New SKS-45

J

JRDuffman

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This is my second firearm (I bought a Ruger SR-22 6 months ago and that was my first!)

I bought the SKS from a local gun shop. Looks like a Tula 1953r refurbished. It came with all the accessories as you can see. It was $219 + tax and I thought that was a great deal. But I admit I bought the gun knowing very little about them. Anything I do know now, I've since learned!

The store had 3 and I looked at them all. One of them had a black painted bolt carrier so I narrowed it down to the other two. Out of those two the one had a laminate stock and this one... well I don't think it is. But like I said I know very little about these guns. I think I picked the right one anyway! I don't like the look of the painted bolt carrier that much I know.

This gun has mostly matching serial numbers. Well actually they all match (the stock was changed when refurbished so the old SN is ######'d out and the matching one put on) except for one. From what I can tell they all match except for the one on the trigger guard. The weird thing is though it's only 2 numbers off! Is this common?

Anyway, I got the gun and I watched a video on YouTube on how to take it down. I tore it all apart to clean off the....

Okay, well here's the thing. I've now since read about the cosmoline? My gun was absolutely covered in something... but I don't think it was cosmoline. Why? Because I read everyone talking about how hard it is to get the cosmoline off. The stuff that was on mine just wiped off! I assumed it was just grease. It looked like grease and it felt like grease. Is that common to be stored with grease instead of this cosmoline stuff?

I wiped down everything with cleaning patches and hoppies9 dis-solvent. All that grease stuff came right off. I ran a brush though the barrel with solvent and then a patch with oil. Than I wiped it down again with oil. Everything looks clean and all actions are smooth. All the springs seemed to be in great shape. The firing pin is loose in the bolt also. I heard about that so I checked.

Otherwise I bought a 20 pack of mil surp ammo just to try. I don't like the fact that this ammo is corrosive. But honestly how corrosive is it really? I mean after 20 rounds do I still have to clean? I think this ammo should be common. But the local store that I bought the gun from didn't have any new ammo. Is it common for stores in Canada here to have the ammo new or am I going to be stuck with mil surp? I ask because I would gladly pay the extra premium for new since I won't be shooting it a TON and I'd rather not have to clean it so often.

Anyway here is the gun.

IMG307.jpg


Like I said it has the Tula (arrow in a star) logo on top of the receiver cover with a small box with a slash through it below that. 1953r is of course below that also.

Anyway guys I hope to shoot it soon. I've only shot a few guns. My .22LR and a few other .22LR's and a Mauser K98. The K98 kicked like a mule so I'm assuming this will be somewhere in the middle. Can't wait to find out ;)

Oh yeah and do you guys think $219 was a good deal? Seemed like a really good deal to me.

Thanks,

Jake
 
Frontier is curently selling chinese non-corrosive for a very good price. Unless you're hunting stick with surplus it's way cheaper so more fun.
 
I'm pretty sure it's cosmoline. Cosmoline will wipe off most of your surface parts, it's the crevices where it's a ##### to get out. Your bayonet hinge, inside the gas tube, in the bore (sometimes) and the inside of your bolt will likely be coated with the stuff. It will take some work to get it off, but it's hardly difficult. If I can do it, you can! I've noticed that there's very little cosmoline (still some!) in the trigger assembly and the magazine on both my Russian and Chinese SKS's, which I found interesting. If there's no cosmoline, someone removed it in the past as your rifle would be a rotted piece of junk if it never saw cosmoline.

Now, about the ammo. Don't be afraid of corrosive surplus, your rifle and your wallet will thank you for running cheap surplus through your SKS. After shooting, yes, you will have to clean your rifle. I think the damage it'll do and the amount of time it takes to do it is a bit overstated, as I've waited about two days (things came up) to clean it and there was no rust at all, but it's not something I'd make a habit of. If you're really not feeling shooting corrosive ammo, options are available. As mentioned above me, Chinese non-corrosive is available as well as some new manufacture eastern-European stuff if you look around for it. It'll be more expensive and probably won't shoot any better than the corrosive stuff, though. It's also dirty! I don't think I've seen 7.62x39 that was anything I'd call clean, other than maybe some of the American made stuff which is sorta hard to find and expensive if you do. If you're planning on taking it hunting, factory hollow-points are also available. I don't hunt so I can't really say more than that.

