Concerning only a military issue SKS. No after-market add ons. As issued military weapon only,10 round box mag, stripper clips, etc.,

A hypothetical question; If it was your main survival weapon, etc., would you retain the bayonet, whether blade or spike, or would you remove it for lighter weight and better balance? Keep in mind that the bayonet is not readily or normally detachable....Thanks for any thoughts....Tree

Leave it on.

Keep the bayonet, you can stick it in the ground, put a tarp over it and have your own teepee shelter. Or use it to roast marshmallows.

Or, leave the bayonet, take the cannoli.

Finally, if you keep it and the window at the book depository is stuck, pry it open with the bayonet and then shoot for the melon.

Apologies in advance for the sarcasm! Seriously, I would keep it.

I took mine of 30 yrs ago

Now I cannot find it

Good for roasting rats over the fire...

Post pics of your SKS

i’d love to see it, Im a big fan

I've read the bayonet was invented by single shot wild boar hunters,

Depends on whether it shoots best off, folded or out. So that's an excuse for a trip to the range, you're welcome. At least sixty rounds for a good sample.

It actually has some use as a monopod for shooting prone, but otherwise it's just extra weight. It all depends on whether you think having a built in monopod is sufficiently beneficial to justify keeping the extra weight on the gun.

If it's a collector's piece, keep it on, of course.

Good for offsetting barrel rise on extended...
Oh, you said ten round, sks...


Who has the "Nyet, Rifle is fine." Meme?

I’d vote to keep it on. Mine has the triangular bayonet.

In SKSs I have; Russian, Chinese, Yugo, and Albanian.

With an SKS I can shoot about a 5" group with open sights.


After I glass bed, trigger job, turn off the gas system, handload 6mmPPC quality ammo in 7.62x39mm, butt length extender, and solidly mount a 40X scope..... still a 5" group.

But any old AR15 with quality handloads and a scope will shoot 1.1" groups for me.

What does it all mean?
SKS is a pile of junk. Get an AR15.

Keep it. You never know when you'll need to stick some bastid that deserves it.

Practice...you'll improve.

A bayonet to the throat of your enemy is never a bad thing.

I got 3 SKS's. 2 Chinese & 1 Russian. They all still have the bayonets. If I had to use one as a survival tool it would be nice to still have the bayonet. They do make a decent monopod and pointy things can generally come in handy sometimes.

I have read the ATF has issues with adding bayonets to SKS's that don't have them and with taking them off SKS's that do have them. Make sense to a bureaucrat I guess.

Nothing says "rioters stay away" like a guy with a surplus/trophy ar/ak/sks with a bayonet on the front porch....

Thanks TRH. That is one of my favorites. .

I guess when you shoot from prone using an SKS bayonet as a monopod you pound it into the ground w/ your Spetsnaz shovel for elevation corrections.

Even back in '69 only a broke dick VC used an SKS.



mike r

Bayonets have lots of uses- - - - -my great grandmother used to tell stories about the Union soldiers at Ft. Negley in Nashville using the ones on their 1858 Remington rifles to forage chickens, ducks, and small pigs from citizens' back yards.

Leave it! The weight isn't enough to really interrupt the balance anyway (it's not like an SKS is a .204 Ruger).....

And it might be useful someday.

You could stir latte with it

I typically don't bring SKS's to high highfalutin' business dinners, but, if that's what you're into.....

Knock yourself out!

Put your fingers and thumbs together to form a circle. Depending on the size of your hands, that circle is roughly 5 in. Now place that over the center of your chest cavity.

Tell me again how useless that rifle is?

That's a fact. After a number of Chinese SKSs were imported and sold, some worthless company in CA marketed a pistol in that caliber. The ATF ruled that, because of the pistol (which I think went out of business in a few months), no Chinese SKSs could have bayonets unless you got them registered Class III. But the Russian SKSs were OK with bayonets. That didn't make sense then or now.

That was a long time ago and my memory is a bit murky, but at the time we all took our bayonets off our SKSs.

My SKS is long since sold, with the bayonet, although not attached. I didn't think much of the rifle. The trigger pull was awful and there are cheaper things to plink with.

An SKS without a bayonet is just another rifle.

Oh no

I took mine off

Im going to hell, and jail

My buddy bought an AK and a case of ammo, back when that could be done with 300 bucks.

I always shot everything from prone, when he handed me that AK, all I could see in that spike hanging off the barrel was a stabilization device. I jammed the bayonet into the ground and proceed to perforate paper plates at 300 yrs.

Beat the fug out of a backpack, or a crushed cowboy hat, or even my balled up fist, as a field ready stabilizer. I was not hitting the plate with every round, but a high enough percentage to be combat effective.

Nope. The ruling was you could have it next to the rifle, just not on it. Stupid ruling.

All due respect to decenting opinions.
There may be those who use a bayonet for skinning small game, filleting fish, feathering tinder for fire starter, shaping wooden tools, tarp pegs, saplings for shelter, etc.
It's just me, but I have never considered a bayonet for anything other than a collectable. They do have much appeal for that and historical significance IMHO.

IF I were taking one rifle of choice that had a bayonet into a survival OR battle situation, I would leave the bayo at home. I would take one daily user and probably a more specialized , which could be a tiny swiss army knife, ..... whatever I predict would be most useful for my tasks. That's it. I have used every style of common blades for farm, field, recreation, shaving, wood work, battle, etc
Taught classes on most of these subjects.

Bayo is heavier than necessary and the wrong shape for most tasks. It also adds how many more inches to the barrel, naking it more cumbersome, slower to target, and likely to get hung up on forest vegetation. If it's for self defense after expected ammo runs dry, I would then consider getting training in a combat art right now, that can utilize any blades and make use of machetes for fighting. Advantage Combat would be the best IMHO.

About 20 years ago at the Puyallup gun show there were many guns for sale from a gun store where the owner went to prison for adding detachable magazines to SKS rifles.

Great!!!...you guys never fail to make me laugh my A off!...I nearly busted a gut

In all seriousness. These SKS bayonets are good for one thing as intended and that's for sticking (mostly the wounded)

Ever try to sharpen a chromed blade? I don't know if the boys sharpened their blades for the short time the SKS was a front line weapon but probably the edge that folded into the stock

As an aside...The spike is a better "sticker" than the blade but folklore has it that you can't stop the bleeding from a wound caused by a cruciform (spike) bayonet . Not Geneva Convention approved.

I'm sure ammo had nothing to do with those differences.

Because they were imported as curios/relics based on having specific features. Typical stupid law that should only affect (if anyone) an importer if he violates it, but is used to scare regular folks who just want to modify their own personal property to their liking.

You can’t go wrong with steel.

^^^^^^
TreeMutt,

Thought that question was from some newbie city boy just going into the woods camping for the first time.
Now I see you were playing us.

Next time, I'll know better and say, Dumb question.
Don't waste my time.
Go read a book.

that guy aint to smart. SKS does better then a 5" group. even so that means the bullet land 2 inches from where you aimed. also SKS will shoot different groups with the bayo folded...extended and locked into place....and bayo taken off the rifle. find the best one. mosin nagants shoot better with the bayo on the rifle and that is how they were meant to be used

One time I stabbed a groundhog to death with an SKS bayonet.

I use a Springfield 1873 with a bayonet for home defense. I figure the sight of my naked, hairy ass doing a bayonet charge out from a cloud of black powder smoke down the hallway would discourage any late night home invaders. Still trying to teach the o’l lady to play the bugle.