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Hi, ive come down with "rifleituse" also know as the i gotta have a new gun bug. And a SKS seems to be the cure. So what should i look for when buying used, whats fair price? any do's or dont's once i aquire a rifle? Thanks for any help. You guys/gals are great. Well polish my balls and serve me a milkshake! | ||
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I don't care for the Chinese. Others may disagree. The ChiCom SKS has the round shaft bayonet. Russian and Com Bloc have a flat blade. So you can tell that right away. Look for all matching serial numbers. There's one on the bolt, receiver, trigger group, magazine. Russian are hot collectables. Romanian are great. The Yugoslavian was available recently. Yugos had a grenade launcher attached. I'd pass on that. I think the Yugos also didn't have the chromed bore. You could check arsenal origin. That's stamped on the bolt cover at the rear, along with the year of mfg. I've forgotten the arsenal marks. You can Google "sks arsenal marks" and get some sources. Lot's of sks discussion on Google. | |||
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Forget the Russians, they've become collectors items and the price for them is outrageous, unless you can find one cheap. There's really nothing special about besides the fact that Russia orginally invented the SKS. The Chinese are good, but I'd get one with the milled trigger guard and screwed in barrel rather then the pinned barrel and stamped out trigger guard. Now to talk about the most robust SKS, that is the Yugo's. Like 45/70 mentioned one comes with a grenade launcher and sights, but they also made a model without it, that is the Model 59. The grenade model is Model 59/66. They don't have a chrome lined bore but you don't need it, you're not fighting a war with corrosive ammo. Even if you did fire corrosive ammo and it does have a chrome lined bore, doesn't mean you can just let it set. My personal pick are the Yugo's. I think they're the best. One thing too about the grenade launching model is it has a gas cutoff valve. You can switch it to off and manually cycle it and not lose your brass. In my case I love shooting cast so I shut the valve off to keep the gas piston clean and so I don't lose my good reloadable brass. A good place to buy the Yugo is from Aim Surplus. Website is www.aimsurplus.com | |||
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Ok, now you have picqued my curiosity.... I have a Russian SKS manufactured around 1954, and it came out of the box, unfired, with a laminated wood stock. The lamination is not much more than glorified plywood, but it is laminated. The rifle shoots very well with reloads. I paid a little over $100 for it. So, What would such a rifle fetch now? ______________________________ Well, they really aren't debates... more like horse and pony shows... without the pony... just the whores. 1955, Top tax rate, 92%... unemployment, 4%. "Beware of the Free Market. There are only two ways you can make that work. Either you bring the world's standard of living up to match ours, or lower ours to meet their's. You know which way it will go." by My Great Grandfather, 1960 Protection for Monsanto is Persecution of Farmers. | |||
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I bought a Yugo SkS. It was suppose to be excellent condition. What it was when I got it, was unissued. I just shoot cast out of it and with the Lee 312-155 which is a 155 gr gaschecked bullet over 26.5 grs of surplus 4895 it shoots under an inch at 100 yards when I do my part. That's with a scope. For the heck of it one day I shot that same cast load at 300 yds and it consistly held 3 inches. Shocked the heck out of me. I like how well made the Yugos are and how robust the are. I like the gas cutoff valve so I don't have to chase my brass when shooting off the bench. I don't mind it not having a chromelined bore. What do I need it for?? Don't let that deter you on a Yugo purchase. I wouldn't mind having a Russian model just to have it because they are the country that invented it. I'd like to inspect an East German made one, but they are kind of rare. I heard they were subperbly made. | |||
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I just read about removing cosmoline from sks's and it seems that it takes alot of effort. Heating the rifle to melt the cosmoline out something about break cleaner or paint thinner. Saying that it is a 3-5 hour job to get a cosmo-rifle in shooting shape. I dont wanna have to do all that just to shoot a gun! Cleaning my bolt actions are one thing but removing military grade vasaline from a rifle just seems like more effort than its worth. Are there any quick solutions to the cosmoline question? Well polish my balls and serve me a milkshake! | |||
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At the time I bought mine, I used what I had on my cleaning bench.... Hoppes #9 and some home meade patches from a skane of felt cloth from which I cut my patches. it took me a few hours to take it apart, clean all parts, inside and out, lube, and put back together. It really wasn't that bad. Now, I have a heavey duty gun cleaner that cuts ANYTHING with just a spray. Cleaning a gun is never my favorite job, but it should never be a reason to avoid owning one!!! ______________________________ Well, they really aren't debates... more like horse and pony shows... without the pony... just the whores. 1955, Top tax rate, 92%... unemployment, 4%. "Beware of the Free Market. There are only two ways you can make that work. Either you bring the world's standard of living up to match ours, or lower ours to meet their's. You know which way it will go." by My Great Grandfather, 1960 Protection for Monsanto is Persecution of Farmers. | |||
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Various solvents can be used, but I wouldn't use any that are obnoxious to smell or that have dangerous fumes. With that said a gallon of WD40 works good as does mineral spirits. Mineral spirits can be purchased in a non-scented formula too. Kerosene is okay, but a little smelly. Mineral spirits would be my first choice. Get an old toothbrush and a roll of papertowel, a sheet of carboard to put the stock on. Do it outside if possible. It comes off the metal parts alot easier such as the action and barrel then getting it off the wood. | |||
