For all the SKS fans!

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A few questions on preferences for all you SKS shooters:

Original wooden stock or aftermarket (tapco, archangel, etc)?

Iron sights or scope mounted on dust cover or rail?

Original mag with stripper clips or aftermarket removable magazine?

Yugo or Norinco or Russian (Tula or Izzy) or Czech, etc?

Buy it covered in cosmoline or pre-owned and cleaned of the cosmo?

All your responses will be read, I enjoy getting a range of perspectives and opinions on a rifle I truly enjoy owning and shooting.

Cheers!
 
Tried Tapco and Archangel, would stick with the wood stock

Had scope mounted on dust cover, went back to irons

Original mag with stripper clips, faster to reload for me

Russian

Had one of each, preferred cleaned of the cosmo

Still have a Tula in the safe, refurbed
 
One of each, shooters with non matching magazines and a Bubba'd Tula ontop. Great rifles, given their context in the Canadian firearms paradigm. I could see us all coming down from the hills with them if foreign boots march over our boarders.
 
Russian, laminated plywood stock, stronger, refurb. are OK if you get a good one. original mag and sights are fun once you put the work in to learn them, read up on it. Leave the bayonet on. Look for the number 1 on the front of the front sight. Reload your own ammo with good bullets and brass case.
Most factory ammo sucks for accuracy. shoot, repeat often
Watch out for slam fires on floating firing pins and soft primers.
 
A few questions on preferences for all you SKS shooters:

Original wooden stock or aftermarket (tapco, archangel, etc)?

Iron sights or scope mounted on dust cover or rail?

Original mag with stripper clips or aftermarket removable magazine?

Yugo or Norinco or Russian (Tula or Izzy) or Czech, etc?

Buy it covered in cosmoline or pre-owned and cleaned of the cosmo?

All your responses will be read, I enjoy getting a range of perspectives and opinions on a rifle I truly enjoy owning and shooting.

Cheers!

Rifle is fine, leave the wood stock on. The aftermarket ones are not worth the cost. Admittedly I am curious about the Fab defense stock. That one might be worth it but when in doubt leave it alone

Rifle is fine, Iron sights. Scopes and red dots are over rated to begin with. On the SKS it does not make sense mostly because you are retro fitting something that already works fine

Rifle is fine, for Canada. Since we are stuck at 5rds might as well go with the original mag and stripper clips. The original mag is more reliable and less cumbersome. Not to mention someone spend several hours perfecting it, and you think you are going to make it better? If we had no magazine capacity limits then a detachable mag would make a little more sense

I have a chinese and Russian. I trust both equally and they shoot just as well as one another. The yugo are cool with the grenade launcher but for some strange reason people want $800 for them so not interested.

If the person who pre-cleaned it knows how to maintain an SKS, its fine. In the cosmo just means it has not been shot in a long time
 
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My SKS... Err, I mean if I had a 1953 Russian Tula SKS, I would be perfectly happy with it, and would have thoroughly enjoyed figuring out how to disassemble it and cleaning out the cosmoline myself.

I think the dings and scratches, the tiny little bits of rust you have to take care of, the cosmoline that's coming out of everywhere and never really goes away, the questionable accuracy and weird iron sights, and the overall soviet feeling that these guns bring back from whenever and wherever they're from, that's all part the the experience of owning an SKS.

If I want a clean, pristine, and sub-MOA rifle, I'll get a new one that suits me.

Getting a random, beaten up piece of history that goes pew-pew is why I would get an SKS and keep it in its original form. Also -- and that's my very personal opinion -- I think the aftermarket "tactical" stocks look absolutely ridiculous and make the rifle immensely tasteless.
 
When I had mine I had to put a tapco on, the wood shot better, but at 6’5” the lop was far to short in factory form for me to shoot comfortably, the difference for me wasn’t far off in accuracy and it felt better, if I was hunting it I would have left it in wood.
I’ve had Chinese and Russian both seemed ok. The Russian wood is better, Chinese wood seems softer
Other then the stock everything else was in factory form, I pulled cosmo off of two of them and bought two clean, really no difference just more effort to get up and going but like I said factory mags factory sights I tacticooled one with a drum mag and bipod sort a like a budget t81 before they were around but put it back when I sold it, the drum was at 5 and never had issues but at 75 who knows what would have happened. They work fine the way they are I guess unless you’re huge then it’s short far too short
 
My SKS... Err, I mean if I had a 1953 Russian Tula SKS, I would be perfectly happy with it, and would have thoroughly enjoyed figuring out how to disassemble it and cleaning out the cosmoline myself.

I think the dings and scratches, the tiny little bits of rust you have to take care of, the cosmoline that's coming out of everywhere and never really goes away, the questionable accuracy and weird iron sights, and the overall soviet feeling that these guns bring back from whenever and wherever they're from, that's all part the the experience of owning an SKS.

If I want a clean, pristine, and sub-MOA rifle, I'll get a new one that suits me.

Getting a random, beaten up piece of history that goes pew-pew is why I would get an SKS and keep it in its original form. Also -- and that's my very personal opinion -- I think the aftermarket "tactical" stocks look absolutely ridiculous and make the rifle immensely tasteless.


Amen !!!

Made me want to buy one of those SKSs you guys talk about all the time :p
 
I've enjoyed reading every single post regarding this thread. Some of the posts made me laugh. mainly because I agree 100%. We all seem to share similar opinions and welcome the opposing perspectives. Thanks for all your input. I've sold my Norinco and Yugo since posing the questions. My all-matching Tula 51' is staying with daddy for life! Cheers!
 
Get one, shoot it as is, and enjoy a piece of history!!! Only accessory I would add is a slip-on recoil pad; not because of the recoil, but because of the short length of pull. Put one on my Moisin as well; that one is for both LOP and Recoil; with surplus ammo they really f***ing kick!!!
 
Original wooden stock or aftermarket (tapco, archangel, etc)?
Aftermarket wood or leave as is. If left as is, add a 1 or 2 inch butt spacer

Iron sights or scope mounted on dust cover or rail?
Iron sight or tech sights or mag rail. Avoid dust cover mnt. Choate mount is another option.

Original mag with stripper clips or aftermarket removable magazine?
Original

Yugo or Norinco or Russian (Tula or Izzy) or Czech, etc?
Norinco military or izhevsk

Buy it covered in cosmoline or pre-owned and cleaned of the cosmo?
Precleaned if possible

All your responses will be read, I enjoy getting a range of perspectives and opinions on a rifle I truly enjoy owning and shooting.
 
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