Shooting New SVT-40 & Type 56 SKS

Mumbles Marble Mouth

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Type 56 SKS

I finally got to get out and try out my new Type 56 SKS and new to me but heavily used SVT-40. The Type 56 I picked up from Frontier Firearms. Not sure if they have any left. Always wanted a Chinese SKS and I didn't mind paying the extra $70 more than a Russian SKS to get it.



It was advertised as non-refurbished military SKS. Its in very good shape. Not a scratch in the stock, bluing is mint, crown perfect, barrel 99.9%, and its from factory 0306. I went to sight the gun in today and it was shooting high but the windage was correct. Sighted it at 50 meters, then at 100 meters, then quickly realized that I had just sighted it in with the battle setting and not at 100 meters. Didn't bring enough ammunition to re-sight it again so I just ran it as is. Groupings are the typical 4" - 5" in size. The range only goes out to 200 meters however plinking with this SKS on several different steel targets makes me realize this SKS is surprisingly accurate. Out of 20 rounds, 4 were a miss. I could hit the steel turkey target at 200 meters pretty easily with this SKS although I don't promote using such rifle for actual turkey hunting.

50 meter sight in target



First 5 shot grouping at 100 meters
Not sure where the 5th shot went.



2nd 5 shot grouping at 100 meters.
3 grouped well, not sure why the other two hit down south at the other target.



After plinking 20 rounds 5 shot group
This was after firing 20 rounds of plinking at steel targets with a pretty hot barrel. Got another hit was down south.



Final Verdict

Very satisfied with the gun.

SVT-40

I picked this rifle up from Wholesale Sports last weekend while getting a crate of 7.62x54r and G96. You may of seen the, Just A Normal Canadian Shopping Day, thread I made when I got this rifle.



The rifle is a 1941 Izhevsk receiver built on almost all Tula parts. The only other parts on this rifle that is Izhevsk is the vented barrel shroud and the hammer. The rest is all Tula marked. The stock in in perfect shape. Like it looks new. I only wish the rest of the rifle looked as good as the stock. The bluing is well done but when you closely examine the gun, you can see it was heavily pitted at one point in its life. The barrel is in maybe 45% condition. Its pretty bad. I was concerned that the gun wouldn't shoot well but I was very surprised to see it shoots very well. The guns windage was right on but elevation was low. That's good because the SKS sight adjustment tool will work for elevation on this gun but not windage.

50 meters sight in target



100 meters sight in and groupings
The first 3 shots low are a 3 shot group I fired just to sight in the gun for 100 meters. The 3 shot group is really nice. Surprised me. The second 5 shots up high are after adjustments. I was also surprised. The 5th shot is being covered up by the receiver cover. Didn't mean to do that. The 4 shots that are there though measure 4 3/4"



Final Verdict

Very satisfied and surprised that a barrel as worn out as this one is still shooting well. This was the first time I ever used corrosive ammunition in an SVT-40. I intended to never do it to just always use non-corrosive MFS. The gun wouldn't cycle with gas setting 1.3 which I intentionally set it to at home to start it off at. When I originally dissembled this rifle to clean the cosmoline out, I couldn't help but notice the 1.5 gas setting hole was heavily corroded to the point that the hole is actually bigger than the 1.7 hole. The other gas setting holes had no indication that they were ever even used. When I noticed this, I decided to try the gun on 1.3 to see how it functions and it wouldn't. Once I turned it to 1.5, it functions very well. No failures. I'm assuming this gun, other than the receiver, was heavily used in WWII. All the Tula parts on this gun are heavily pitted while the 3 Izhevsk parts look new. The fact that the gun was heavily used, and that it still shoots well enough, makes the rifle all more interesting to me than my other SVT-40 which has a minty fresh looking barrel. Although my other SVT-40 shoots better than this one, I'm still like it a lot. I also plinked with this gun on the same targets as the SKS. Out of 15 shots used for plinking both 100 and 200 meters, 3 were misses. The turkey target is also not an issue to hit.

 
When the SVT supply runs dry, there are going to be a lot of people kicking themselves for not getting one.

It isn't my most accurate milsurp, but it doesn't matter, it's my favourite milsurp. Something just so dang ###y about it.
 
Out of my collection I use probably only 4 for shooting. 2 have great shiny bores (one is sniper and one is rifle that was intended to be a sniper but never become one - even harder to find than real sniper) and 2 not-so-great ones - frosted, with some minor pitting, grooves 7 out of 10 or so. However, I noticed no significant difference on 50-100-200 yards shooting. So they had some history and they also were examined and considered good enough to be stored for future use. Not to mention mine are pretty scarce variations. So they are keepers. It's just good to know that regardless of bore condition they still shoot very good as for 70 years old semi auto made in harsh manufacturing conditions of country at war.
 
i have a beat up svt 40 but the bore still look very good and with the bulgarian surplus it shoot very nice , the only thing i will do soon on it is to put a scout mount for a red dot
 
I would like to buy one of those new scope mounts for non sniper SVT-40's and put a 1-4x20mm scope on it.

Do it. If you're talking about the one from Corwin-Arms, it's a solid mount. Not sure where this mythical "scout mount" for the SVT comes from, although I'd be curious to see one in action.
 
Do it. If you're talking about the one from Corwin-Arms, it's a solid mount. Not sure where this mythical "scout mount" for the SVT comes from, although I'd be curious to see one in action.

I thought it looks like a sold mount. Was hoping to hear about it before buying one but looks like I have. ;) I've seen someone with one before but it looks god awful goofy with a 3-9x40mm scope on it. Mounted way to high and scope just looks stupid on the rifle. I figured a small 1-4x20mm can be mounted very low and it would still keep that sleek figure the SVT-40 has. Plus, its more true to the style of scopes for that type of rifle.
 
I thought it looks like a sold mount. Was hoping to hear about it before buying one but looks like I have. ;) I've seen someone with one before but it looks god awful goofy with a 3-9x40mm scope on it. Mounted way to high and scope just looks stupid on the rifle. I figured a small 1-4x20mm can be mounted very low and it would still keep that sleek figure the SVT-40 has. Plus, its more true to the style of scopes for that type of rifle.

I wrote up my whole experience with it (warts and all) in the Corwin-Arms sponsor forum:

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1131313-SVT-40-Picatinny-Rail-Review

I put an absolutely massive 2-10x52 scope on it with high rings, so, yah, it looked a bit weird, but I was mostly trying to get a sense of what the mount would do, as opposed to the optics etc.

It looks really odd, especially with the rubber eye-cup on it, and having your eye socket in direct contact with anything attached to an SVT when you light off a round and it bucks is... disconcerting... But I got used to it.

The scope and rings were a case of "This is what I have available in the drawer today, let's do it!" I haven't decided what I'm going to do for a final setup. That scope will probably end up on my (eventual) M14 build.
 
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