SKS update

[Matthew Carberry]

Exactly, it was a MB-35 Sturmgonkbajonett.

Uncle Phil was never the same after that.  :|

[Perd Hapley]

Can those be imported?

[Matthew Carberry]

Not anymore.  Mostly bring-backs.

[seeker_two]

...unless you have connections in the former Soviet block...

[Perd Hapley]

OK, I've finally got a chance to see the gun; in fact it's in my lap right now.

It's just a standard Norinco SKS, especially after I put the ten-rounder back in.  It's in very good shape.  The stock has some little dents and scratches, but the bluing is quite good and the white parts are perfectly shiny and nice.  The bore looks good.  The bayonet and cleaning rod are there, and the cleaning kit looks like the picture below.  It all looks brand new.  Besides the bore brush, it seems to have a firing pin.  What is that other thing?  Is it missing any parts?



I am happy to report that Luke joined the NRA at a gun show booth, today. 

I am also happy to report that the wife found a .22 revolver that she liked, although we weren't ready to purchase anything today.  It was a Smith & Wesson Kit Gun.  Unfortunately, she's convinced it was a Ruger, but I guess we'll work that out.   

[Uncle Bubba]

She'll like the S&W Kit Gun .22 even more after she shoots it. I have a Kit Gun that belonged to my maternal grandfather, a .22 on a .32 frame and at least 50 years old, and like the Sturmgonkbajonett ;D mentioned above, it's a tack-driver.

[RaspberrySurprise]

If he wants to use the after market mag he's gonna have to play "Wheel of Parts Count" to avoid 922r.

[Manedwolf]

Make sure there's no cosmoline in the firing pin channel. That's one thing the surplus SKS is famous for, if someone buys one and fails to clean the gunked-up been-there-since-the-50's cosmoline out of the firing pin channel, it makes the firing pin stick, and you've got a full-auto.

I believe with the Chinese ones, it was also possible to put one of the parts, perhaps the firing pin, in backwards. I'd have to look up what model it applied to.

For safety, NEVER try one the first time with a full mag. One round first, then two rounds, then three. It's much easier to notice it that way than to try to hang onto it for a full mag.

[DJJ]

Re the extra firing pin: are you talking about the thing on the far left? That's a punch, and in the case of my Yugo SKSs, whose cleaning kits look the same, it's the only punch stout enough to drive out the firing pin retainer. Drill a hole about 3/4" in the side of a 2x4, lay the bolt on it so the retainer is located over the hole, and give it a couple of firm (hard) whacks with a hammer. The next item from the left is the cleaning jag.

[Perd Hapley]

Thanks all. 

I forgot to mention that there IS a lot of cosmoline in the action.  Which is great, because I've never experienced the joy of removing cosmoline before.  :) 

[Perd Hapley]

I just discovered that the bayonet screw is screwed.  :(  But at least it's something minor. 

'Course if it were mine, I'd just chop the barrel behind the bayonet lug, and install a fiber-optic front sight, to go with the Tech Sight on the back of the receiver.  Maybe not on an SKS this nice, of course. 

[Manedwolf]

Thanks all. 

I forgot to mention that there IS a lot of cosmoline in the action.  Which is great, because I've never experienced the joy of removing cosmoline before.  :) 

If you remove the action and set it outside in the hot sun, or put it in a 140 degree oven for a while with a pan beneath it, it'll liquify and be much easier to remove. It will melt at about 130 degrees. You can also use a heatgun, or even a hair dryer.

'Course if it were mine, I'd just chop the barrel behind the bayonet lug, and install a fiber-optic front sight, to go with the Tech Sight on the back of the receiver.  Maybe not on an SKS this nice, of course. 

Okay. I need to break something to you here.

Unless it's a rare Russian variant, an honor guard chromed model, or something like a Chinese special security police sort...

...it's just an SKS. A cheap rifle that was made because it was cheap. It's the rifle equivalent of an economy car.

Do anything to it you want.

[Perd Hapley]

Well, it's not mine, so...

But you mean to say that Gewehr and his army of Crufflernazen won't put me in the stocks if I chop up a well-preserved SKS?  I'm very much surprised by that.  In fact, I think I'll run it by the folks at [a certain website devoted to surplus military arms], and see if I get banned for the suggestion.   

[HankB]

With a gonkulator.  I had one of those, and man, it was a tack-driver.

Wait a minute . . . I thought the gonkulator was only used on submarines?



 

[Gewehr98]

But you mean to say that Gewehr and his army of Crufflernazen won't put me in the stocks if I chop up a well-preserved SKS?  I'm very much surprised by that.  In fact, I think I'll run it by the folks at surplusrifle, and see I get banned for the suggestion.

Yes and no.

SKS rifles, like all other milsurps, are drying up as the importation of them dwindles or ceases outright.

Many folks have that mindset that "they're cheap and abundant, and will always be so..."

Umm, no.  My generation thought that of the always-abundant Mausers, Springfields, and Arisakas.

More recently, Lee-Enfields have become the hen's teeth of collectible rifles, both the WWI NoIMkIII, and the WWII No4Mk1/No5Mk1 Jungle Carbines. The Jungle Carbines in particular have really hit the roof, and I kick myself for not buying more than one at $250.00 when SOG had the big batch that came in from Malaysia about 7 years ago. 

It only goes without saying that the former glut of SKS and Mosin-Nagants will dwindle too, as supplies dry up and those that are on the open market rise in price.  You can already see that with the SKS on places like Gunbroker and Auction Arms.  Those pristine, unissued Yugo SKS rifles that went for $150 right out of the cosmoline and paper?  Not any more, and as folks snap up the remaining ones, the pool of availability shrinks, and the whole supply-and-demand mechanism kicks in. 

