SKS Barrel Yugo vs Chinese

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Even if it could be done, I wouldn't. The Yugo barrels are not chrome lined, and the gas cutoff valves are well known to leak and prevent the bolt from cycling. When this happens, even operating the charging handle can require a stern whack with a mallet.
Should be able to locate a used Chicom barrel without too much trouble if you needed one.....
 
Even if it could be done, I wouldn't. The Yugo barrels are not chrome lined, and the gas cutoff valves are well known to leak and prevent the bolt from cycling. When this happens, even operating the charging handle can require a stern whack with a mallet.
Should be able to locate a used Chicom barrel without too much trouble if you needed one.....

Nor are the barrels on M1, M1A, M14, and many other non-military semi automatic rifles. The majority of non-semiautomatic rifle made also do not use chrome lined barrels. I understand the value in chrome lining, but it isn't the be all end all. The Yugo M59 and M59/66 SKS have high quality hammer forged barrels. Unless you like to shoot corrosive ammo and refuse to clean your barrel, you're very unlikely to get any advantage from a chrome lined barrel as opposed to a hammer forged barrel.

In my experience (fairly extensive) the M59/66 is no morel likely to leak than any other SKS as long as the gas valve has been maintained. In the case you do get a leak you can buy a stainless replacement gas valve for $24 and never worry about it again. It really won't matter though if you are putting the barrel on a Chinese SKS because you will want to use the Chinese gas system. You'll press on the Chinese gas block so you can your rifles native gas system.
 
I have a Screw in Yugo sks barrel. Would this fit a screw in Chinese sks?
I'm pretty sure the threads are compatible but you may have issues fitting the Chinese gas system to the Yugo barrel.
Even if it could be done, I wouldn't. The Yugo barrels are not chrome lined, and the gas cutoff valves are well known to leak and prevent the bolt from cycling. When this happens, even operating the charging handle can require a stern whack with a mallet.
Should be able to locate a used Chicom barrel without too much trouble if you needed one.....
As ColoradoMinuteMan pointed out, the OP would be using the Chinese gas system, so any alleged problems with the Yugo gas system would be irrelevant.
In any case if you have to use a mallet to operate the charging handle you've got a lot worse problems than a leaking gas valve.
I use my 59/66's with the gas turned completely off when firing subsonics (or to avoid losing brass) and the charging handle works just fine operated by hand.
Nor are the barrels on M1, M1A, M14, and many other non-military semi automatic rifles.
You're correct on the M1, but the M14 and some older M1A's built with USGI barrels are chrome lined.

I'm with you on the superior quality of the Yugo hammer forged barrels. I believe that the Yugoslavians chose not to chrome plate the bores for accuracy reasons. They chrome plated the gas tubes and even the bayonets on the 59/66, so arguments about cost or lack of chromium being responsible for the unlined barrels seem pretty sketchy to me.
 
I'm pretty sure the threads are compatible but you may have issues fitting the Chinese gas system to the Yugo barrel.

As ColoradoMinuteMan pointed out, the OP would be using the Chinese gas system, so any alleged problems with the Yugo gas system would be irrelevant.
In any case if you have to use a mallet to operate the charging handle you've got a lot worse problems than a leaking gas valve.
I use my 59/66's with the gas turned completely off when firing subsonics (or to avoid losing brass) and the charging handle works just fine operated by hand.

You're correct on the M1, but the M14 and some older M1A's built with USGI barrels are chrome lined.

I'm with you on the superior quality of the Yugo hammer forged barrels. I believe that the Yugoslavians chose not to chrome plate the bores for accuracy reasons. They chrome plated the gas tubes and even the bayonets on the 59/66, so arguments about cost or lack of chromium being responsible for the unlined barrels seem pretty sketchy to me.


