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.