SKS - Yes or No

Well you are a tougher hunter than me...

That rifle still weighed 12 ounces less than my current moose rifle, a factory walnut stocked ruger m77 mkII 7mm rem mag, factory rings and a Nikon M3 4-16x42
the m14 had an arms 18 with medium rings and a bushnell elite 3200 3-9x40, in a usgi pattern walnut stock. You just have to pick your hunts and I wouldn't choose it as a mountain rifle where I'm hiking to and thru the alpine regions. I wouldn't haul it up a treestand but I would have no troubles shouldering it in moderate and flat terrain and it will often ride in the gun rack of my ATV or beside me in the cab of my truck. I do prefer the shorter barrel and lighter stocked m14 rifles for these purposes but the weight has never really been a concern when compared to my other hunting rifles going by weight alone.
Dicktator trudough has passed his decree that they are too dangerous to own and not possibly able to be purposed for hunting canada's big game even though many of todays banned firearms were approved for import under Liberal governments, including the M305, the Stag-10, countless AR-15 types and many others on the ban list.

So it's all moot LOL
 
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I was not a fan of the safety on the m305 and the chambering of the first round was somewhat loud. I mostly use Tikkas for hunting but they are a bit unpleasant for extended range sessions in the magnum cals.
 
no different than guys who choose to hunt with sks rifles. Part of is nostalgia and part of it is just because we can hehehe
 
So, why has the supplied dried up? has there been sanctions on Russian exports? Have the depots of the eastern bloc dried up? Has Norinco stopped production?

The answer is yes to most of those questions. Nobody ... including China makes new ones ... these were all made years ago and stored in grease or used somewhere. There are sanctions against Russia and they were the first to make them and the first to stop making them. Some Russian ones were coming from the Ukraine, but now they need them ... many pictures if them being used by militias and such in their conflict. There are old sks still in conflicts all over the world ... Middle East, Africa, etc. The ones coming in are more expensive and in not as good condition as the past. Marstar has some Chinese ones and they post On their website that they were told these were the last of them. WWII Carcano rifles reportedly from Ethiopia are making their way into the country, so the SKS likewise is still out there and could make it into canada for years to come, but no more $200 sks

Plus, people crying about $400 SKS, people aren’t ready for $700 SKS rifles lol
 
At 450 it is still relatively cheap. I thought I did a bad move when I bought a super grade never refurbished for 350 beans about 6 years back. Same with the svt
 
That's because they can't get the Chinese variants legally imported into the US, just like M305s.

Yugos are cheaper there than here

I still want to build one chambered for 5.56 Nato. Haven't found a suitable/cheap rifle to qualify as a donor yet.

The SKS rifles I have on hand were all personally hand selected at the import/distribution point. A couple are still new in grease. At the very least, the worst of them is a non matching FTR, specifically picked to use as a shooter.

When the gun shows start up again, I will be on the look out for one to convert. I have a decent donor barrel and a couple of different stocks to put on it.

It would actually be a fun and likely accurate rifle if I can maintain the heavy barrel configuration to settle the whip and vicious harmonics most SKS rifles inevitably have. There are a few jewels out there that shoot quite well.

I put a take of match grade barrel onto an M1 Carbine, non restricted length of course, mounted a scope and it shoots better than any other M1 Carbine I've witnessed. The heavy barrel makes it muzzle heavy and very easy to control

You had a fantastic post about your experience with the sks (a year ago??). You really should bring it up here if you can find it.

Sks needs it's own thread, and that post of yours should be pinned to it.
 

That picture in many ways illustrates why the US incursion into Vietnam was doomed to disaster. How determined do you have to be to go to war with the barest of essentials. Folks get really pissy when folks come from afar to interfere and attempt to impose their values no matter how well intended they might be. "When will they ever learn" was a line from Peter Paul and Mary, a question we likely will ask again and again.

Take Care

Bob

We are now trading with Vietnam, their is a lively tourist industry there and life goes on.
 