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The ones I have: 1) Yugo, very good quality, has a gas switch 2) Russian, good quality 3) Chinese, fair to good quality 4) Romanian, fair quality 5) Albanian, poor quality What SKSs are good for: shooting tin cans at the gravel pit with open sights What SKSs are not good for: shooting groups with a 40X scope at the range. I have tried to fix up an SKS with butt extension, drill and tap, cast Choate scope mount, glass bedding the action, handloading the ammo with benchrest techniques, 40X Leupold scoope, disable the gas, and fire single shot. But it is like trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. The rifle is designed to be mass produced for cheap for issue to undersized cannon fodder Russian peasants. If you want to shoot groups, trade 5 of the SKSs for an AR15, which is designed to be issued to a highly trained and valuable soldier. The AR15 will hit the tin cans and twice the range and make nice small groups at the range. | |||
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Well maybe you don't know what you're doing, or you have tried groups with SKS's with bad barrels, or I'm better at it then you...I don't know. I have a Yugo SKS. It was unissued. In my opinion the bore and rifling on the barrel is subperb. Very well machine and smooth as can be. First let me say I'm shooting cast out it. Particularly the Lee 312-155 which is a 155 gr gaschecked cast bullet that I cast from wheelweights. I'm using Winchester brass. I glassbedded what part of the action that can be glassbedded. I too installed a Choate scope mount because it mounts solidly to the receiver wall with four screw, not on a loose dust cover. I'm only using a compact 2.5x8 scope. My load is the bullet above over 26.5 grs of surplus 4895. I too shoot with the gasvalve switched off and I don't full lenght resize my cases. Okay, with that said, off the bench, shooting 5 and 10 shot groups, I can start to chew a 5/8 inch group with an occassional flyer. Mine you I don't weigh my bullets, but only cull the bad ones out by eyesight. In trying some 300 yard shooting with some other larger calibers, I decided for the hell of it to see what that little Yugo SKS would do with that lead load. Well, what a surprise. It CONSISTANTLY shout 4 inch groups. To me that's astonishing for basically a fast made semi-auto military rifle that's not shooting a full size rifle cartridge and with a cast bullet. So I don't know what you are doing, perhaps it could be your jacketed bullet, because I don't shoot those out of my SKS. Maybe my cast bullet fits the bore and grooves better then say an slightly undersized jacketed bullet. Maybe someday I'll try some good quality properly fitting jacketed bullets out of mine. | |||
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I did as quick search on the net for a Russian SKS similar to mine, and it seems the guy thought he could ask over $300 for it.... you gotta be kidding me!!!  I don't know if it sold, but I would have to assume that prices are nearly double what I paid for mine.  ______________________________ Well, they really aren't debates... more like horse and pony shows... without the pony... just the whores. 1955, Top tax rate, 92%... unemployment, 4%. "Beware of the Free Market. There are only two ways you can make that work. Either you bring the world's standard of living up to match ours, or lower ours to meet their's. You know which way it will go." by My Great Grandfather, 1960 Protection for Monsanto is Persecution of Farmers. | |||
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Mr. Payne, if you are getting 3" groups at 300 yards with an SKS then you really have something figured out there. I only have two SKS rifles; a typical Norinco and a Yugo 59 (not a 59/66). I'm tickled pink when I get 4 inch groups at 50 yards with my 1/2 century+ eyes and those SKS sights. "1/2 minute of truck" at 100 yards works for me! (under 8 inches). The two SKS rifles I have leave me with the impression that they are LONG on function/reliablity and weren't intended for tight groups. The longer sight radius make them easier for me to shoot then AK-47's. I don't think the non-chromed bore of the Yugo SKS rifles is a big deal. I properly clean them same day as shooting them. I like the heft of the milled Yugo's over the Norinco. | |||
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1 moa intenet post = 6 ~ 8 moa at the range. That was going on 10 years ago when gun talk on the internet was top scientists and engineers, and it is true now that gun talk is store managers and salesmen. Why? Go to any range. Ask how accurate a rifle is. Then measure all the groups it shot that day. Average the size of the groups and divide by the bragging. You then will have "the reverse finegal factor". If you call them on it, they will produce the wallet group. A years old piece of paper will come from the wallet and show great marksmanship happened once, when the barrel was new, clean, cool, on a windless day, the scope mounts were still tight, the glass bedding was not torn out by the round reciever bottom, back when the B.S.er could still see, and so long ago that it is forgotten it was shot at 50 yards. | |||
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All, I bought an unissued Chinese Type 56 SKS from Navy Arms in 1993 and couldn't be happier with it (except for the trigger). With some bullets, jacketed or cast, it will easily shoot into 4" @ 100 yds., sometimes into 1". You may be surprised that it is partial to pulled Hansen 180gr. SP's (from 7.62 x 54R rounds) and 15gr. Alliant 2400. A properly fitted cast bullet, as Max indicated, will shoot at least as well. Btw, not all Type 56's had the spike bayonet, just those with a serial no. of 9,000,000 or higher. | |||
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On of my favorite way to cleam cosmo off is hot water and Dawn detergent in a contener suitable to fit an action in. grab youself a old tooth brush and some rags and you will be done in less than an hour and you are not dealing with harsh chemicals. | |||
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