A partial answer is that Yugoslavia did not have native sources of chrome and the major source of chrome for Eastern bloc countries was the Soviet Union. Tito emphasized his country's independence by trying to "home grow" weapons (which also created an export industry as well). Someone like Branko Bogdanovic might be able to more fully answer that question as a very knowledgeable source on Yugoslavian small arms.
 
I'm pretty sure the threads are compatible but you may have issues fitting the Chinese gas system to the Yugo barrel.

As ColoradoMinuteMan pointed out, the OP would be using the Chinese gas system, so any alleged problems with the Yugo gas system would be irrelevant.
In any case if you have to use a mallet to operate the charging handle you've got a lot worse problems than a leaking gas valve.
I use my 59/66's with the gas turned completely off when firing subsonics (or to avoid losing brass) and the charging handle works just fine operated by hand.

You're correct on the M1, but the M14 and some older M1A's built with USGI barrels are chrome lined.

I'm with you on the superior quality of the Yugo hammer forged barrels. I believe that the Yugoslavians chose not to chrome plate the bores for accuracy reasons. They chrome plated the gas tubes and even the bayonets on the 59/66, so arguments about cost or lack of chromium being responsible for the unlined barrels seem pretty sketchy to me.

Thanks, yeah, you are exactly right, I actually meant to type Mini 14 but typed M14 instead. M14 definitely does have a chrome lined chamber and barrel. The commercial versions of the M1A don't typically. However you mentioned that some early ones did and I wouldn't be surprised if some did. I also know that some non-Springfield M1A clones such as Fulton Armory do have chrome lined barrels. By and large commercial firearms, outside of a handful of Military "type" clones don't have chrome lined barrels. Even in the AR world chrome lined isn't universally reconized as the gold standard. Quality chrome lined, QPQ, stainless, CHF barrels can all be good options depending on what attributes you value the most.
 
A partial answer is that Yugoslavia did not have native sources of chrome and the major source of chrome for Eastern bloc countries was the Soviet Union. Tito emphasized his country's independence by trying to "home grow" weapons (which also created an export industry as well). Someone like Branko Bogdanovic might be able to more fully answer that question as a very knowledgeable source on Yugoslavian small arms.

That is an interesting angle and I have heard it before. Branko Bogdanovic isndefintly a trusted source on Yugoslavian small arms and in fact is a historian of the Kragujevac factory. Based on what I've read relayed from Mr. Bogdanovic is that there was indeed chromium sources available but the technology of applying hard chrome to barrels did not exist when SKS production started. Later, in the early 70s this technology was introduced into AK production but was never introduced into SKS production.
 
A partial answer is that Yugoslavia did not have native sources of chrome and the major source of chrome for Eastern bloc countries was the Soviet Union. Tito emphasized his country's independence by trying to "home grow" weapons (which also created an export industry as well). Someone like Branko Bogdanovic might be able to more fully answer that question as a very knowledgeable source on Yugoslavian small arms.
So your premise is that Yugoslavia didn't produce and couldn't afford to buy chrome for their rifle barrels but they COULD afford it for really important things like shiny bayonets?

In any case, Yugoslavia had plenty of chrome, at least according to this 1950's CIA report:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0ahUKEwi-2OL0kNXWAhWHRCYKHRKOBDEQFgg6MAM&url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00809A000700160008-4.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1q6eGGedRVMjogK1z-1-Oa
20171003_141925.png
Yugoslavia didn't chrome their rifle bores because they decided not to for some reason and the reason wasn't a lack of chromium.

My belief is that given the level of their chrome plating technology, they felt it would reduce accuracy.
 
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Having chrome ore is not necessarily having production capabilities. From those and other CIA reports, it appears that Yugoslavia used its mineral wealth to gather foreign exchange and its production capabilities took time to rebuild.

"War and Revolution in Yugoslavia 1941-45" By Jozo Tomasevich p. 640 "The same sources reveal that chrome ore mines such as the Jezerina Mine in Macedonia, were almost completely exhausted by the Germans." You find the same thing reported in "A Low, Dishonest Decade: The Great Powers, Eastern Europe and the Economic Origins of WWII" which shows pre WWII chrome production by Paul N. Hehn.

