Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Any of you guys like the SKS?

We never talk about these rifles here. My question is why? My dad loved his. He bought 2 Yugoslavian rifles in the 90's and they have been his favorite rifles to take out and plink with. Its funny because he only shot 1 and kept the other one in new condition. The one he did shoot was extremely accurate with wolf ammo. I inherited his new one and a few thousand rounds of ammo. I remember shooting 2" 20 shot groups with the rifle he did shoot. Thats with iron sights. I was always impressed with the accuracy of that rifle. It would just shoot nice clusters. Anyone else here run into the same thing with their SKS rifles? I plan on shooting the heck out of this new rifle. Im also hoping its as accurate as the one he shot all the time. Share your experiences. Thanks.

Never owned one but remember looking through the flyers my ffl buddy would get many yrs ago, they were selling them for $59.99 at the time. Anyone with any sense back then would of bought a truck load of them.

I agree buddy.

BSA.. shoot, and love me some SKS...
Tons of fun, inexpensive to shoot, and can hammer on them without worrying about much.
Never had one give me a lick of trouble either

Awesome man. I appreciate that. I know you shoot a lot, so you know what you are talking about. Thanks

I bought one of the 99-dollar ones, and my wife had a question as to its use, seeing some of the nice rifles I had for hunting and curious as to the need for another rifle and one that appeared so crude.

I replied that it would be ideal for bad-weather deer hunting.

After I had torn it down completely and cleaned it of the 50 lbs of cosmoline that came with it, I was reassembling it, getting to the point of attaching the bayonet.

Her: "What did you say it was for?"

Me: "Deer hunting."

Her: "Has it gotten that dangerous?"

Oh man, that is funny as hell!! Thanks for the laugh. I needed that.

I bought a stack of them back then, but passed most of them on to friends and eventually sold off the last couple. If they were anywhere near that price again I'd buy more of them. Most of them shot well enough for what they were, and were pretty reliable for a cheap rifle.

I think the main reason we don't talk about them much is at today's prices, there's very little justification for buying one instead of something better. For $100, maybe $200 I think they are a decent cheap gun, but I'm not going to pay $400-$500+ for one.

I bought two SKSs and a 550- round tin of ammo when the guns were cheap, more than twenty-five years ago. They actually shot cast bullets more accurately than jacketed ammo. One gun would occasionally slam fire and / or turn into a machine gun with handloads. I had a spring kit installed in both guns to make them safe before I sold them. Incredibly crude guns. Sights are passable, trigger pulls horrible, but I guess a satisfactory gun for their intended purpose. Anyone that can afford a gun can afford something better than an SKS.

Bought a Yugo for $99.00 back when . Also bought 500 rounds of Wolf for dirt cheap and a bunch of stripper clips . I read about the slam fire issues even watched it on a video , so I sent it out and had a free floater installed. Shot one round and back in the safe it went .
Think I’ll unload it shortly. Last gun show they went anywhere from 350 to 550 .
It’s going down the road.
Soup

If you clean the cosmoline out of the rifle, including the bolt and firing pin, you won't have any slam fires. I love mine and have never had a slam fire. Keep it clean, especially the bolt with the firing pin. Make sure the firing pin free floats if you shake the bolt. The cosmoline is put on the guns and inside them to keep them from rusting during long storage times, and or shipping. American rifles were packed the same why during WWII. The guys had to clean them before they could use them.

Good post.

Good post^^^^^

Bought a case of Russian Red star SKS years ago. $65 each. Thought they were garbage. Sold them for $500 each when barack hussein was elected. I still think they are crap.

Familiar stories here. I bought 2 SKSs in the early 90s, one was a Chinese (Norinco?) model for $99, and the other was a Russian SKS for about $250. The Chinese ones were in wooden crates of 10 guns if memory serves and LOADED with cosmoline. I WISH I bought a crate. They aren't great guns (although the Russian version has much better wood, and the bolt was much more polished). I still have both guns, and while their accuracy is only "minute of 5 gallon pale lid" at 100 yards, they are a hell of a lot of fun to shoot.

At the same time, one of my work friends heard that I paid $99 for my Chinese gun, and he bought one too, from the same shop. He came in to work shortly thereafter, pissed as hell, and told me the gun tore the case head off the cartridge at the 1st firing. I asked him if he stripped the gun down and de-gunked the rifle of all the cosmoline, like I told him to. "I forgot" was his response. Based on how loaded up my gun was when I bought it, I can't believe he had fired it without breaking it down and cleaning it.

It's the only Russian design I have.

kwg

WAY better than any AK I"ve shot. But I've never owned one. SHOULD but don't.