The kick on the SKS is actually very mild as it's a hefty (some would say too heavy for what it is) rifle firing a reasonably light cartridge. Compared to my CZ 858 in the same caliber, the SKS feels like nothing at all. It'll be nothing compared to that 98 you fired. The trigger is kind of crappy, but it's something you'll get used to and overcome.

$219 was a very good deal. Many site sponsors have Russian refurbs such as yours for about $199, but after shipping and theft, sorry, meant to say taxes, that piles up to more than $219 even if you get a free shipping deal. Just think, in 30 years SKS's will probably be scarce and people will be paying something ridiculous like 900 bucks for one, and we can point and laugh at them while telling stories about the times of cheap SKS's. :D

Beautiful rifle and I hope you have fun with it. It's a combat rifle made for second and third world combat troops and it'll take anything you throw at it, so go pick up some ammo and head off to the range!
 
I also have had to leave the rifle overnight and not clean it til the next evening and have not had any issues, I hear many stories of rusting occuring within hours, but that has not been my experience, maybe the relative humidity affects this?
I would agree that $219 is a good price for such a hardy piece of gear. I find my SKS rifles to be very well constructed units, the triggers are not great and the relative accuracy varies a fair bit between them, but they are agreat gun to shoot!
 
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JRDuffman said:
This is my second firearm (I bought a Ruger SR-22 6 months ago and that was my first!)

I bought the SKS from a local gun shop. Looks like a Tula 1953r refurbished. It came with all the accessories as you can see. It was $219 + tax and I thought that was a great deal. But I admit I bought the gun knowing very little about them. Anything I do know now, I've since learned!

The store had 3 and I looked at them all. One of them had a black painted bolt carrier so I narrowed it down to the other two. Out of those two the one had a laminate stock and this one... well I don't think it is. But like I said I know very little about these guns. I think I picked the right one anyway! I don't like the look of the painted bolt carrier that much I know.

This gun has mostly matching serial numbers. Well actually they all match (the stock was changed when refurbished so the old SN is ######'d out and the matching one put on) except for one. From what I can tell they all match except for the one on the trigger guard. The weird thing is though it's only 2 numbers off! Is this common?

Anyway, I got the gun and I watched a video on YouTube on how to take it down. I tore it all apart to clean off the....

Okay, well here's the thing. I've now since read about the cosmoline? My gun was absolutely covered in something... but I don't think it was cosmoline. Why? Because I read everyone talking about how hard it is to get the cosmoline off. The stuff that was on mine just wiped off! I assumed it was just grease. It looked like grease and it felt like grease. Is that common to be stored with grease instead of this cosmoline stuff?

I wiped down everything with cleaning patches and hoppies9 dis-solvent. All that grease stuff came right off. I ran a brush though the barrel with solvent and then a patch with oil. Than I wiped it down again with oil. Everything looks clean and all actions are smooth. All the springs seemed to be in great shape. The firing pin is loose in the bolt also. I heard about that so I checked.

Otherwise I bought a 20 pack of mil surp ammo just to try. I don't like the fact that this ammo is corrosive. But honestly how corrosive is it really? I mean after 20 rounds do I still have to clean? I think this ammo should be common. But the local store that I bought the gun from didn't have any new ammo. Is it common for stores in Canada here to have the ammo new or am I going to be stuck with mil surp? I ask because I would gladly pay the extra premium for new since I won't be shooting it a TON and I'd rather not have to clean it so often.

Anyway here is the gun.

IMG307.jpg


Like I said it has the Tula (arrow in a star) logo on top of the receiver cover with a small box with a slash through it below that. 1953r is of course below that also.

Anyway guys I hope to shoot it soon. I've only shot a few guns. My .22LR and a few other .22LR's and a Mauser K98. The K98 kicked like a mule so I'm assuming this will be somewhere in the middle. Can't wait to find out ;)

Oh yeah and do you guys think $219 was a good deal? Seemed like a really good deal to me.

Thanks,

Jake
Click to expand...
Congrat joining the sks club! Nice rifle you got and the price is right too. Your sks is likely coated with thick machine oil so come off quite easily. Be sure to disassemble the bolt and clean the firing pin,firing pin channel too. You dont need to do that each time, only for the first time degreassing. The firing pin must rattle freely in the bolt. Also remove all oil from gas system before firing so things wont gum up:) You will like the sks, pretty much no recoil and so fun to shoot:cool:
Joce
 
Damn! If that's what it was than someone already wiped off all the dripping excess! The picture I show above (not the clearest from a cell phone) is actually BEFORE I cleaned it! Once I got the stock off there wasn't any excess "grease" between the barrel and stock like that. There was just a very fine layer as if it was wiped down, but not cleaned off.

