SKS, where have you been all my life.

The SKS has long been credited as a wonderfully overbuilt, tough as nails mid century carbine that MANY Canadians take for granted.

I have few beautifully blued matching # Russian refurb examples that I picked from crates of them back in 2011.

I have a few Chinese ones too. One unfired in original grease, the other is my shooter rifle that I assembled from various parts in order to restore to it's original configuration. Only the receiver and trigger group have the same number. That rifle is a bloody lazer...
 
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After the plastic bag in the sun / cosmoline removal.

A nice , brass plate bedded timbersmith wood stock for better LOP and look.

A Muzzle brake to annoy the people next to me into leaving at the range.

A scope rail and a good russian P1X42 red dot,

Lots of sanding and fitting to get those tapco mag to fit perfectly

A big trigger polish and spring job to make it a ( as crisp as it gets) goot 4.5 pound pull with no takeup


My SKS does about 2 MOA with barnaul laquer ammo. All in all, cost me about 600$ in parts and the gubn was a hand picked grade so like 300$ tax in.

SKS is awesome.
 
350 Mag said:
Got out yesterday.

With a couple cheap Cabela's $180 SKS.

I am not sure how anyone could look down on these guns.

One of funnest guns I have shot in a long time.

Not one failure and shot pretty accurately....

I hope the dealer's start bringing in more of these....
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What’s not to like? Cheap (even at these prices), accurate enough, indestructible, parts galore, accessories galore, cheap ammo, fun fun fun... buy a few...
 
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IMHO, until there's a modern-manufacture semi-automatic centrefire rifle priced below the SKS, the SKS will still be a go-to for many Canadians (milsurp-oriented or otherwise)... :canadaFlag:
 
I'm sure there's another 50 million sks" just waiting to be imported and then marked up 1000%

Don't get me wrong, I like the sks. Mine is accurate. All sks stocks are crap though, and the rifle design is dated. It's maybe a $300 rifle. Then again, look at what people pay for bolt actions that are little more than threaded pipe (rem 700) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
- Lousy sights.
- Difficult to mount any type of optics or red dot. (you will go crazy buying all sorts of cheap crap mounts if you try)
- A pain in the ass to clean (if using the cheap corrosive primer ammo)
- Heavy and ugly (with a length of pull designed for 5'4" Siberians with short arms)
- Can't be used/not allowed at many ranges.
- 10 MOA accuracy (if you are lucky)
- Not too many uses (except establishing your mall ninja credentials at the range).

Otherwise OK.

Full disclosure: In submitting this review I am not now nor ever have been in the employ of any third world dictatorship trying to unload this junk.
 
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stampede said:
- Lousy sights.
- Difficult to mount any type of optics or red dot. (you will go crazy buying all sorts of cheap crap mounts if you try)
- A pain in the ass to clean (if using the cheap corrosive primer ammo)
- Heavy and ugly (with a length of pull designed for 5'4" Siberians with short arms)
- Can't be used/not allowed at many ranges.
- 10 MOA accuracy (if you are lucky)
- Not too many uses (except establishing your mall ninja credentials at the range).

Otherwise OK.

Full disclosure: In submitting this review I am not now nor ever have been in the employ of any third world dictatorship trying to unload this junk.
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-sights are just fine. You probably just need to practice more
-who cares? sights are fine. I can hit propane tanks at 200m with both of mine
-It requires no tools to take apart and comes apart fully making it easy to clean. The fact you have to clean after corrosive is not a fault of the gun. Go buy the expensive stuff if you are that lazy
-It is kinda of heavy but considering its competition and price point it gets a pass. That weight also means is virtually indestructible. Its appearance of cool or ugly is purely opinion
- length of pull is fine. Shorter is easier to handle. I am 6' and I think its fine. Also if you look at most military they have their stocks collapsed quite abit. I really don't understand the desire to have long lengths of pull
-it can be used at any rifle range. Most nanny state ranges take issue with steel core ammo. Not fault of the rifle. Buy the good ammo or go to crown land
- its not a precision rifle, don't expect precision accuracy. It is better than 10moa. All of mine have been 5moa or less. Exception for something going wrong with the individual rifle which can happen with any gun. 5moa is fine for the price and what is was intended for
-it has plenty of uses. Hunting, competition, self defense, prepper related mindset, farm gun and the list goes on.

All in all rifle is fine
 
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Friend just grabbed one from Cabelas as they just came in

Looks like a refurb, Tula Arsenal, 1952, all matching numbers except for cartridge case.

Anything cool about this year or era? Looks beautiful when I handled it

Looks like a used one too, covered in cosmoline though.... he's pretty stoked
 
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Gnome75 said:
-sights are just fine. You probably just need to practice more
-who cares? sights are fine. I can hit propane tanks at 200m with both of mine
-It requires no tools to take apart and comes apart fully making it easy to clean. The fact you have to clean after corrosive is not a fault of the gun. Go buy the expensive stuff if you are that lazy
-It is kinda of heavy but considering its competition and price point it gets a pass. That weight also means is virtually indestructible. Its appearance of cool or ugly is purely opinion
- length of pull is fine. Shorter is easier to handle. I am 6' and I think its fine. Also if you look at most military they have their stocks collapsed quite abit. I really don't understand the desire to have long lengths of pull
-it can be used at any rifle range. Most nanny state ranges take issue with steel core ammo. Not fault of the rifle. Buy the good ammo or go to crown land
- its not a precision rifle, don't expect precision accuracy. It is better than 10moa. All of mine have been 5moa or less. Exception for something going wrong with the individual rifle which can happen with any gun. 5moa is fine for the price and what is was intended for
-it has plenty of uses. Hunting, competition, self defense, prepper related mindset, farm gun and the list goes on.

All in all rifle is fine
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Don’t worry lol the OP is probably very upset right now because he didn’t have an sks and they prohibited all his modern tactical assault very high firing rate centrefire rifles... too soon? Oh well lol
 
350 Mag said:
They are alot more accurate than 10 moa?

I guess maybe it depends on ammo?

I am going to reload some in Hornaday SSTs.
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I'm going to play with Lapua and Vihtavuori N120 loads.. European components are not so crazy expensive anymore compared to US-imported components because of the exchange rate these days.
 
firebat said:
I'm going to play with Lapua and Vihtavuori N120 loads.. European components are not so crazy expensive anymore compared to US-imported components because of the exchange rate these days.
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Mines going to be Geco Brass, CFE BLK, CCI 34 primers and Hdy 123 gr SST and VMAX.

Going to setup on my LnL AP press but will resize and seat primers on single stage....don't think the AP will have enough leverage to size and prime?


Does anyone have experience how many firings before trimming?

Is Lee Quick trim die the way to go?
 
350 Mag said:
Mines going to be Geco Brass, CFE BLK, CCI 34 primers and Hdy 123 gr SST and VMAX.

Going to setup on my LnL AP press but will resize and seat primers on single stage....don't think the AP will have enough leverage to size and prime?


Does anyone have experience how many firings before trimming?

Is Lee Quick trim die the way to go?
Click to expand...

Number of firings before trimming will be based on your loads. It's good practice to measure a couple sample pieces before reloading a batch just to see how much flow is occurring. Investing in a multi use trimmer like the Lyman with power adapter can be very handy.
 
I use Lee Case Conditioning kit and a hand electric drill. It's producing consistent results and is very cheap and easy to use.
 
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