My Chinese SKS - First Impressions

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I recently bought a chinese model (factory 26 date code places 78?) from a local retailer. It had already been cleaned mostly, but was sold as unfired, and still quite greasy.

Took it home, stripped it down, minus the firing pin as it moved somewhat freely, cleaned it a bit better.
Bud and I took it to the range, with my ruger pc9, his new bergara.
First shot at 107yrds was dead on center of a 10" plate. Didn't adjust sights or anything. Just pinged like it was supposed to.
Spent a good hour feeding it norinco ammo from cabellas ($10 a box!) and grouped quite well, no misfires, no stovepipes.

I bought it as a beat around bush plinker, to maybe bubba up later.

Might leave it as is, but am considering removable mags and a small scope? Enjoyed shooting it more than my Ruger pc9 tbh, and my bud was impressed as well. Great buy for $500 i.m.o.

Was this luck, or are the later chinese models prettt consistent?
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The Chinese SKS' pretty much always shoot like lazers. I've always preferred them over the Russian versions because of that.
 
The Chinese SKS' pretty much always shoot like lazers. I've always preferred them over the Russian versions because of that.

Before I had bought mine, an older fella told me chinese sks's are ####. Glad to hear it wasn't a fluke buy, as Im considering buying a second now. Lol
 
I recently bought a chinese model (factory 26 date code places 78?) from a local retailer. It had already been cleaned mostly, but was sold as unfired, and still quite greasy.

Took it home, stripped it down, minus the firing pin as it moved somewhat freely, cleaned it a bit better.
Bud and I took it to the range, with my ruger pc9, his new bergara.
First shot at 107yrds was dead on center of a 10" plate. Didn't adjust sights or anything. Just pinged like it was supposed to.
Spent a good hour feeding it norinco ammo from cabellas ($10 a box!) and grouped quite well, no misfires, no stovepipes.

I bought it as a beat around bush plinker, to maybe bubba up later.

Might leave it as is, but am considering removable mags and a small scope? Enjoyed shooting it more than my Ruger pc9 tbh, and my bud was impressed as well. Great buy for $500 i.m.o.

Was this luck, or are the later chinese models prettt consistent?
View attachment 626595

wouldn't bubba it. looks like you have what people call the French tickler handguard - gas piston cover . when you clean it next time and the bolt is out blow some kind of cleaner through the bolt . you want to be able to shake the bolt and hear the firing pin rattle back and forth so I have understood . make sure it slides back and forth unimpeded.
 
That’s a nice ChiCom! Like the FT hand guard. I have an all matching Factory 306 that is a decent shooter, definitely on par with my 1954 Tula.
 
A friend bought a pallet of SKS and we had to go through all the boxes to find nice ones. The worst one looked like it had smallpox. The finish on the stock was all bubbling and the metal was corroded in many places. I was afraid to touch the thing lest I pick up the cooties from it.

The absolute worst thing about the SKS is the trigger.

If the standard is that the thing goes BANG reliably then sure, the SKS is a fantastic rifle for the money. However there are loads of better options ... they just cost more.
 
A friend bought a pallet of SKS and we had to go through all the boxes to find nice ones. The worst one looked like it had smallpox. The finish on the stock was all bubbling and the metal was corroded in many places. I was afraid to touch the thing lest I pick up the cooties from it.

i only saw a handful and your observation is the same as mine, not all in this new batch are minty so shop wisely.
 
SKS, the modern Cooey for Canada. Great simple "reliable" rifles. Everyone owns one (at least one)... I've got a Russian, my son has a Chinese.
 
One thing about SKS rifles is that most of them are SURPLUSED as no longer needed by one nation or another

Many of the Chinese SKS rifles are factory fresh in long term cosmoline storage and a few even wrapped up. It's often difficult to tell whether they've gone through an FTR, unless they've been stamped as such or have mixed serial numbers.

I went through a couple of crates of Chinese SKS rifles that were supposedly factory unissued. Not one of them had matching serial numbers. I don't mean a mismatched mag well, which is common on both Russian and Chinese rifles.

I also had the opportunity of shooting several unissued SKS rifles from different factories.

