Scope that will survive on my SKS

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pavmentsurfer

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Im in need of a scope that will survive on my SKS. I like to shoot fast sometimes and find the harsh recoil and rapid firing seems to kill scopes and red dots (cheaper ones anyway) I'm wondering of there is an affordable scope or red dot that will survive and not cost a fortune. How are the NCstar products? Many of them say thy are rated for the recoil of an air gun.
I'm just a sport shooter. Not a hunter or anything serious so I don't need the best of the best. Just something durable.
Any help would be great.
Pave
 
My experience is that most red dots for a bargain price will have the snot kicked out of them on an SKS. The force of the massive bolt slamming back wreaks havoc on cheap optics.

I can say from experience that many red dots that are bargain priced ~$100-150 bucks may hold zero, but the battering will result in the intensity/on-off selector dial falling apart internally. I have a couple of red dots that have suffered from this, and I had to disassemble them and loctite the screws holding the contact plate down. I have not had the chance to test the repair yet at a range, but I think it may have solved the problem.

So if you are shooting and your red dot turns itself off or the intensity selector starts to feel loose, take the battery out, unscrew the threaded washer holding the contact plate down, and tighten the 4 or more small screws you see there. Reassemble, keep shooting and loctite it when you get home.

Best buy: Burris fast fire if you have a BC tactical mount, or a Lucid HD7. I have had great performance from these so far, but my range time is limited with them.
 
redfield revolution is your best bet for a good strong optic in the 200 range.

If you've got the money go bushnell elite tactical. They're incredibly tough and bargain priced when compared to other scopes of comparable quality.

In all honesty though you'll only frustrate yourself by scoping your SKS. They're not accurate enough to warrant any sort of magnification. I've been down that road before.
 
mhowarth said:
In all honesty though you'll only frustrate yourself by scoping your SKS. They're not accurate enough to warrant any sort of magnification. I've been down that road before.
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Further to the comment above, which is only partially true IMO, here's what you should expect...

... the SKS is maybe accurate enough to give you 6-8 MOA without tweaking. That's about what I'm getting with no attempts to improve accuracy. But the scope can help you place that grouping better. In other words, it won't make the rifle fire more accurately, but it can help you aim the rifle more accurately. I find the little bit of extra magnification really helps me, above what I can do with iron sights.

Some people claim great results with bedding and re-crowning their rifling. But an SKS will still only be just so accurate. The ammo wasn't designed for superb accuracy.
 
Dakk said:
Further to the comment above, which is only partially true IMO, here's what you should expect...

... the SKS is maybe accurate enough to give you 6-8 MOA without tweaking. That's about what I'm getting with no attempts to improve accuracy. But the scope can help you place that grouping better. In other words, it won't make the rifle fire more accurately, but it can help you aim the rifle more accurately. I find the little bit of extra magnification really helps me, above what I can do with iron sights.

Some people claim great results with bedding and re-crowning their rifling. But an SKS will still only be just so accurate. The ammo wasn't designed for superb accuracy.
Click to expand...

To expand further, optics or irons is personal choice and can be tailored extensively to the individual. Some of my friends cant shoot irons worth a damn but do very well with a scope while some are the exact opposite. I have too many different guns to be picky about much of anything other than quality but I prefer irons of any kind inside 100 yds. Also, some SKS do shoot quite well. I remember one member posting 1.5" groups @ 100 yds but this is far from average. The best I would hope for is 3-4 MOA and be happy with 6-8 MOA. I havent seen it but have heard it can be much worse :eek:. Now to the original question: Buy a good quality centerfire scope. NC Star is price-point budget minded products bought in high volume from China to sell at low prices in high volume in North America. They have the typical 3 points going for them: price, looks and features. Quality is spotty and reliability is poor. Your Soviet pig will chew them up, spit them out and rant about it's mother's borsht :stirthepot2: As mentioned the new Redfields are a good buy, I believe they are almost a re-badged Leupold VX-2 with classic Redfield looks. Either way theyre good Made in USA scopes backed by one of the best warranties in the business. Same thing with Leupold if you want to spend a little more. For a little less you could go with a Bushnell 3200 or better. To expand on Sadosubliminal's recommendations, the Vortex Strikefire will take a hell of a beating without issues. They go for $175 - $200 depending where you buy them.
 
supernova said:
NC Star is price-point budget minded products bought in high volume from China to sell at low prices in high volume in North America. They have the typical 3 points going for them: price, looks and features. Quality is spotty and reliability is poor. Your Soviet pig will chew them up, spit them out and rant about it's mother's borsht :stirthepot2:
Click to expand...