That picture in many ways illustrates why the US incursion into Vietnam was doomed to disaster. How determined do you have to be to go to war with the barest of essentials. Folks get really pissy when folks come from afar to interfere and attempt to impose their values no matter how well intended they might be. "When will they ever learn" was a line from Peter Paul and Mary, a question we likely will ask again and again.

Take Care

Bob

We are now trading with Vietnam, their is a lively tourist industry there and life goes on.

i hear ya bob. determined and barest of essentials. his meal consist of a bowl of rice and what ever protein he can scrounge from the forest, bugs, rats and snakes. then contrast that to the movie Apocalypse Now when the US helicoptered a cow in for steaks on the beach. lol.
 
I've got a beautiful Russian Tula. Deep red wood grain. All numbers matching. When I worked at cabels as the gun counter I went through twenty or so sks boxes in the back room before i found her, $215 gst in.
The good old days.
 
i hear ya bob. determined and barest of essentials. his meal consist of a bowl of rice and what ever protein he can scrounge from the forest, bugs, rats and snakes. then contrast that to the movie Apocalypse Now when the US helicoptered a cow in for steaks on the beach. lol.

The Japs were just as determined..... and look what the Uncle Sam did to them

This discussion can never die haha
 
The Japs were just as determined..... and look what the Uncle Sam did to them

This discussion can never die haha

you again? lol... i dont get it? how do you compare ww2 to the vietnam war? you are bouncing all over the place.

in ww2, the US soldiers was also determined, not like in vietnam.
 
You had a fantastic post about your experience with the sks (a year ago??). You really should bring it up here if you can find it.

Sks needs it's own thread, and that post of yours should be pinned to it.

CoonT. I sincerely appreciate your kind acknowledgement of my SKS preference/personal experiences.

The thing is, we are each ergonomicly different and to get out of that situation alive I had the opportunity to experiment with and choose the rifle that best suited my abilities and gave me an edge on my confidence. That's extremely important in stressful situations where you're on the razor's edge.

There is a poster on the Milsurp thread "diopter" Not sure of his heritage, but his pics certainly bring back memories of some of the good times in Angola and how many really fine people I met there, in uniform, land owners, indigenous etc.

It also awakened a few ghosts, which I've come to terms with.

I really like the SKS platform. It's more reliable than the AK platform, which is almost but not quite indestructable. The thing I couldn't get used to was the AK47's awkwardness.

It was awkward for ME. Some of my men loved the platform. They also loved FN FALs/G93s, which I couldn't handle with confidence either. I had one fellow that would only carry a bolt action Mauser.

We ran into some CZ858, with full auto function, all brand new and shiney. Nobody liked them, because they weren't reliable under harsh/dirty/wet/stressful conditions. When the rifle your life depends on won't go bang at the worst possible moment???????????

We didn't see many ARs, other than the AR10s which the Portuguese maintained very well, with pride and used them very well. The ammo was hard for us to get, just like the G93 and same for 9x19.

Another thing about the SKS is it didn't burn through as much ammo or change balance as the ammo weight changed in the mag and I didn't have to hold my head up to shoot it.

If the ammo was good, it didn't matter which position it was fired from.

They're extremely reliable under all conditions, simple in operation, easily maintained. Sometimes, the only maintenance we gave them was to soak them in a pond, creek or river to stop the bores from rusting. It was crude, but issue maintenance kits weren't on the menu and it worked well.

I don't have anything to say to a person that is familiar with another platform that suits their abilities and is ergonomically correct for their stature.

I've spoken with a couple of fellows, recently, that expressed how much better they're shooting now, than they were with their AR platform rifles. They recently purchased a couple of Yugo M59s to modify for Three gun.

We discussed the possible virtues of an SKS chambered for the 5.56 round. They're interested, but only if it goes into a polymer/aluminum frame kit and gets an interchangeable magazine. Money doesn't seem to be a negative option for either of them.
 
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