As was pointed out earlier in the thread Ive done it too. As for the comment about reducing accuracy, its a complete wives tale that shorter barrels shoot worse. The opposite is usually true. Most SKS' stand to gain a little accuracy if the crown is in bad shape and the nut on the tools knows what he is doing. If the crown is good and said nut isn't a moron then accuracy should not be affected. As to affecting the gas system, another wives tale. We can only cut to 470mm which is not nearly short enough to affect the gas system with surplus ammo let alone hotter commercial ammo. Only 2" comes off, at a bbl length where the underbore 7.62X39 cartridge is running out of steam. Gas port pressure is not affected and the dwell time in which the gas acts on the piston is not shortened nearly enough to affect function. The SKS, like most mil semi's is overgassed and oversprung to keep everything moving when the rifle is filthy and smoking hot. Only when 'Mericans cut them to 16" do they start to see cyclic issues. We can't cut them that short so its not an issue for us. By the way, the Chinese SKS I cut down shot the same before and after and cycled just as hard with the 18 5/8" barrel. And I cut the barrel with a zipcut, faced it by hand with a file and crowned it with a cone stone in a hand drill. I realize some fudd's head's just blew up, the internets is reeling in horror and bubba is taking notes but I can only tell you my experience and that's it.