Weaponsman blog has a review of chrome plating and rifles that is pretty good but simply mentions that Yugoslavia did not chrome plate the bores. http://weaponsman.com/?p=12779

This is from an akfiles forum posting about Yugo chromed bores allegedly from a former Yugoslavian poster: Zdeno
"Three factors.

1.) Price, the price was the major culprit in why the Yugo's never chrome lined, it was cheaper and less time consuming just to use steel, less time spent paying people to manufacture meant there was more money in the Federations coffers.

2.) Preservation and conservation, here in Serbia we generally attempt to conserve the resources we have by importing, unless it's a dire situation or an emergency we usually run on the bare minimum required to do anything. This dates back to the 70's if I'm not mistaken. Importing chrome would have been too expensive and nobody wanted to use ours at the time, so nobody bothered.

3.) They just didn't see the point, nobody got why chrome lining was so insanely popular, in a fully automatic rifle it makes little to no difference other than in the maintenance and cleaning of said weapon, you may or may not get more service life out of the rifle with chrome lining. Apparently, nobody wanted to waste time in finding out when what we had was working well enough for us to begin with.

In a civilian rifle it makes a difference, in a military rifle it doesn't really mean anything at all.
Would you waste money on something just because it's more shiny than what you have but it works and does the exact same thing?
It would have been a waste of resources, money and time, three things the Yugoslav's never wanted to spare."

http://www.akfiles.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-103548.html

And here is a second hand forum posting from someone on SKS boards asking Branko Bogdanovic that very question:

"In response to this topic, I chose to start new one so everyone can see, and hopefully remember for future references.

http://www.sksboards.com/smf/index.php?topic=25410.0

Here is the skinny on chrome lined barrels in Yugo weapons including of course sks.
I wrote to Mr.Branko Bogdanovic , asking him what was the reason why Yugo sks were chromeless.
For those that don’t know who he is, Branko is THE leading authority on all Yugoslavian weapons, and also Kragujevac factory historian. Of course, Kragujevac is the one and only Yugo factory that produced small arms in Yugo.
His response:

The technology for producing chrome and nickel existed in Slovenia’s steel mills ( one of the former Yugo republics, now independent state) in 1950.
But, technology of actually applying hard chrome in barrels, began after1970 in Kragujevac factory.
First chrome barrels were produced in M70 automatic rifles ( Yugo Kalashnikovs), and Yugo automatic pistols Skorpion 7.62 mm M84 ( Czech scorpion M61)

So, in short, Yugo had/has plenty of chrome, the know how just came late, after 1970.
It has nothing to do with Russians, cost prohibitive, or else.
My correspondence with Branko was in Yugo language, I did my best to translate.
I hope you find this interesting
Best regards

Dan "

From the following several CIA reports on Yugoslavia in the 1950's. One indicates postwar increases in production of chrome, however, they note that it was not sufficient to meet domestic demand and as a result some was imported, a 1986 report, indicated like the 1950 report that the need for foreign currency due to deficit in payments led Yugoslavia to export minerals including chrome rather than keeping it at home. A 1952 report to the president regarding strategic minerals indicates that Yugoslavia's chrome ore is of lower quality.

Thus, when Yugoslavia first produced the SKS, chromium and ores were more valuable as a foreign exchange source and apparently at least from the other CIA reports, in the early 1950's, indicate that Yugoslavia's domestic demand was not met at that time by domestic production. Later, why change to chrome lined bores if the SKS non-chromed bores worked good enough and by the end of their SKS production, much was for war reserves and export so not much reason to chrome the bores then. In addition, from Branko's posting, he indicated that Yugoslavia was late in developing the technology of chroming bores.

Like most things, it is probably a mix of reasons,
 
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