SKS Newbie. Opinions wanted.

[Z3R0]

So I picked up an extremely cheap (for today) SKS.  It was a thing of beautiful timing so I didn't have much time to think about it.  I guess the thing was having issues cycling and the guy just didn't seem to know anything about them or want to invest any amount of time into repairing it.

Here she is in all her ~$80 dollar glory.  Magazne was with it but the bluing was very poor on it... Internally the bore looked good but there was so much cosmoline in the stock and action I decided to do my drastic clean I sometimes do with old Mosins with good results. (10-15 minutes with all metal parts in a 80% pinesol solution). 


Anyways here she is all cleaned up and stock stripped down.    Now, mind you I'm making a shooter out of this so I didnt put days into the refinishing of the stock.  Darker stain to hide some of the filler that had to be used and a good 5-6 coats of finish to make it really durable.  you can see how bad the bluing on the magazine was after the pinesol soak, so I went ahead and completely stripped it down. Polished the bolt and cleaned the bore to a sparkling bright shine. (I cant find my bore light or I'd show 'er off)


Oh, and as far as the cycling issue....hah...  Recoil assembly was backwards....main gas tube was so full of cosmoline it took actual effort to remove the plunger (or whatever you'd call it) ALSO.... the grenade launcher was set to "on" which from my understanding prevents ANY gas from going anywhere but out the end of the barrel....sooo for all intents and purposes it should be good to go now.

Here she is, all cleaned up and just waiting for a new buttpad, which looked like a dog had chewed it up.
Serial puts it at a '76 Yugo. Not to shabby for $80 bucks and a little elbow grease I suppose.




my questions.... I kind of want to remove the grenade launcher and ladder sight in favor of maybe a flash hider.  From what I've read its got RH threads below it once you drive out the pin and actually manage to twist it off.  Is this something that is advisable?  I really don't know a thing about the SKS, everything I know now is stuff I've read while working on it over the past few days.  I cant seem to find anywhere that sells hiders either so it makes me wonder if its something I should just leave AS IS. 

[Wildgoose]

SKS is a great rifle as is in my opinion. Too costly to properly modify for a scope as the aftermarket cheap mounting systems are pretty worthless. They are fun informal shooters and if you are good with open sights can be used for deer hunting with a mag block or five round after market mag. I used one of mine for a varmint/truck gun for years. If it were mine I would just leave it as is and shoot the crap out of it when ever you are in the mood. Back in the day 80 bucks was the new price for a good Norinco. In todays market you have a real bargain indeed. I only kept one of the several that passed through my hands over the years. I removed the spike bayonet but kept it of course along with all the other accessories that came with them back then. I have over the years played with hand loading for it and was able to get some fair accuracy. All in all a fun inexpensive milsurp.

[FarmerRick]

You got a real bargain on that, especially if it has a good bore.
That's pretty rare for the Yugo's since they are not chrome lined and most ammo over in the 'Slavs and 'Stans is corrosive.

[AWick]

Unfortunately, at least to my understanding, if you modify an SKS out of its original configuration you will fall out of compliance with 18 U.S.C. § 922(r) and 27 CFR 478.39. If you change out of that configuration and add an aftermarket muzzle brake/fash hider/ barrel attachment you must then change out enough "regulated parts" to have no more than 10 foreign made parts of an imported semiautomatic rifle. On the one that I modified I changed out the following bolded items out of this regulated parts list. I then tallied the total number of foreign parts and made sure that there were no more than 10.

27 C.F.R. 478.89 lists 20 parts:
(1) Frames, receivers, receiver castings, forgings or stampings - part tally = 1
(2) Barrels                                                                                   - part tally = 2
(3) Barrel extensions (not counted on an SKS)
(4) Mounting blocks (trunions) (not counted on an SKS)
(5) Muzzle attachments                                                              - part tally = 3
(6) Bolts                                                                                      - part tally = 4
(7) Bolt carriers                                                                           - part tally = 5
(8 ) Operating rods (not counted on an SKS)
(9) Gas pistons
(10) Trigger housings                                                                  - part tally = 6
(11) Triggers                                                                               - part tally = 7
(12) Hammers                                                                             - part tally = 8
(13) Sears                                                                                   - part tally = 9
(14) Disconnectors                                                                      - part tally = 10
(15) Butt stocks
(16) Pistol grips
(17) Forearms, hand guards
(18) Magazine bodies
(19) Followers
(20) Floorplates


Good info can be found here http://www.tapco.com/section922r/ from Tapco, who makes parts for compliance. Though, it seems their lawyers have nudged them away from offering total complete compliance packages anymore.

Enjoy that SKS! I'm actually looking at selling a pristine factory Yugo M59/66A1, but will require a lot more than $80 to part with it.

[Lmbass14]

You stole that SKS and it looks great, job well done.  I have a 59/66A2 and it's a shooter.  It's better than the operator. 

Allan is correct about the 922 fiasco, but don't really know if it's enforced.  Can I say that? 

If you wack the ladder and GL, the barrel has to be re-crowned. 

If I was you, I'd leave it as is, shoot the crap out of it, then shoot somemore.  If the weight gets annoying, get a beater chicom (like I did), and a LOT of ammo.

[gwilly]

Yup, what Lmbass14 said.....shoot it, shoot it & shoot it some more! Great deal on that one!

They can be as addicting as any of those old milsurps out there.
I prefer to clean them up, check to make sure they're safe to shoot & leave them as they are. There's definitely a wide variety of them.

top to bottom:
'78 Albanian
Sino-Soviet (not sure of the year but much more Soviet than Sino )
'51 Soviet



left to right:
Soviet
Sino-Soviet
Albanian



 

[altheman2]

That's a heck of a deal! I got its younger brother, mine is a late 77 that I bought a few years ago. They are a heck of a lot of fun to shoot and ammo is still around $5 a box for the cheap stuff.

[bkoenig]

Only thing I would modify on an SKS is to maybe put on a set of Tech Sights.  The standard sights aren't the greatest, especially if you're like me and it's starting to get hard to focus on the front sight.  Other than that, there's really nothing that needs changing IMO.

http://www.tech-sights.com/sks.htm

You got a great deal.  I had a Chicom one that I sold awhile back when the price got up high enough, but now I kinda wish I still had it.  They're a great beater truck gun.

[Z3R0]

thanks for all the comments... decided to leave it "As Is" trying to find a decent replacement buttplate, ordered one and it didnt fit right at all.  The one it originally had is serviceable but kind of nasty.  It's been super cold out so I havent had a chance to test fire this yet but hopefully this Saturday Ill be able to get out and let some rip.

[KY57]

What a deal on that one!   Hope you enjoy that one.  But be warned.  They are addicting like the Mosins...

[Z3R0]

haha yeah everytime I see a Mosin I inspect it and have to tell myself no...