Mine's sporting a NcStar Mark 3 that's seen many hundreds of rounds on the SKS and a bunch of slugs down a tactical shotgun as well. I've noticed a few comments from people here who've had some success with the Mark 3 model in particular. So, as far as NcStar scopes are concerned the Mark 3 might be a better model than some of the other NcStar scopes.
 
mhowarth said:
redfield revolution is your best bet for a good strong optic in the 200 range.

If you've got the money go bushnell elite tactical. They're incredibly tough and bargain priced when compared to other scopes of comparable quality.

In all honesty though you'll only frustrate yourself by scoping your SKS. They're not accurate enough to warrant any sort of magnification. I've been down that road before.
Click to expand...

I swap that very scope between my shotguns, mosins and sks's, works excellent and takes the beating without issue.
 
supernova said:
To expand further, optics or irons is personal choice and can be tailored extensively to the individual. Some of my friends cant shoot irons worth a damn but do very well with a scope while some are the exact opposite. I have too many different guns to be picky about much of anything other than quality but I prefer irons of any kind inside 100 yds. Also, some SKS do shoot quite well. I remember one member posting 1.5" groups @ 100 yds but this is far from average. The best I would hope for is 3-4 MOA and be happy with 6-8 MOA. I havent seen it but have heard it can be much worse :eek:. Now to the original question: Buy a good quality centerfire scope. NC Star is price-point budget minded products bought in high volume from China to sell at low prices in high volume in North America. They have the typical 3 points going for them: price, looks and features. Quality is spotty and reliability is poor. Your Soviet pig will chew them up, spit them out and rant about it's mother's borsht :stirthepot2: As mentioned the new Redfields are a good buy, I believe they are almost a re-badged Leupold VX-2 with classic Redfield looks. Either way theyre good Made in USA scopes backed by one of the best warranties in the business. Same thing with Leupold if you want to spend a little more. For a little less you could go with a Bushnell 3200 or better. To expand on Sadosubliminal's recommendations, the Vortex Strikefire will take a hell of a beating without issues. They go for $175 - $200 depending where you buy them.
Click to expand...

Refreshing to see a thread that has some relation to reality. I have an elderly friend in his 70's who just bought an SKS after reading about the 2 inch groups at 300meters etc. Hes determined that its his fault he cant get better than 4 inches at 100 meters. Hes about to spend a whole lot of money scoping up ( way more than he spent on the gun ). Thanks to this thread I might be able to persuade him to save his money.
He can actually shoot better with iron sights than most pple I know.
So glad I saw this thread. Fed up reading about Crapco Sniper specials that will take the eyeballs out of a zombie 600 yds with surplus ammo. :)
 
murdered a barska red dot and a cheap laser, can't remember which i just threw it out.
bushnell trophy mp is solid, love it, under 200$, i use it on my sks and shotgun

73-0132P.jpg
 
pavmentsurfer said:
Im in need of a scope that will survive on my SKS. I like to shoot fast sometimes and find the harsh recoil and rapid firing seems to kill scopes and red dots (cheaper ones anyway) I'm wondering of there is an affordable scope or red dot that will survive and not cost a fortune. How are the NCstar products? Many of them say thy are rated for the recoil of an air gun.
I'm just a sport shooter. Not a hunter or anything serious so I don't need the best of the best. Just something durable.
Any help would be great.
Pave
Click to expand...

Harsh recoil in a SKS! LOL seriously though a shell deflector may help you out.
 
Its not the shells hitting the red dot. Its the jarring thats killing things. I don't know if this would be the same situation on any gun. I just know on my SKS nothing lasts.

Ill look into these suggestions you guys have given me. I appreciate them alot. I was hoping to not have to spend $150-200 on a red dot/scope for a $75 gun but if thats what it will take, ill figure it out. Im not trying to get perfect accuracy with this gun. I just prefer to sight a target through a scope or red dot. Ive also removed my rear iron sight and replaced it with the BC Scout mount so I need something on there.

Thanks again for those that gave suggestions.
 
3 mods you can do to help are:
1. gas tube mod to slow the bcg down
2. bolt buffer to absorb some of the impact caused by the bcg slamming into the dust cover
3. ejection window mod or shell deflector to stop spent casings from pinging off your scope if it hangs over the ejection path.
 
Ive got the buffer on its way, the gas tube mod scares me a bit... but I'm not completely against trying it. And the ejection window mod is next on my list. Just picked up some cold blue so I can touch things up once its done.
 
I have a tap and drill mount on order. Its a quick release version that should work just fine. Not really sure what ill do with the BC Scout mount once the new one comes in and I get it mounted. But holding zero isnt my problem. Keeping sights from falling apart is. One day with a cheap $50 red dot and it stopped working, one day with a $100 red dot and it stopped working. My next one will be one that you guys have recommended and will be mounted over the receiver cover on a solid mount.
 
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