SKS. The welfare gun of the shooting world...AND the most reliable in the gun worls

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It was a Tula SKS Canadian Tire Special that brought me back to guns a few months ago after taking a 25 or so year sabbatical.

Had to start from scratch of course. Get licensed-up and everything. Had restricted weapons back in the day and found them to be a bit more trouble than they were worth..TO ME (YMMV).
Back then without the internet there were a lot fewer impulse buys especially if you lived in an isolated small town.

OK so I got PALled up and scored an SKS and then went a little crazy Bubba-ing it out a bit.
I joined this forum and did a lot of reading on the SKSboards. While I was here I would of course see all the other forums and started checking-out the current state of guns. Noticed the black rifles forum but didn't bother to look cause I figured I couldn't afford to and well...without an RPAL I didn't want to be teased.

Back in the '80s when I did a LOT of shooting, the ONLY failure I had EVER experienced was one day at the range shooting my handloads out of my Taurus PT92AF and..BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM pop ERRRCH. Clearly missed a case when I was pouring powder and wound up with a cast lead projectile jammed half way down the barrel. Phew. Glad I wasn't in the middle of a rapid-fire mag dump.

My SKS and I were having a grand old time and at night I would be here reading posts. It sure seemed common for guns to have issues. Sheeit there are even new WORDS (acronyms) like FTF, FTE, FTF (the first one was fire..this one is feed), stovepipe...
Hmm.

So I'm all back addicted and completely off the no-gun wagon and I score a SWEET wee Savage .22 bolt gun and it works like a champ.
Next is a PCC. Gotta do a bunch of research to see which one.
The second I entered the modern black gun world I was instantly shocked at the amount of guns that are not 100% reliable and dependable. OK 90%.
I got myself a sweet little JR Carbine in 9mm and...well when shooting it I just don't expect it to work :-O I cant just squeeze the trigger. I always wonder if its gonna SHOOT the next round. I expect it to NOT fire more than I expect it TO fire.
The more research I do it seems like pretty much ANY modern semi-auto "battle style" or military type firearm is kind of EXPECTED to not work 100%.
This whole "mindset" is new to me.

For all you youngsters...YES...back in the day when there were only 2 TV channels and 8 different semi-auto fun-guns it was the GUNS that went bang all the time and the tv NEVER did. Man...my grandmother only ever owned three different TVs in her LIFE...not because she was so old they didn't HAVE TVs when she was young (which WAS the case) but because back then when you bought something you expected it to work forever pretty much. You would actually pay a TV repairman to FIX your broken TV instead of turfing it and replacing it and get THIS....he made HOUSECALLS!!!!
When your tv calfed you called the tv guy and he came OVER with his tester and tube caddy and sold you a new tube...it was always a tube.

Sorry for the sidetrack.
POINT is the SKS....
Man...it's pretty sweet (these days) to have a firearm that you don't even have to THINK about or prepare for failures.
When you get into all the awesome amazing modern guns you start to look down upon the welfare SKS (well some of us do). It's a big lumbering heavy beast. Makes a big racket and has a bit of kick. You definitely know you're shooting a real gun when you shoot the SKS. It just isn't quite as "severe" when you're shooting a .22 or even a 9mm. It smells...mainly cause I use milsurp crap ammo...oh and it's CHEAP to shoot..even cheaper than a 9mm...but you gotta clean it EVERY time you shoot it...with the corrosive crap at least...BUT...even if you DONT clean it..

You KNOW that when you pull that long, gritty, nasty, hardbreaking-GOD I need to hurry up and do a trigger job on this one-trigger...it IS gonna go KABANG and whatever you were aiming it at is also gonna go KABANG into a bunch of tiny pieces.

Gentlemen, HUG YOUR SKS today!!
When ALL else fails you KNOW that 65 year old + Russian-designed antique is going to send lead out the muzzle real fast.

OK...sorry for the long-windedness...again and I'm off to take down my JRC and try to see why it's giving light primer strikes :-(
 
The biggest issue most modern rifles in Canada have is magazines and frankenbuilds... Unfortunately crap riveting jobs cause all sorts of problems for a quality FACTORY ARs. If you're running mags without rivets (eg LAR 15) you'll not have the same problems. I've got 1000s of rounds through my ARs without ANY issues once I got my mags right.

I don't think it's fair to lump PCC in with rifles... They're trying to do something pistol rounds weren't meant to...

But yes, the SKS is a wonderful and dependable rifle!
 
Price has nothing to do with it for me. I'd still own the four I have if they were at US prices. I love them.
Canadians have simply become desensitized to this rifle.
 
EL34/6L6 said:
Price has nothing to do with it for me. I'd still own the four I have if they were at US prices. I love them.
Canadians have simply become desensitized to this rifle.
Click to expand...

I would agree after shooting one the very first time, I would have prob paid 5 hun for one if that was the price.
 
EL34/6L6 said:
Price has nothing to do with it for me. I'd still own the four I have if they were at US prices. I love them.
Canadians have simply become desensitized to this rifle.
Click to expand...

Exactly, Between my co-workers , shooting buddies , and friends I grew up with everyone has one now. We have even taking out non shooters to the range/woods . They tried the sks, heard what they cost . After got licensed up in order to buy their own.
 
Here's a funny and, at the same time, sad tale.
My buddy tells me he scored an awesome deal. Guy who owed him a lot of cashola for some work done offered to pay him with a rifle. Told him it was a semi auto tactical .270 and that it was worth $6000. He got it for $2000 to cover part of the bill. Showed it to me and I started laughing. It was an ATI stocked, top rail mounted with some crappy no name scoped, SKS! Didn't even have the detachable mag set up! The ammo was stamped 270 so my friend thought it was some special tactical .270 ammo. We argued for a few minutes and out came the micrometer with calipers: 7.62mm x 39mm!! He has hunting rifles and shotguns but had never seen a SKS before.
Anyone wanna buy a lightly used SKS for $2000 just to recoup costs?! (sarcasm)
 
"You definitely know you're shooting a real gun when you shoot the SKS."

If you were out my way I'd give you a mag of .50Beowulf to bench shoot in my AR. That'll put hair on your marbles ;)

My advice: keep a rubber mallet in your range bag. A few weeks ago I had to fetch my The Club to beat the piss out of a guys bolt carrier with when he had one jammed in the pipe. Not the first time an SKS has needed some percussive maintenance. Lol
 
I love surplus guns. I went through a whole spam can of mosin ammo yesterday, Lots of fun and great practice guns. I have a mosin, sks and svt for collecting and a mosin and sks for shooting. Love em and if I go back to work I will be adding more mosins, Great guns when you replace the stock to something comfortable.

I don't know why people say they are inaccurate because they are not if you can hold em steady. I think I will be taking my mosin hunting next year because I have got to a point where I feel conferable enough with it.
 
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