Every single one of them shot into less than 4 inches at 100 yards consistently, with the same South African surplus 7.62x39, brass cased ammo. This SA ammo shoots consistently into less than 2moa out of my Howa 1500, if I do my part.

The one thing that was evident, is that all the rifles, no matter who made them, China, Yugoslavia, Russia, Albania, North Korea, North Vietnam, shot within their field specs with field grade ammuniton.

The North Korean, North Vietnamese and Albanian rifles were shot in the US, from the collection of a collector/friend.

I've also tested several "Field Grade" SKS rifles, mostly from Yugoslavia/Russia/China, with the Russian being the most common.

Most of them still shot within specified parameters with issue field grade ammunition. All of them did better when the issue ammo was broken down, had the bullets and powder charges weighed and reassembled with bullet weights in specific groups. The main thing being that the groups didn't open up when the same weight bullets were shot but did change point of impact when different weight bullets were shot on the same target.

In that batch of surplus Yugo ammo, bullet weights varied by as much as 3.5 grains, out of the same box. Diameters differed by .0005, which shouldn't have much affect.

It was also found that as there was more throat or bore erosion, accuracy started to decrease exponentially.

One thing I did find with the bores of the "new in grease" rifles was that their bore diameters were extremely consistent, between .309-.311, which is pretty darn good for mass produced military grade rifles.

Accuracy with most of the milsurps I've shot and I've literally shot thousands, almost always depends on ''bore condition and headspace''

Poor bores, such as washed out, pitted or oversize relate directly to poor accuracy. The next deviation comes from poor ammunition, with differing bullet diameters and weights.
 
Chinese don’t shoot better inherently, however it’s easier to find a Chinese one without stock fit issues because of how Russians refurb their rifles.
 
Bearhunter and Great North Guns,

Those were very interesting posts! Man, I wish there was still so much of that SA ammo out there like when I was a kid. Alas.

Great North Guns, that explains a lot. In my very small sample size, they all shot junk ammo like...well like it was junk. The rest seems like its all a roll of the dice, as you and Bearhunter just mentioned the factors involved.

Would love to have one that shot consistently under 4" with good ammo. Heard tell of many consistent 2" groupers, but never saw this phenomenon ;)
 
Bearhunter and Great North Guns,

Those were very interesting posts! Man, I wish there was still so much of that SA ammo out there like when I was a kid. Alas.

Great North Guns, that explains a lot. In my very small sample size, they all shot junk ammo like...well like it was junk. The rest seems like its all a roll of the dice, as you and Bearhunter just mentioned the factors involved.

Would love to have one that shot consistently under 4" with good ammo. Heard tell of many consistent 2" groupers, but never saw this phenomenon ;)

GNG brought up a very relevant issue with not just Soviet era FTR SKS rifles but many of the surplus firearms that have been on the markets for over 75+ years.

The Soviet FTRed 98s can be jewels or mostly ho hum

The Korean FTRed Arisaka 7.7 rifles, which were rechambered for 30-06 to make them compatible with US supplied ammo were basicly only good for their receivers by the time that was done.

The Soviets and sattelite nations FTRed Mosins were generally pretty good.

Many FTRed US Garands and Springfields left a lot to be desired as did the ammo supplied with them.

Some of the best FTRed surplus rifles were the No1 and No4 Lee Enfields, but again, it depended a lot on who did the FTR.

Mostly surplus rifles, FTRed or not, can be reworked to shoot well, without having to deface the firearm. Not always though.
 
The sks will outlive all of us. Enough surplus ammo to last at least another 100 years. But buy it cheap and stack it deep.

A friend of mine has a pallet of 762x39 ammo. 75,000 rounds or something like that . Not sure we could even shoot all that? The lifespan of an SKS barrel wouldn't be more than 10-15k rounds? I suspect all the SKS barrels in our group would be smoothbores before we run out of ammo.
 
I bought it as a beat around bush plinker, to maybe bubba up later.

Don't Bubba this one PLEASE!!
Im not saying don't bubba an SKS. Just don't bubba one in this nice of a condition!!

I have a Russian number matching shooter grade and I also have Tapco tatticool plastic fantastic

Keep one original then find a beater and do whatever you want to it. (Its like a wife and mistress)

Lots of ranges do MilSup days. One in this condition would qualify but of you bubba it you cant compete.
 
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