SKS "fliers" at range

N

Northman999

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
224   0   0
Location
Southern Yukon
Okay guys, I've spotted a few references to SKS's regularly having a flier in a group. I went out to the range today to confirm my scope was properly sighted in and I totally ran into this phenomenon. I'd fire a five shot group (at 50 yards); first two shots within 5/8" of each other, then one shot five inches off, then two more again within 5/8" of each other. Happened time and time again; the flier never seemed to be the first round, which was wierd. I know I was having a pretty good day with my shooting, and I was not pulling these shots. Without fliers my rifle groups about 2 1/2 inches at 100 yards; with fliers - about nine inches! Anyone know a cure for this? I was shooting Wolf 154 gr SP.
 
Last edited:
I know what you mean, I've witnessed this in more than one SKS even ones with bedded really tight actions. I have no explanation for this at all! I've tried all sorts of commercial and surplus ammo too.
 
I forgot that I brought home one target to look at. You can clearly see the flier.

Image00001.jpg


My first two rounds were just above and left of centre, overlapping, with the shots actually only 1/8" apart. Then my third shot is 3 1/2 inches away from them(!), and number 4 and 5 are very slightly low of centre, but only 1/2 inch from each other. I think the change from the first two rounds to the last two was that I put the rifle down to stare through the spotting scope at the flier and repositioned myself a little differently for the last couple of rounds. Without the flier the group (of four shots)is 1 5/8". With the flier it's 5 1/4" at 50 yards. Sheeesh! I'm still planning on hunting with this rig, but I reduced my self imposed range limit from 200 yards to 100 yards. If it wasn't for those damn fliers 200 yards would have been okay, but...
 
So the bad news is your group that was 5 1/4" (with flier) at 50 yards will open up to 10 1/2" at 100 yards. Unless you're after elephants or barn doors, I have to ask: are you absolutely sure you want to hunt with that SKS this year?
 
I was firing at the range on a bench and sandbagged. It really, really was not me. My father and I were out confirming our zero's, me with my SKS and M14 and him with his Ruger #1 in .375 H&H and after he was done he tried my SKS, and got the same thing. Five rounds fired, three or four in a pretty good group and always one, or two waaay off base. You can tell when you pull a shot, and I wasn't pulling. That's why I got to the spotting scope and looked real hard at the flier in the picture, because I couldn't beleive my eyes through my scope! The SKS kicks so little you can literally watch the holes appear on your target (if you're shooting from a bench and sandbagged), and to see a hole appear nowhere near where the scope reticle ever went was totally bizarre...but it happened many times that morning. I was also shooting my M14 and the Ruger #1 and there were no "shooter errors" at all with those rifles that morning. I can assure you it's not the shooter.

And yes, I guess I'll have to again seriously reconsider the whole hunting thing...
 
Last edited:
You might want to try increasing the number of shots in your group, then base your group size off of that. If you take 10 shots and find that one or two rounds are way off but everything else lands in a tight group then you know for sure you've got a random flier problem. If the target looks like a shotgun blast then you know it's an inaccurate rifle problem :)

I had a really bad experience three years ago sighting in an SKS, it seemed to me that I'd take a 5 round group (always one flier) and base the point of impact on the best four and adjust my sights to suit. Low and behold when I took my next 5 shots the 4 round group was in a totally random area on the target. It did this over and over again with the same results even if I made the smallest sight adjustment.

I decided to forget the 5 round groups and go ahead and put 20 well aimed slow shots into the paper - the result was a pattern that looked like a shotgun blast and barely fit on my target paper @ 100 yards (12" group) :) I figured out when I got home that the SKS in question had a severe bedding problem.

It could be that your rifle has a similar problem, but there aren't enough shots in your group to really tell.

I really dislike the SKS spring clamp system between the trigger group and the rear of the action, it seems to me that the action to stock fit here is really loose and sloppy. It's not good to have your action move around that much and I figure this causes inaccuracy problems on most SKS rifles.
 
Last edited:
I've got my SKS in a synthetic monte carlo stock right now; I just put it in there as I thought my past range experiences with it were due to the folding stock it was in, but apparently not. I may bench it until the winter and then fiberglass bed it into the stock as a bit of a project. This was going to be my general purpose, carry everywhere rifle, but I've got to get those groups tighter. I still can't get over how wierd it is to have bullets land 3-4 inches away from where I was aiming when I was on a rock solid bench and sandbagged.
 
I might swap scopes - I've got a nice Tasco 3x9 that served me well on my 338 win mag and was rock solid. The scope I've got on there now is a bit of a cheapo, but it seems okay...
 
A scope on an SKS can never be trusted, especially in a hunting situation. If you can shoot the gun at 100 meters and get 4 inch group or less, you're good to go hunting. You flier problem would have been caused by your scope.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom