitted and rusted, then cleaned up. The bore was perfect due to being hard chrome plated. The story was it was found in a canal, the stock had rotted off it. Someone had in fact made the stock from a board. This would be maybe early-ish 1980s when i saw it?

The stocks are a bit short, the sights are mediocre, the safety is so-so, but they are a simple and fairly reliable gun, and reload easily with only stripper clips. I understand the feeling they are better made than an AK, being a milled receiver rather than stamped sheet metal as most aks are, and I like the longer barrel for less muzzle blast. They carry decently in hand. A decent red dot mount would go a long ways to making them more useful, but they still have a usable niche to me as is.

[awp_101]

My first was a Chinese and also the first center fire rifle I remember buying. It was a NIB import at a pawn shop for $99 in 92-93. I’d just moved out on my own and certainly had other things I should have been doing with that C-Note.

Bought an “extended clipazine” then had to pay a ‘smith to install it because I couldn’t figure it out.

Before long one of those “other things” I should have done with that money came along and I had to sell the whole thing before firing a shot.

@Welder I’m not stuck in the $99 era but anything over $350 for a clean, common example makes my eye twitch.

@BillSWPA, I’ve got my eye on a Paratrooper model just because I’ve never had the shorter version.

[gringop]

A $89 Russian SKS bought at the gun show at the Austin City Coliseum. The stock was way too short for a tall guy like me. I ended up putting a cheap plastic stock that was patterned after a folding stock but the folding mech was permanently locked open (AWB days). This gave it a longer length of pull but made it tremendously front heavy. I pulled the blade bayonet and cleaning rod off to help with the front weight bias, added an ambi safety and was happy as a clam.

Looked like this but without the scope and bipod.



A cheap rifle, some cheap ammo bought by the case and it was off to Hill Country Rifle Range to blast steel and listen to the owner talk about the stickers on the back of stop signs that told the invading UN troops how to get to the court houses and police stations and about the giant crematorium hidden under the Cincinnati train station where the UN would dispose of true patriot's dead bodies en mass. And of course, "The Black Helicopters"

Good times.

I later sold the SKS after I picked up an AK and a carry handle AR. Dumb mistake but I have learned since not to sell guns.

Gringop