What with one thing and another, I haven’t been keeping up with the adventures of Othias and Mae’s C&Rsenal, so when I stumbled on this one talking about an old friend, I opened the video toot sweet, and you should too.
Let it be known — as I’ve said several times before — that I have always loved the Commie SKS, and Othias is definitely on my side on this one.
I know, I know: the thing has been (unfairly) overshadowed by its successor, the AK-47.
And yes, the SKS holds only 10 rounds in its semi-concealed mag compared to 20-30 in the AK’s banana-like appendage. Don’t care. Also, the AK can be modified as above (albeit with some difficulty), while the SKS cannot (not even ULTiMAK makes the proper rail mounts). Don’t care about that either.
The fact is that the SKS is actually a better design, and is way more comfortable to shoot than the AK. I have owned both, fired literally thousands of rounds through each, and on this I will accept no argument.
Of course, I don’t own either of them ever since that tragic accident on the Brazos River all those years ago; but lemme tell you, watching Mae and Othias shoot and fondle the SKS respectively made me itch in all the wrong places.
SKS is a nice rifle. Chi Com ones are great. Norinco. (Nor Chink O)
Wish I had one in the collection. Someday I’ll have to pick one up.
Mr. Du Toit:
I’ve got several ChiCom SKS’s picked up for a whopping $85 each, still in the Chinese version of Cosmoline (which turned out to dissolve nicely in Dawn dishwashing soap and hot, hot water). I bought a pile of ’em, and gave a bunch away as Christmas presents. The problem is that I could never find one that would shoot much better than angle-of-pie-plate (6″) at 100 yards. I tried scoping one with that silly receiver-cover mount (no return to zero), and then finally took one and drilled/tapped the side of the receiver and put a rock-solid scope mount on it. Nope, no better.
I’ve gone through two (2) Ruger Mini-30’s from back when the chambers were sized for US-made ammo (.308″ instead of ComBloc .311″); they’ve since changed that but never admitted their original problem.. The first one would shoot about a 4″ group, while the second one wouldn’t do better than a shotgun pattern…Ruger refused to do anything about it, so I got rid of it.
Here’s the thing…it’s NOT the ammo. 7.62x39mm is an excellent round, and even the (what used to be) ultra-cheap Wolf steel-cased stuff will shoot accurately, but only from an accurate firearm. I’ve got a couple of AK’s that are marginally better than the SKS’s, but I found out what that round could do when I bought a CZ bolt gun in 7.62x39mm to be my wife’s deer rifle. I ended up putting a Leupold scope on that carbine for her that cost about as much as the gun itself. The last time she confirmed zero on it at 100 yards, with Wolf steel-cased HP ammo, she printed a 3-round cloverleaf that looked like a single hole through the spotting scope.
I just got a Rock River carbine I call the “Franken-gun” since it’s an AR platform (yes, direct impingement) with a custom lower that accepts AK magazines. With a 1.5-6x scope it’ll punch 2″ groups at 100 yards all day long with cheap steel-cased ammo.
While the SKS’s may have a role as incredibly cheap (well, they used to be) less-then-100-yard bullet hose, they’re not something I’d use even for hunting because of their inherent lack of accuracy.
You never forget your first. My first Semi-auto rifle not a .22, and my first FFL transfer. I loved my Yugo, with the grenade launcher thing, before the seasonal floods around here got it.
Lemme tell you though, that bastard is heavy compared to its successor.
The SKS is an accurate rifle. I have had a few over the years. The AK is a slop gun. The semi auto AKM’s being imported or built in the US are more accurate than the AK’s Soviet AK’s that can go full auto. A better rifle is the CZ58. It has the accuracy of the SKS with the durability of an AK.
Kim,
Do you have an 03FFL?
It’s the “Curios and Relics” licence, costs $30.
Let’s you buy firearms that are 50 or more years old by mail, direct to your door.
That means an SKS manufactured in 1974 could be just the click of a mouse button away, without even the inconvenience of going to a dealer for a transfer. In fact, there’s no 4473 to fill out.
You just record your new purchase in your record book.
I sold close to 100 SKS’s back in the 90’s when I had my FFL. Killed more than one AK sale by pointing out that for the price of an AK they could buy an SKS plus 1000 round case of ammo and still have money left over.
Out of all those SKS’s, I kept one pristine all matching numbers Russian made. My “rainy day” gun is a Norinco 16.25-inch barreled “paratrooper”model imported by Navy Arms, marketed as the “Cowboy’s Companion”. I put a classic style plastic stock on it which made the length of pull and balance perfect. The plastic stock is marked “K-Sports”, beyond that I don’t remember. Also had to remove the folding bayonet as the new stock had no cut out for it to fold in to. This little carbine shoots a bit over 1 MOA. Not saying I can do that every day with the iron sights and my old eyes.
For me, three features the SKS always had over the AK were 1) bolt lock open on the last round, 2) the safety, and 3) choice–you can run it with the 10 round mag and stripper clips, or 30-round “duckbill” mags work just fine.
Had my first SKS in 1976. Chinese mid-60’s manufacture with the spike bayonet. Vietnam bring-back. My father bought it for me from the soldier who brought it back. Had the capture papers, too.
Loved it, but back then ammo was $1.25/round (I made $2.25/ hour), and I needed $$ for college, so… I sold it. One of the three great regrets of my life (the other two are selling my VW Bug, and not knocking my wife three or four more times).
I’ve got a Vz52/57 now. Like it better than my Simonov. But I still miss the old China Girl.
Clifford,
You stated
“ Had my first SKS in 1976”
“ but back then ammo was $1.25/round (I made $2.25/ hour),
In 1976 7.62 ammo was 1.25 a round???
I wasn’t born just yet but today in 2024 depending on type of ammo it’s $. 70 cents to & 1.50 a round.
Was the ammo you priced out in 1976 made of gold or silver?
No. It was because the only 7.62×39 ammunition available in 1976 was that brought back from Vietnam by GIs. In 1978 Lapua started importing brass, boxer-primed cases, so my dad and I reloaded what we shot. I don’t think 7.62×39 was imported ntil the early 80’s. FWIW, I had three stripper clips I bought in 1979 for $10 each.
One of my kids has an SKS. Haven’t shot it in 10 years but I dont remember it as being as good an an AR to shoot. Actually, what I remember most about that day was my son giving me a Marlin 30-30 lever gun. Just got back from my local pawn shop and 2 pistols followed me home a Colt challenger .22 and a Browning Buck Mark 22. I stop in occasionally to peruse the guns and I looked at both of them. I wanted the colt, it reminded me of a friends colt woodsman that I used to hunt with but it was more pricy than the buck mark so I was going to buy the buck mark. The owner told me he’d give me a good price if I took both, The out the door price was almost $200 less than the marked price. Bought a High standard 22 from there last year, its a dream to shoot.
I do love my 1950s era Yugo SKS. I bought it right for $125 not long after my divorce and didn’t know what to do with it after I got it home and realized it was covered with Warsaw Pact cosmoline. There was a guy running a Nation of Riflemen blog that was willing to take the time to offer me some very good advice. I’m now looking forward to handing this down to my 10-year-old son when he’s ready. Thanks, Kim!
My best improvement to the SKS was adding Tech-Sights – peep sights that attach to the receiver at the back of the dust cover. Replaces the takedown pin on the dustcover with the sight’s cross screw, so no permanent modifications to the rifle. My eyes liked the peep much better than the issue sights.