However, I've been known to salvage milsurps that were too far gone to restore back to military condition.  Hence me having a safe full of hunting/target/varmint Mausers built on WWI and WWII 98 Mauser actions.  It also means that when I take in a derelict Norinco SKS that somebody went crazy with the Bubba Dremel on, I'll spend a year or so making it into a dedicated 1MOA target SKS - if only to prove a point to naysayers. It was a total work of love on my part, but I got it to do what I wanted it to do, and it salvaged a sadly-neglected milsurp:

   


So, no, Fistful, I won't beat you about the head and shoulders for sporterizing an SKS.  You'll just increase the value of the remaining specimens over time.  Not only that, but there's plenty here at APS we can beat you about the head and shoulders about without even getting into the SKS bit. 

[Dr.Mall Ninja]

HI I am Luke and it is my Sks  , I decided to go get signed up for APS. It seems like to much work to get a legal high capacity mag in it, so ill prolly just drope the whole idea. The main reason I went with the skis, is because I figured it was more accurate then the AK, holds just as much rounds and is half the price. It appears I can only have 2 of the 3 )

[Perd Hapley]

Like I was tellin' ya, though.  If you ever really NEED a Zombie Gun, you can always keep one of those Tapco twenty-round jobs on hand for Zombie Attacks.   

Hey, Gewehr, who made that stock? 

[Perd Hapley]

I did start a thread on that other web site where those crufflers hang out, and they do NOT like your idea, Manedwolf.   

[Manedwolf]

I did start a thread on that other web site where those crufflers hang out, and they do NOT like your idea, Manedwolf.   

Sorry! I just can't bring up much respect for the SKS. :) The original Russian ones are historically interesting like the SVT-40 is interesting, but the Chinese ones were just cranked out in mass quantity after it was already obsolete, just because it was easy and cheap to make. It isn't particularly accurate, has a low capacity and was never designed to reliably feed from high capacity, has poor ergonomics of design, and is just kind of "there".

Just a rifle that I can't bring up any "OMG respect it don't change it!" sentiment for, not like a K-31 that'll do sub-MOA right off the rack, sorry. The absolute worst you can do to an SKS is A) actually improve the accuracy of a mediocre rifle, or B) break it completely. :)

[Gewehr98]

Well, Manedwolf, that certainly ties in with the saying about opinions and parts of people's anatomy... 

You may not like the SKS, but it doesn't mean other people don't. 

If I remember correctly, you've recently purchased a Bulgarian AK, and I can guarantee it ain't sub-MOA. 

Benchrest accuracy was never a design feature of either the SKS or AK, and that never hindered the respective platforms in their intended role.

I bought that cheap Norinco SKS above as a donor rifle for an exercise in proof-of-concept, and am somewhat tickled in how it turned out.

I also have a nice Yugo SKS that I'll leave completely original, because just like the Norinco and Russian SKS rifles, there are no more coming into this country.  It wouldn't matter if they shot tighter or looser groups, they aren't getting imported any more. I gave my dad a new Norinco SKS in the late 1990s, and he still has it.  He's gotten whitetail with it, and has an absolute blast with it on range day.  He's also a fairly discriminating gun owner and collector, otherwise. You could say the SKS opened up his horizons a little bit.  That's the beauty of the SKS, even though it looks as rough as a cob. 

Personally, as a volunteer weekend rangemaster for about 10 years, I've seen many, many parents introduce their children to the joy of centerfire rifle shooting via the SKS and cheap steel-cased ammo.  That alone makes it a fantastic and worthy firearm in the general scheme of things.     

[Perd Hapley]

Actually, the first thing I think about with any milsurp, is "How can I improve this?"  I hope the inquisition doesn't get me for saying that.  :)  I try to keep that under control, and I even have a goal of owning a stock Mauser one of these days.

Just another indication I was born in the wrong decade. 

[Perd Hapley]

I would like to reiterate that Luke joined the Evil Gun Lobby on Saturday.

(A few atta-boys would not be amiss.)   

[yesitsloaded]

Atta boy. I will contribute a picture of my evil, legal, tacticool SKS. Does about 1 MOA with handloads.
Tapco Mags, Choate Machine and Tool stock, Harris Bipod, Murray's  Gunworks firing pin and spring, Wolff springs in the trigger group, two stage trigger job, Drill and Tap scope mount, receiver buffer, and a compensator is probably in the works when I find one that looks good enough to et the barrel threaded for it, if not a can.

 

[Perd Hapley]

I was looking at Luke's Norinco, and it appears that one could chop off the extra stuf from the front sight, then saw the barrel right after the step, leaving just enough to slide the sight back on the narrower contour, and re-pin it. This would yield a handy, 18'' barrel, rather than the 16" barrel of the paratrooper. Better velocity; not so noisy. Then mount the Tech Sights in the rear.

And unlike an AK, it would still have a proper rifle stock. OK, if such a gun will still be legal in the coming years, I'm going to have to look into that. 

[Manedwolf]

I was looking at Luke's Norinco, and it appears that one could chop off the extra stuf from the front sight, then saw the barrel right after the step, leaving just enough to slide the sight back on the narrower contour, and re-pin it. This would yield a handy, 18'' barrel, rather than the 16" barrel of the paratrooper. Better velocity; not so noisy. Then mount the Tech Sights in the rear.

You have the tools to re-crown the barrel? If you don't do that properly, AFAIK, you will seriously compromise accuracy and have the bullet leaving...tilted.