Can you hunt in B.C with an Sks rifle?

I've taken a few deer with 7.62x39 but not very powerful round for hunting until you can load them up to 170grain soft points. 125grains are wounders in my opinion and i won't use them.
 
Check your BC hunting regs for legality.

7.62X39 has been legal in AB for a few years now, but my experience yielded it to be an inadequate round for our larger western deer.

M
 
It is a centerfire, so it would be legal. AFAIK the only restriction for rifles in BC, is a 175 gr projectile or bigger for Bison. Course FMJ is illegal to use hunting. I dont know what anyone expects to accomplish with handloading for the SKS. The rifle is minute of barn, if you are in a barn....and the round itself is weak. For what you would spend chasing the impossible in loading for the 7.62x39 you could just leave it alone for a range toy and buy some other cheap deer gun like a M94 30-30, or a 303.
 
nowarningshot said:
It is a centerfire, so it would be legal. AFAIK the only restriction for rifles in BC, is a 175 gr projectile or bigger for Bison. Course FMJ is illegal to use hunting. I dont know what anyone expects to accomplish with handloading for the SKS. The rifle is minute of barn, if you are in a barn....and the round itself is weak. For what you would spend chasing the impossible in loading for the 7.62x39 you could just leave it alone for a range toy and buy some other cheap deer gun like a M94 30-30, or a 303.
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I handload 7.62x39 for my CZ527 and it groups less than .5MOA, there is nothing impossible about loading for this round, actually very simple.

While I don't think the 125gr soft points make much of a big game round, a 170gr soft point will bring it very similar in energy to the standard 30.30 load. Both being at the bottom of the scale for a hunting load in Canada.

It is an inferior round for hunting as well as weak out of the box, but lets not spread falsehoods or blaspheme the caliber just because you don't like it. Some rifles are just nasty accurate with this bullet, and nastier yet when custom loaded.
 
fiddler said:
It is an inferior round for hunting as well as weak out of the box, but lets not spread falsehoods or blaspheme the caliber just because you don't like it. Some rifles are just nasty accurate with this bullet, and nastier yet when custom loaded.
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The Op is talking about a SKS, and you are yourself only getting accuracy by handloading "an inferior round for hunting as well as weak out of the box". So how much money have you tied up in loading for your $1000 rifle(guess, i am not sure what a CZ 527 is worth, but more than a SKS). My guess is that your rifle, optic, and reloading is pushing $2000. For the OP to leave the SKS alone costs nothing, and $2000 buys a 30-30 or 303 for every day of the week.

Is this hate for the 7.62x39, not sure. It is useless for hunting in common form, and one can pick a far better firearm and caliber to invest time and money on to rig up for deer hunting. It is what it is, a fun round to shoot big groups with at the range, or destroy watermellons and fridges with. Dont buy a SKS and think you are going to have anything more than that, it is not a hunting rig. You bought one to have fun, do that....simply buy a hunting rifle. For the record i am not a big fan of LE 303 or M94 30-30 either, but in a cheap rifle, they at least can be used for hunting deer. Shooting coastal deer on a gulf island is too deer hunting as catching fish at a carnival is too fishing.
 
i'll give the OP a proper answer

IN BC, species a guy could , if he was a darn good shot and had a decently grouping sks, hunt with an sks are
coastal Sitka and blacktail deer, coyote, wolf ect, cougar after the dogs have treed it, and feral pigs if one should be fortunate enough to find some.
other than that, I wouldn't bother hunting with an sks.
I know it's (hunting) been done by others but I would think getting clean kills with the sks and available factory hunting loads would be quite challenging.
the 7.62x39 is a very efficient man killer, this has been proven in the worlds past 40 or 50 years of armed conflicts, I don't think it's designers had putting venison on the table in mind :D
 
As a BC hunter who has taken game with an SKS I would advise you to make sure you've at least scoped the rifle (solid, drill & tap receiver mount, or Wartak rail) or at the very least put a peep sight on it. You should be using accurate ammo as well, MFS at the very worst.

The SKS in its stock configuration with cheap ammo is not minute of vitals, especially the smaller sitka and blacktails (like on Texada) and would not be an ethical choice. Having said that, in the right configuration it's a great rifle for yotes and deer.
 
Yes, you can hunt with an SKS. No, don't do it esp. if you are a noob hunter, not a good shot or can't use the JSP hunting loads. I posted a thread this spring about using an SKS for black bear. Got the same advice then as you are getting now. Ended up hunting with a 30-06. For my rifle, it was more accurate with cheap Norc ammo than the Federal hunting stuff! I would not trust myself to hit the kill zone with it at 100yds.
 
bp2626 said:
As a BC hunter who has taken game with an SKS I would advise you to make sure you've at least scoped the rifle (solid, drill & tap receiver mount, or Wartak rail) or at the very least put a peep sight on it. You should be using accurate ammo as well, MFS at the very worst.

The SKS in its stock configuration with cheap ammo is not minute of vitals, especially the smaller sitka and blacktails (like on Texada) and would not be an ethical choice. Having said that, in the right configuration it's a great rifle for yotes and deer.
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not ethical for Sitka and blacktail? seriously?
well, I guess if 100+ yards is as close as you can get hehehe
my experience with the same deer you mention says otherwise, but to each his own I guess
 
45ACPKING said:
not ethical for Sitka and blacktail? seriously?
well, I guess if 100+ yards is as close as you can get hehehe
my experience with the same deer you mention says otherwise, but to each his own I guess
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at point blank range you can put a grizzly down with a 22 LR round.
the point here is different.
7.62x39 from an SKS is not a mule deer round.
Could be if... but then so could be a spear
223 REM could be a mule deer round too if .... but it's not
both are legal though
 
legi0n said:
at point blank range you can put a grizzly down with a 22 LR round.
the point here is different.
7.62x39 from an SKS is not a mule deer round.
Could be if... but then so could be a spear
223 REM could be a mule deer round too if .... but it's not
both are legal though
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I did not say MULE deer...... I specifically mentioned Sitka and coastal blacktail..... I suppose, where found, fallow deer as well.
I also said in my first post , if yer a good shot and you have an accurately grouping sks.......
un-knot the panties boys.

the simple way to tell if a given round/caliber will be sufficient is to look at it's energy in joules at the range you expect to shoot. SKS has plenty of killing power inside and out to 100, easy
I shoot black tails and sitkas, generally at ranges well under 100 yards and if I had an accurate sks, with the shooting skills I've gleaned over 30 years of shooting.... I'd poke one out to 150 if I had too and I knew my rifle was accurate enough.
I don't think the OP is too concerned about BC coastal deer tho........ he's in big deer country

I'll add that in my beginning days of hunting deer, I knew a fellow who hunted with an sks and he always did very well in the mountains around the lowermainland BC. he gave me a box of the ammo he used and it was black hills 150gr SP. I think it went extinct some years ago.
I also toted an sks around but all the mulie bucks I saw were outside my range limits. my first buck and dozens+ since then have been mostly with a good ol .303 brit no1 mk3 :D and I have trophys of all of BC's mulies and mulie subspecies.
 
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45ACPKING said:
not ethical for Sitka and blacktail? seriously?
well, I guess if 100+ yards is as close as you can get hehehe
my experience with the same deer you mention says otherwise, but to each his own I guess
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I've hunted Sitka with an SKS, don't get me wrong. Love the Queen Charlottes. An out of the crate SKS with cheap ammo shoots dinner plate sized groups and the Sitka are the size of dogs is all.
 
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