There was virtually none of this stuff on the inside of the bolt carrier or on the bolt. Maybe just a hint in a few of the corners or edges but basically the bolt was clean. Yes the firing pin rattles freely as it should. Once again I cleaned off everything and just wiped down everything with gun oil on cleaning patches so everything has a fine coat of oil. I did this to everything inc the gas piston. So it has a very, very fine coat of oil on it but no excess. The only place I dropped a little extra oil was in the bolt carrier channels that ride in the receiver. I figured that would be plenty and I wouldn't need any grease or anything. From what little I've learned in my 6 months of firearm ownership and really only disassembling and cleaning a gun for the first time a few months ago is that less is usually more. But should I run the gas piston completely dry or is a very fine coat of oil okay?

I should be firing the gun for the first time this Wednesday if the weather is good! I went ahead and got more of the same ammo. It's dated 1957 IIRC.

After that I'm going to REALLY clean it with soapy boiling water and I bought a can of that G96 spray stuff to try for keeping the outside protected.
 
JRDuffman said:
Damn! If that's what it was than someone already wiped off all the dripping excess! The picture I show above (not the clearest from a cell phone) is actually BEFORE I cleaned it! Once I got the stock off there wasn't any excess "grease" between the barrel and stock like that. There was just a very fine layer as if it was wiped down, but not cleaned off.

There was virtually none of this stuff on the inside of the bolt carrier or on the bolt. Maybe just a hint in a few of the corners or edges but basically the bolt was clean. Yes the firing pin rattles freely as it should. Once again I cleaned off everything and just wiped down everything with gun oil on cleaning patches so everything has a fine coat of oil. I did this to everything inc the gas piston. So it has a very, very fine coat of oil on it but no excess. The only place I dropped a little extra oil was in the bolt carrier channels that ride in the receiver. I figured that would be plenty and I wouldn't need any grease or anything. From what little I've learned in my 6 months of firearm ownership and really only disassembling and cleaning a gun for the first time a few months ago is that less is usually more. But should I run the gas piston completely dry or is a very fine coat of oil okay?

I should be firing the gun for the first time this Wednesday if the weather is good! I went ahead and got more of the same ammo. It's dated 1957 IIRC.

After that I'm going to REALLY clean it with soapy boiling water and I bought a can of that G96 spray stuff to try for keeping the outside protected.
Click to expand...
The gas system should be run dry, oil only for extended storage.
Joce
 
Shot it for the first time today! Whoever told me it had "such little kickback" that "it's almost nothing" must have been playing a joke on me! I'm used to my .22LR here so sure, I was expecting a little more recoil... but damn, I wasn't expecting that kick!

I have to admit I was a little scared of it at first. I mean it's an old gun and I'm new to guns! I was expecting it to blow up in my face. Well... not REALLY. But I only loaded in one round to start. Than I told myself I'd do some check overs... not really sure what those check overs would be but... everything was still in one piece!

No seriously guys next time someone with a .22LR asks you don't say "oh it's hardly got any kick at all" okay! ;)

All kidding aside I put 20 rds through it today. I must admit I didn't hit my paper target at 100 yrds...

I would have wanted to start at 25 or 50 yrds to get used to it and see how the sights are lined up. But I had no choice the pistol range was closed and I didn't bring any wood.... target holding things(?) to use the 50 yrd point at the rifle range. Only the 100 and 200 yard marks have wood boards pre-setup for putting targets on. So my first time shooting the gun I had no choice but to shoot it at 100 yrds and I just had no idea where my shots were going.

Truth is I didn't care. I was trying so hard to get used to the kick and just enjoying the fact my new (old ass) gun was actually working! No miss-fires of any kind with 4x 5rnd firings.

When I got home I tore the whole thing down. sprayed everything in Windex and down the barrel, let it sit and then boiled water to wash it all. Damn that barrel gets hot when you run the water down there. 5 minutes later I picked it up and it was still too hot to hold! I threw that back down pretty quick! Anyway after that I oiled the bolt and mag by hand and sprayed the trigger assembly, springs and the outside of the receiver and barrel with G96.

