Looking to buy an SKS, a few questions

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jzmtl

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Quick google search found Cabelas has them for $280 before tax, that's a lot more expensive than I remembered from a few years back. Is this the going price for these now?

Cabelas says the ones they sell are Russian made, not sure if it's good or bad. I wouldn't mind paying a bit more for decent quality. On the same note, would it be better to drive to the store and hand pick one rather than mail order?

As for ammo, Cabelas also sells Chinese surplus, $400 for 1500 rounds, also more expensive than I remembered. Are there any safety issue with these ammo? Or accuracy problem? I know about the corrosive primer and willing to deal with that.

Thanks.
 
jzmtl said:
Quick google search found Cabelas has them for $280 before tax, that's a lot more expensive than I remembered from a few years back. Is this the going price for these now?

Cabelas says the ones they sell are Russian made, not sure if it's good or bad. I wouldn't mind paying a bit more for decent quality. On the same note, would it be better to drive to the store and hand pick one rather than mail order?

As for ammo, Cabelas also sells Chinese surplus, $400 for 1500 rounds, also more expensive than I remembered. Are there any safety issue with these ammo? Or accuracy problem? I know about the corrosive primer and willing to deal with that.
Thanks.
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The prices went up so $280 is more or less in the ball park. You can also check Westrifle.

The Russian SKS's are good but if you find a good matching Chinese it would be no worse than the Russian one. All depends. If you can, it's always recommended to hand pick.

You could find a bit cheaper ammo e.g. Marstar has 1440 for $369, Chinese surplus. No safety issues with surplus whatsoever. I've been shooting it in my SKS's for years. Accuracy is whatever it is. Quite reasonable. It's military ammo and a military carbine designed in 1943.
 
If you are patient and pay attention to the sales you can get both rifles and ammo cheaper. My local cabelas had chinese ones on sale recently for 200 and i bought 1500 of corrosive before xmas for 350.
 
I always recommend a Russian izhevsk made sks over the tula made ones.
Imho a buffer made sks... I've had a few tulas that were disappointing.
 
Good grief.

OP, if you're all in a knot over $50 one way or another you can't afford to shoot an SKS.

SKS rifles are available from under $200 for a refurb Chinese to $750 for a new in grease Yugoslavian variant.

The internet is your friend. The banner dealers at the top of the page carry every variant of SKS. Maybe not all at the same place but if you look through their sites you should be able to find what you're looking for. '

As far as WHERE the SKS was manufactured?????????? I personally haven't noticed any difference in function/accuracy/fit between them as long as all things such as condition and decent ammo being equal. The main differences are in their stock materials and sometimes in finish.

Please do some due diligence or you will be subject to emotional opinions rather than knowledgeable opinions.

If you're looking for a collectible as well as a shooter then you really need to do your homework other than just looking at Cabela's website and asking for advice here.

That being said, there are a ton of very knowledgeable people on this site that collect SKS variants and work on them regularly.


TURF THE LIBERALS IN 2019
 
don't pay $280 for a Chinese SKS from Cabelas unless somehow the quality went way up from what I saw there a few weeks ago... I passed at $219, then they went on sale for $199 and still passed. They looked functional but more like what you'd equip a massive infantry charging army with. Russian SKS are in appearance at least much better made for the most part, they do cost more now though than they did. If you know nothing about them i'd suggest ordering your first from Westrifle I got some decent SKS's from there a while back. You can look at pictures of the rifle you will over to see the serial numbers and how the stock looks. All the SKS I got from there were nice and tight and shoot ok. Some even hit the target.
 
bearhunter said:
Good grief.

OP, if you're all in a knot over $50 one way or another you can't afford to shoot an SKS.

SKS rifles are available from under $200 for a refurb Chinese to $750 for a new in grease Yugoslavian variant.

The internet is your friend. The banner dealers at the top of the page carry every variant of SKS. Maybe not all at the same place but if you look through their sites you should be able to find what you're looking for. '

As far as WHERE the SKS was manufactured?????????? I personally haven't noticed any difference in function/accuracy/fit between them as long as all things such as condition and decent ammo being equal. The main differences are in their stock materials and sometimes in finish.

Please do some due diligence or you will be subject to emotional opinions rather than knowledgeable opinions.

If you're looking for a collectible as well as a shooter then you really need to do your homework other than just looking at Cabela's website and asking for advice here.

That being said, there are a ton of very knowledgeable people on this site that collect SKS variants and work on them regularly.