There were good and bad SKS too, IIRC, same with the ammo, just because you get a bad gun or ammo, it doesn't mean they are all bad. OTOH as noted I've not shot an AK that grouped worth a flip.

Had one but wasn't overly happy with the accuracy, sold it and got an M14 - happy then.

At 2 or 300 bucks, & proven reliable they're hard to beat for what they are. I've seen many that were torture tested past what most guns could endure.

When they were cheap I had no use for them later I bought a few
they are what the are a dependable Unitarian rifle

I think the best thing when they were cheap and ammo was cheap you could take a kid novice etc out and let them plink with a center fire
I love rim fires but there is a difference introducing someone to shooting between the Rim and Center


Hank

I bought a Russian one back in the ‘90’s for a little over $100. Everyone I know has one, I think. Mostly Chinese. They’re great rifles... right up there with Mini14’s... They go bang every time and you can’t hurt them. Yeah... the accuracy snobs will criticize the trigger, but that quarter inch of creep gives you lots of time to be sure of your target before the gun fires...think of it as a safety feature.

I've had several. Accurate enough to shoot groundhogs with out to 100-150 reliably. Much better than an AK, but not quite as reliable especially the short "paratroopers".

in the 70's early 80's i would buy them in case lots, dunk them ai a barrel of gas, dry them off and go to the range.
if i could hit a 8 inch gong at 400 meters i sold them for 129.95 to 149.95 each. if they didn't have that kind of accuracy they went at 79-99 each. wish i had a case or two now as i payed 17.50 per arm in a 20 unit case.

the stuck firing pin can be fun sometimes.
i was acting as range master onetime when a car load of kids in baggy shorts and wife beater's pulled up.
there were about 7 of them and they all crowed the bench. i thinned the crowd back behind the fire line and "splained' the rules . they didn't know i understood gutter Mexican, but i let their insults roll.
their fearless leader got to the bench, but went all Rambo from the hip. the pin stuck on the 2nd round of a 20 round mag and the shooter turned into his group of admirers.
i think he got 3 of them before i and another range officer got the muzzle up.
no kia's but the wia's were transported via ambulance.
if i remember most were leg wounds.

i have one currently just for the fun factor. if it was the only gun i could own i wouldn't feel helpless.

This one is pretty clean. I may shoot it today. I need to burn up a few thousand rounds I got with it... ha ha..

^^^^That's a nice one!^^^^

I had a Norinco years ago and traded it off. I wouldn't mind having one again.

Is that a Yugo?

It appears to be a Norinco.

All SKS's were good. They really knocked down the Mini 14 as the cheap "assault rifle". You could get them with many accessories such as grenade and rocket launchers, etc. An SKS is probably superior in every way to an AK, except firepower and that could be remedied, back in the day, by a cheap kit that allowed AK mags to be utilized.

I had one. It was excellent, so of course, I got rid of it. Just like the Norinco Model of the 1911A1, it was great when it was cheap. At today's prices, after Bush I's ban...not so much. Just a damned good, cheap gun. The ban is what killed them and now, everybody knows they are good guns and AR's are muy cheap.

Yep it's a Yugo. My dad bought it in the 90's for cheap. I shot it today and that thing is a blast. I love shooting it. After getting the front sight right where I wanted it, I shot this 10 shot group. Damn thing is impressive!!!!


I was having a blast shooting this old girl. No wonder my dad loved these so much. He bought 2 at the same time and kept this one unfired and pristine. He shot the dog chit out of the other one though and it never even skipped a beat. Funny thing today I had the gas port turned off (not knowing the rifle) for the grenade launcher and the rifle wasn't ejecting the brass. I had to google it to see what was up, but it was an easy fix. Just push in a button and turn it to the other side and it redirects the gas, so your ammo ejects. After that, the rifle didn't skip a beat. The trigger wasn't even half bad either. This rifle is a good one.....

It says "Yugoslavia" right on the side of it...

Yugoslavian SKS

That's a nice Yugo.

My Norinco had a 'cheaper' look to it. No brake, No blade bayonet (mine didn't have a bayonet at all, but most had a cheap spike bayonet), thin metal buttplate, stock was darker, reddish in color.

I like the SKS and the Russian and Yugo are the best in my opinion.

Looks like you have a winner bsa.

Sometimes it's nice to not worry about keeping your brass, reloading, etc.

Just blast.....

Amen!!!!

Had one. Hated it.
Sold it for 800....Guy was willing to pay.
Love my AR in 762x39

Hate 'em; just had a big shooting day for a couple of customers & had one in the battery. Made me remember what POS they are.