Should be good for next time. Next time at 50 yrds!
 
Sluggo_m14 said:
did the grease look like this?
Click to expand...

The lever on the gas assembly leads me to conclude that this is a Chinese SKS. I own an Izhvesk 1954 and a Early 1960's Chinese, and both rifles came to me in cosmoline. The Chinese one was raunchy, that's really the only word for it. You could have scraped all that cosmoline and spread it on a loaf of bread and there'd still be some left. I remember, I pulled the bolt to the rear, opened the magazine and left the bolt fly home and no s**t, it got freaking stuck halfway with an audible "squish" sound. It took me basically an afternoon and into the evening to clean the cosmoline off that rifle using kerosene.

The Russian one, however, was very mildly coated in it. It took me about an hour to clean it up and the stock didn't even require any work.

I think, and I may be talking out my ass here, that most Chinese ones have more cosmoline because they were never issued. They were just made and then stuck in a vat of cosmoline for 40 or 50 years and then sold to us. The Russian ones, however, saw use and were stored a bit better. Maybe this is why the OP didn't have nearly as much as a Chinese SKS would have.

Again, just my two cents.
 
JRDuffman said:
Shot it for the first time today! Whoever told me it had "such little kickback" that "it's almost nothing" must have been playing a joke on me! I'm used to my .22LR here so sure, I was expecting a little more recoil... but damn, I wasn't expecting that kick!

I have to admit I was a little scared of it at first. I mean it's an old gun and I'm new to guns! I was expecting it to blow up in my face. Well... not REALLY. But I only loaded in one round to start. Than I told myself I'd do some check overs... not really sure what those check overs would be but... everything was still in one piece!

No seriously guys next time someone with a .22LR asks you don't say "oh it's hardly got any kick at all" okay! ;)

All kidding aside I put 20 rds through it today. I must admit I didn't hit my paper target at 100 yrds...

I would have wanted to start at 25 or 50 yrds to get used to it and see how the sights are lined up. But I had no choice the pistol range was closed and I didn't bring any wood.... target holding things(?) to use the 50 yrd point at the rifle range. Only the 100 and 200 yard marks have wood boards pre-setup for putting targets on. So my first time shooting the gun I had no choice but to shoot it at 100 yrds and I just had no idea where my shots were going.

Truth is I didn't care. I was trying so hard to get used to the kick and just enjoying the fact my new (old ass) gun was actually working! No miss-fires of any kind with 4x 5rnd firings.

When I got home I tore the whole thing down. sprayed everything in Windex and down the barrel, let it sit and then boiled water to wash it all. Damn that barrel gets hot when you run the water down there. 5 minutes later I picked it up and it was still too hot to hold! I threw that back down pretty quick! Anyway after that I oiled the bolt and mag by hand and sprayed the trigger assembly, springs and the outside of the receiver and barrel with G96.

Should be good for next time. Next time at 50 yrds!
Click to expand...

Glad you had fun! Sorry for downplaying the SKS recoil, I should have taken to account the fact that you were used to .22LR's. The SKS is probably the lightest recoiling centerfire I own and I've been shooting a lot of my K31 lately. Let me tell you, that bad boy kicks!

As for not hitting the target at 100 yards, that's no worries. Your sights are probably reasonably zeroed in but the iron sights themselves don't really lend themselves to accuracy, especially for a first timer on the platform. With practice you'll be out-shooting the rifle in no time. On the subject of misfires, I'd be very surprised if you had any, the SKS is an extremely reliable platform and the only stoppages I've had out of my two SKS's in thousands of rounds fired were ammo related.

Yes, touching a barrel you just poured boiling water down it is something you'll only do once. Most of us have been there! Sounds like you did a good cleaning for corrosive ammo though, but I have one hint: Oil your bayonet hinge! After getting my first SKS (Chinese Type 56) is was very paranoid about cleaning it thoroughly after shooting corrosive surplus to avoid rust, so I was quite liberally pouring boiling water all over the damn thing, but like a fool, I didn't take the bayonet off before doing this, nor did I oil it after it was done. On my third or so range trip with it I tried to extend the bayonet and it was really gritty and I noticed a ton of surface rust on it. I was less than pleased with myself and had to give it a proper wipe down when I got home, so try to avoid this headache for yourself. Here's what I do: Pull the hinge down, but don't actually extend the bayonet. Grab a Q-Tip and squeeze some of your favourite oil on it, then apply the Q-Tip to the inside of the bayonet hinge and release it. This should preserve it well enough.