TURF THE LIBERALS IN 2019
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Oh come on now bearhunter.
That $50.00 might just be enough to contribute to the turf the lieberals in 2019 campaign LMFAO.
Buy one and shoot the dam thing they are disposable firearms for a battle ground scenario and thats it.
Nothing more nothing less.
And no I am not string the pot to be disruptive, just my freedom of speech.
Flame on?
Rob
 
$280 is on the high side. I think cabelas prices them like that so they can put them on sale for $30-50 off and get people into the store. A lot of people on here are unimpressed with the quality of sks rifles they have.

Check westrifle or the EE. You should be able to get a nice sks for $300.
 
05RAV said:
The prices went up so $280 is more or less in the ball park. You can also check Westrifle.

The Russian SKS's are good but if you find a good matching Chinese it would be no worse than the Russian one. All depends. If you can, it's always recommended to hand pick.

You could find a bit cheaper ammo e.g. Marstar has 1440 for $369, Chinese surplus. No safety issues with surplus whatsoever. I've been shooting it in my SKS's for years. Accuracy is whatever it is. Quite reasonable. It's military ammo and a military carbine designed in 1943.
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Thanks, looks like they really went up, when I got my PAL a few years back Marstar had them for $100 or so. Good to know that's in the ballpark, I'll look around other stores and see what I can find.

I'm looking for a toy, so cosmetic appearance is not important, but would like one with good mechanics.
 
Jmcc said:
problem im having is finding cheap non corrosive ammo. any tips?
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Canada Ammo has some non-corrosive every once in a while - IIRC they make it themselves by pulling apart corrosive and replacing the primers. It goes pretty quick and is around $350 per 1000.

I just shoot corrosive and clean after firing - SKSs are very easy to strip and clean. I have three SKS, two Soviet and one Chicom - Soviets are "prettier" but all function the same....
 
I have a bunch of SKS rifles. The most accurate one is a Chinese, but the wood is fugly.

The Russian ones have much nicer wood on them.

I suspect the accuracy is a function of how tightly the wood fits the action.

I recently read that when removing and installing the action, the safety should be on.
 
Ganderite said:
I have a bunch of SKS rifles. The most accurate one is a Chinese, but the wood is fugly.

The Russian ones have much nicer wood on them.

I suspect the accuracy is a function of how tightly the wood fits the action.

I recently read that when removing and installing the action, the safety should be on.
Click to expand...

If the stock slides back and forth, I shim the gap at the back with segments of stainless hose clamp. I've found it to tighten the groups quite well.

Sergei Simonov was pretty clever in that he didn't want the carbine self disassembling during combat. That's why he designed the safety so that when it's in the fire position, a part of it jams against the trigger housing release catch to prevent it from releasing inadvertently.
 
ive checked can ammo site a few times, i guess i just need to check more often!

i field stripped my gun once and it wasn't that hard, but with 3 kids young kids at home i just don't have time to do that each time i shoot. im happy to pay a bit more for convenience esp if it means i can get out more. maybe when they move out ill buy a 1500 case corrosive?
 
A few months ago lever arms had Russian sks rifles for $300 and they were non refurbed guns so they were very nice
Wouldn't hurt to check them out for one
As for the ones at Cabellas I bought one last winter and it was not in great shape, painted not blued, has rust coming through the paint on the barrel and the wood looks and smells like it's burnt. It's my beater truck gun now
 
I made a beater Chinese SKS into a straight pull bolt action. Why? Mostly because I could. I strolled next door to the Co-op farm store, found a bolt with a hex key head that screwed right into the little hole that angles into the barrel and Presto! done.

It does make it simpler to clean, but an SKS is pretty well fool proof to clean in its original configuration.
 
MY thoughts, remember the SKS is not meant to be pretty. They are meant to work under the worst possible conditions and when they break you throw them away and get another one. They do this very well. Don't think of them in the same way as you would a Browning for example, you will be disappointed. The days of the inexpensive unissued SKS are done, I paid $169 for mine 4 years ago. No more. They all shoot more or less the same from what I can make out 3-6 MOA using milsurp. They are not a precision rifle. I really like my SKS's but they are what they are, a relatively inexpensive disposable firearms.
 
Cabelas' stock has been garbage lately. The EE is your best friend. I just picked up a nice numbers-matching russian for $170. Cabelas does price matching though im pretty sure so you should be able to get a crate of 1500 rounds for $360 +/- before tax if you show them a local competitors price.
 
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