Besides being heavvvvvvvvvvy; ya'll can keep all of 'em.

MM

I love how some of you guys put down ALL AKs. Laughing.

Apparently, you've never shot a good one.

An AK ain't exactly the same as an SKS....................

There's a reason that the AK 47 has virtually completely replaced the SKS; just sayin.

MM

When did Sks become the same as AK?

Bought four of them back in 2002, (Yugos) paid $92.00 each, 500 rounds of Wolf and for $65.00, still have one left, shoot it a couple times a year.

Fired one once, very different from the SAR 1 I was shooting that day. It held steadier, recoiled gentler and hit the 12"X12" steel diamond at 300 yards closer than the AK. And you don't lug around heavy duty steel magazines, just bullets. A lot to recommend it. And, for a time, there was that charming symmetry of a 99 buck SKS rifle and a 99 buck thousand round case of 7.62X39 to go with it. The militia special.

Been shot at a fair number of times with the SKS. Never hit me, so I conclude it's a good gun for my enemies to embrace.

Several years ago I was in a gun shop and a man brought in an SKS to have the stock switched to magpul or something like that. The rifle had serial numbers but no manufacturer or importer anywhere on the gun, most of the bluing was gone also. He believed his father brought it back from Vietnam.

Back in the early 1990s, I picked up four of what looked like factory new Russian SKS rifles for $100.00 each. I only have one of them left. Sold one to my brother for what I paid, and later sold two for $350.00 apiece.

Not a thing wrong with them, other than the lack of removable box magazines. Should be plenty of rounds onboard, though, for most purposes.

One thing about them that many don't consider is that they are 100% military issue rifles. They are not made with the intention to sell commercially like all of the AK rifles we can purchase here, so the standard for their manufacture was zero compromise in terms of ruggedness and reliability.

I've got two really nice AKs. My third AK isn't so great, and will go down the road as we approach the elections and people start panic buying them.

I paid $89 for one back in the day. Like everyone else I wish I would have bought a pallet load. Who knew? Still have mine and it shoots pretty good. Also fun to shoot.

I had one, it was a 3.5" gun at 100 yards. I scoped it, and made it a 4" gun at 100 yards. Got rid of the scope. It never had a malfunction, though, and it was fun to shoot. I paid $69.95. It was USED, and used hard.

I bought another one later, for about twice that, and it shot twice as bad. It was "as new". Both were Chinese. I don't have either one now.

I have one stashed away in an old building in the desert. Packed full of cosmoline. Along with a case of Ammo. For when the revolution starts.

I have one, bought it in or about early 2001, it has a very good stock and bore, it's a Yugo, paid $94.00 for it, shoot about 40 rounds through it once or twice a year.

Don't consider myself an SKS fan boy although I've got three. First was a brand new 100 dollar special circa 1992 right out of the crate at a gun show. Commercial Norinco that's had a ton of rounds through it. Never missed a beat. Bought it because of all the stories years ago from returning Vietnam vets about how they just keep working and how some were captured with most of the rifling gone from the barrel from all the rounds put through it. Picked up a Russian SKS in 1995 that was arsenal rebuilt and put in one of the laminated stocks. Has the milled parts vs. stamped and a screw in barrel vs. some of the pinned barrel SKS's. That one sits in the safe still unfired. In 2014 I got a used Chinese SKS at a gun show that had already had all the cosnoline clean up done on it. That one's my "beater" and it hasn't missed a beat yet either. I've never purchased an SKS that needed the cosmoline clean up regimen...... Every one was good to go when I got it but I've seen what has to be done on some of them.

!

From Wall Street Journal today, showing polished sks magazines.


I have SKSs:
Chinese
Russian
Albanian
Yugo

I have been an owner since ~ 1992.
After college brainwashing I built a super insulated solar home and was raising my own food organically.... until Clinton messed with my SKS ammo that was 8 cents a shot from China. I had to pay 12 cents from Russia. That turned me back into a Republican, like I was before college.

But I don't like SKS rifles much, but I have scoped and glass bedded them.
I do not like Nagant revolvers at all, but I have a few.
I do not like AKs, but I have scoped mine.

I do like 91/30 Mosin Nagant rifles. I have converted to 223, 45/70, 7mmRemMag, and 300 WinMag. For extracting 3.34" long unfired, I have made an ejector over ride button.

I really like TT-33 type pistols from:
Russia
China
Poland
Romania

I have converted Tokarevs to 9x23mm Winchester and worked up to primer pocket failure.

CZ52s just blow up into little pieces in my hands......flawed design junk... no matter what the load books said before 2005.