Glad you had fun with your SKS!
 
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JRDuffman said:
Shot it for the first time today! Whoever told me it had "such little kickback" that "it's almost nothing" must have been playing a joke on me! I'm used to my .22LR here so sure, I was expecting a little more recoil... but damn, I wasn't expecting that kick!
Click to expand...

I'm planning to get a recoil buffer for my SKS shooter. You should think about it too. They're only a couple of $ and apparently they really cut down the recoil effectively.

With mine, I'm a pretty big guy, so I don't feel much recoil and people who have watched me shooting have commented on the fact that it looks like there's no recoil at all. I guess I my shoulder makes a pretty good recoil buffer itself. ;)

But I'm planning to get the recoil buffer anyways, just because I'm scoping it and I'd like to cut down on the amount of jarring the scope will get, plus the recoil can affect the effectiveness of fast semi-auto fire.
 
JRDuffman said:
This is my second firearm (I bought a Ruger SR-22 6 months ago and that was my first!)

I bought the SKS from a local gun shop. Looks like a Tula 1953r refurbished. It came with all the accessories as you can see. It was $219 + tax and I thought that was a great deal. But I admit I bought the gun knowing very little about them. Anything I do know now, I've since learned!

The store had 3 and I looked at them all. One of them had a black painted bolt carrier so I narrowed it down to the other two. Out of those two the one had a laminate stock and this one... well I don't think it is. But like I said I know very little about these guns. I think I picked the right one anyway! I don't like the look of the painted bolt carrier that much I know.

This gun has mostly matching serial numbers. Well actually they all match (the stock was changed when refurbished so the old SN is ######'d out and the matching one put on) except for one. From what I can tell they all match except for the one on the trigger guard. The weird thing is though it's only 2 numbers off! Is this common?

Anyway, I got the gun and I watched a video on YouTube on how to take it down. I tore it all apart to clean off the....

Okay, well here's the thing. I've now since read about the cosmoline? My gun was absolutely covered in something... but I don't think it was cosmoline. Why? Because I read everyone talking about how hard it is to get the cosmoline off. The stuff that was on mine just wiped off! I assumed it was just grease. It looked like grease and it felt like grease. Is that common to be stored with grease instead of this cosmoline stuff?

I wiped down everything with cleaning patches and hoppies9 dis-solvent. All that grease stuff came right off. I ran a brush though the barrel with solvent and then a patch with oil. Than I wiped it down again with oil. Everything looks clean and all actions are smooth. All the springs seemed to be in great shape. The firing pin is loose in the bolt also. I heard about that so I checked.

Otherwise I bought a 20 pack of mil surp ammo just to try. I don't like the fact that this ammo is corrosive. But honestly how corrosive is it really? I mean after 20 rounds do I still have to clean? I think this ammo should be common. But the local store that I bought the gun from didn't have any new ammo. Is it common for stores in Canada here to have the ammo new or am I going to be stuck with mil surp? I ask because I would gladly pay the extra premium for new since I won't be shooting it a TON and I'd rather not have to clean it so often.

Anyway here is the gun.

IMG307.jpg


Like I said it has the Tula (arrow in a star) logo on top of the receiver cover with a small box with a slash through it below that. 1953r is of course below that also.

Anyway guys I hope to shoot it soon. I've only shot a few guns. My .22LR and a few other .22LR's and a Mauser K98. The K98 kicked like a mule so I'm assuming this will be somewhere in the middle. Can't wait to find out ;)

Oh yeah and do you guys think $219 was a good deal? Seemed like a really good deal to me.

Thanks,

Jake
Click to expand...

looks good, i got mine from Wanstalls.. mine looked about the same as yours when i received it.. Gary actually mentioned they tend to clean them as much as they can before they leave
 
mamma said:
Recoil pad is also good for extending length of pull. SKS is kind of short in this department
Click to expand...

Yea, the Ruskies wore a lot of heavy clothing at times, so they needed a short pull. Strangely, I find the SKS length of pull just right, and I'm a big guy. I must have shorter arms or something.
 
I am not tall=5'8". I find the length of pull to be kind of short but I also wear glasses and its really hard to see the sights. I went with a leaf sight red dot mount. So far its working out comfortably.
 
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