The sks rifle. your thoughts

footwart

footwart

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Feb 20, 2023
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Location
Kentucky
I've had several SKS rifles over the years. In the eighties, a 69 dollar unissued
to some that looked like they barely survived the war. One thing they all had
in common. Every one was accurate and reliable. I have a m1 carbine and a
Garand which are awesome. Best American weapons of war. However, the SKS
is one of the best military rifles ever produced. I never had a jam or misfeed
on any of them.
 
It's a decent enough carbine.
Not the deal it used to be.

It's not an AK-47.
Never meant to be.


Past that - I don't know whether to grab my popcorn or shield my eyes. Or both.
Feels like a loaded question with baited verbiage.
That could go downhill rather quickly...
 
I've had many and still have one.
I had a safety lever snap off on one Norinco- removed it and threw it away.
The Yugo guns, including mine, had problems with eroded gas valves for the grenade launcher.

Otherwise, all have been excellent.

I wouldn't feel undergunned with one against anything, but wouldn't take one over an AK if it were available.
I'd probably prefer an SKS over a Carbine unless it was only CQB work in the offing.
 
Last edited:
bearcreek said:
Could you define those terms please?
Click to expand...
Not sure if you were being cheeky...... ;)

All my SKS had no problem shooting minute-of-enemy, consistent torso hits at 200yds. I call that good enough for what it is.

Except for the Yugo prior to its gas valve replacement, I cant remember EVER having a malf. with any of those guns. And the Yugo ran like a German sewing machine after it was repaired.
 
Solid guns. They used to be available at very reasonable prices--in the '90s you could get them for under $100 if you shopped around.

Reliability and durability was good. They were more than accurate enough for anything anyone would reasonably expect to do with them.

The biggest problem with them back when they were cheap and easily available was that people wanted them to be AKs and they just aren't AKs. They are actually better than AKs in some ways and worse in other ways, but they are different in every way--except for the ammo they shoot.

The biggest problem with them now is that they are too expensive for what they are.
Could you define those terms please?
Click to expand...
In the same neighborhood as an unmodified M1 Garand for accuracy. Reliability was very good when they were left alone. Almost inevitably, reliability issues were the result of modifications/aftermarket parts.
 
If they were still at 2000s prices, I'd surely grab one.

Historic and reliable.

Now? Rather an AK if I had to go that route.
 
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NIGHTLORD40K said:
Not sure if you were being cheeky...... ;)

All my SKS had no problem shooting minute-of-enemy, consistent torso hits at 200yds. I call that good enough for what it is.

Except for the Yugo prior to its gas valve replacement, I cant remember EVER having a malf. with any of those guns. And the Yugo ran like a German sewing machine after it was repaired.
Click to expand...
Perhaps a bit. In all seriousness though, unless we know at least approximately what a person means by "accurate" and "reliable", a conversation about those characteristics in a rifle is somewhat futile. I've talked to people who considered a rifle to be "reliable" if it got through 3-4 magazines without a jam and "accurate" if you could hit a pie plate with it at 100 yards.
 
I'm a big fan of 7.62x39. I've owned several sks and AK variants and have been regretful once most of them was traded off. Only sks I still have at the moment is a Yugo and it was my primary deer getter for several seasons. And still is a great shooter for what it is. I would trust my life with it if need be. I even built my first ar in 7.62x39 but just couldn't ever get any kind of reliability running cheap steel case ammo so it got rebuilt. Atleast I know the sks and ak's will eat anything I feed them.
 
I was one who bought a Norinco model in 1992 for 99 bucks, with 100 rounds tossed my way in the deal. It had a hollow fiberglass stock, which I swapped out for a Choate folding stock with a pistol grip.

Ok gun, nothing earth shattering IMHO. I sold it off years ago for funds to buy something else.

My Dad offered me his Yugo SKS at Thanksgiving, but I asked him to give it to my sister and BIL since I have a 7.62x39 AR.

Stay safe.
 
bearcreek said:
Perhaps a bit. In all seriousness though, unless we know at least approximately what a person means by "accurate" and "reliable", a conversation about those characteristics in a rifle is somewhat futile. I've talked to people who considered a rifle to be "reliable" if it got through 3-4 magazines without a jam and "accurate" if you could hit a pie plate with it at 100 yards.
Click to expand...
never failed to function after thousands of rounds. Shoots any ammo that I've tried.
 
My SKS is handy and reliable. I put a red dot on it and it is accurate (2 or 3 inches) out to 50 yards. If I am shooting at more distant targets, I have better tools for that job. The SKS has little recoil, is compact and was inexpensive to shoot. They were great in their day, just like the M-1 carbine, but their day has come and gone.

I am sure all those cheap blasters were hard on our domestic manufacturers, but they did get people out to shoot.
 
footwart said:
Just a conversation starter. This is my personal experience with the ones I've owned and now own.
Click to expand...
:thumbup: Just making sure we knew what page you were on. I had an SKS decades ago. Wish I still had it, really just for the cool factor. I really don't remember how accurate it was and I didn't run enough ammo through it to determine it's reliability.
 
I had two sks rifles. They were actually my first centerfire rifles. I bought them for $65 each in 1991. I remember because they had serial numbers stamped in the bolt. One of the numbers coincidentally ended in 0091.
I never really warmed up to the rifles. The short stock just bothered me, it was just too short.
One thing I learned really quickly, was to NOT shoot my artistically created, custom torched homemade gongs with an sks. After I shot them with the sks, my cool duelling Buffalo gongs looked like honeycombs, and my circular gongs like Swiss cheese.
A friend claimed to have shot a hole through a highline pole with his.
 
Armored farmer said:
I had two sks rifles. They were actually my first centerfire rifles. I bought them for $65 each in 1991. I remember because they had serial numbers stamped in the bolt. One of the numbers coincidentally ended in 0091.
I never really warmed up to the rifles. The short stock just bothered me, it was just too short.
One thing I learned really quickly, was to NOT shoot my artistically created, custom torched homemade gongs with an sks. After I shot them with the sks, my cool duelling Buffalo gongs looked like honeycombs, and my circular gongs like Swiss cheese.
A friend claimed to have shot a hole through a highline pole with his.
Click to expand...
A lot of that Chicom ammo was steel-cored and loaded pretty hot. I still have a couple boxes and it makes modern Russian Wolf fodder look like mouse farts.
 
JohnKSa said:
With good ammo it should do much better than that unless it has a problem of some sort.

I agree on the Garand and Swedish Mauser accuracy #s.
Click to expand...
Yes, my Roosky SKS is accurate. Mine has done well on torso-targets at much longer than 300 yards. My recall could be wrong, but I think I could put "most" shots, two out of three, or three out of five, on a 24X36" target at 450 yards. Don't remember now, but we did shoot them, and the MN carbines out to 500 yards. (when you could still shoot on the Idaho Farragut naval range when it was still abandoned, no range officers, and the pop-up and down target boards still worked at the 500 yard pits. Sitting in the pits working the targets was fun, having the bullets crack by right overhead. But now the county or park service has taken it over)(they also put a housing development close by...and the people started complaining about the noise. Buy a house next to a rifle range, then complain.!!!!!)
 
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