Well I got the PAL now and about $300 burning a hole in my pocket. Thinking of getting a SKS. I have a few questions though. I know some of the Sponser's sell them, where is a good place to get one? Recommendations? Can they be used for deer hunting with soft nose bullets? The 7.62x39 round seems very similar in knock down power to the 30-30? Are there ones I should look for such as Chinese Vs Russian?
Thinking of buying an SKS
- Thread starter FLYBYU44
- Start date
Great rifle for deer hunting, ballistics are near bang on vs a 30-30 commercial load I've read.
Doesn't really matter which one you get, russian laminate stock guns are the nicest looking of them all but they all shoot nearly the same.
Chinese has spike bayonet, Russians have blades. Don't recall what bayonet Yugoslavians have had not had one.
If you cant hand pick one locally you could have someone pick you out a nice one and ship it to you, I hand picked my last one and it was beautiful but had to sell it to cover vet bills.
I've had 2 Chinese SKS & one D model (uses AK47 Mags) and 5 Russians so far, currently have a Russian in my safe.
I really miss that D.
Doesn't really matter which one you get, russian laminate stock guns are the nicest looking of them all but they all shoot nearly the same.
Chinese has spike bayonet, Russians have blades. Don't recall what bayonet Yugoslavians have had not had one.
If you cant hand pick one locally you could have someone pick you out a nice one and ship it to you, I hand picked my last one and it was beautiful but had to sell it to cover vet bills.
I've had 2 Chinese SKS & one D model (uses AK47 Mags) and 5 Russians so far, currently have a Russian in my safe.
I really miss that D.
Westrifle has the absolute nicest if you're looking for all-matching, non-refurb and as close to undefiled as you're going to get in this country.
If you're wanting a hunter, it's a crap shoot as far as getting one that's tight where it needs to be and loose where it needs to be. Refurb, non-refurb, unissued,...doesn't much matter in terms of shootability/performance. The lightly refurbed are potentially better shooters right off the shelf because they've had the bugs worked out and have been fired a bit. Some of the most accurate I've owned have been lightly refurbed and the very best is a '53 refurb that hits minute of saucer (teacup) at 100 yards. 200 yards is your furthest distance with any kind of hitting power.
If you grip the forestock and squeeze the handguard against the forestock, the forestock should move up and down a bit and be just slight of the ferrule or lightly touching. Generally, there should be no play in the stock between the the trigger group/takedown latch and the recoil lug - the tighter the better.
Trigger action plays a fairly significant role in accuracy as well. Positive, negative or neutral sear engagement will be a factor, but the first and second phase are more significant. You can do a pretty easy DIY trigger job on the sear itself. And it doesn't take much to get the travel down to nothing while eliminating creep in the second stage, and getting a nice, crisp break at low poundage. Take it slow if you haven't done this before and be prepared to reassemble, test, disassemble and so forth. A dozen or less strokes with a good, quality precision flat file at a time between tests. There are youtube vids that are in-depth and informative. Be sure to check them out before proceeding with any kind of trigger work.
Right of the hop, the best bet is a russian if you plan on doing work to get it dialed in. Just by virtue of the quality control and consistancy. Avoid anything Russian that predates '53, though. They got it right almost every time by then, and afterward.
There are no fast and loose rules of thumb with these rifles. Some are better than others, but most Russian rifles have potential to be much more than they are as they come off the line.
Others' mileage may vary, of course
If you're wanting a hunter, it's a crap shoot as far as getting one that's tight where it needs to be and loose where it needs to be. Refurb, non-refurb, unissued,...doesn't much matter in terms of shootability/performance. The lightly refurbed are potentially better shooters right off the shelf because they've had the bugs worked out and have been fired a bit. Some of the most accurate I've owned have been lightly refurbed and the very best is a '53 refurb that hits minute of saucer (teacup) at 100 yards. 200 yards is your furthest distance with any kind of hitting power.
If you grip the forestock and squeeze the handguard against the forestock, the forestock should move up and down a bit and be just slight of the ferrule or lightly touching. Generally, there should be no play in the stock between the the trigger group/takedown latch and the recoil lug - the tighter the better.
Trigger action plays a fairly significant role in accuracy as well. Positive, negative or neutral sear engagement will be a factor, but the first and second phase are more significant. You can do a pretty easy DIY trigger job on the sear itself. And it doesn't take much to get the travel down to nothing while eliminating creep in the second stage, and getting a nice, crisp break at low poundage. Take it slow if you haven't done this before and be prepared to reassemble, test, disassemble and so forth. A dozen or less strokes with a good, quality precision flat file at a time between tests. There are youtube vids that are in-depth and informative. Be sure to check them out before proceeding with any kind of trigger work.
Right of the hop, the best bet is a russian if you plan on doing work to get it dialed in. Just by virtue of the quality control and consistancy. Avoid anything Russian that predates '53, though. They got it right almost every time by then, and afterward.
There are no fast and loose rules of thumb with these rifles. Some are better than others, but most Russian rifles have potential to be much more than they are as they come off the line.
Others' mileage may vary, of course
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Id go russian or yugo... I have both a russian and chinese... Russian is great. Chinese had some issues with parts fitting (gas tube and mag) that reuired some modification to fit back together after cleaning. Both are unissued, unrefurb surplus but the russian was definatly worth the couple of bucks extra
For your needs, Russian or Chinese would do. Just get the best one available. If you want to spend more time at the range, the cheapest option would be to shoot corrosive and just switch to softpoints, sight in and take her to the bush when you wanna bag a deer. If you shoot corrosive (military surpluss ammo) make sure you clean her properly (there is a good sticky on corrosive cleanup here in Red Rifles).
Unissued Chinese was my first SKS, and my first rifle in General. I'd recommend one.
It was very tight to take apart and put back together the first few times, the finish is fine but nothing spectacular, and it came covered in enough cosmoline to preserve a tank. After five range trips, it was very smooth to disassemble and re-assemble, the finish was the last thing on my mind, and the cosmoline was of course long gone before I first shot it. The rifle is as accurate as an SKS can get, and I literally cannot make it stop working. I've stopped cleaning it - all I do is neutralize the corrosive salts and then reassemble. The working parts are caked black, the gas tube has so much carbon in it that you can tap on it and some will fall out, and the barrel is actually fine looking, dirty, but no corrosion and the chrome lining is holding up. It's been over 4000 rounds of Chinese, Romanian, and Polish corrosive surplus since it's last cleaning and it hasn't jammed and accuracy is the same as when it was clean. I even threw all the working parts in the mud at the range, re-assembled, and shot 200 rounds - no malfunctions. I can't get it to stop working.
For the $199 I paid for it, it's probably the best deal in Canada. The Chinese ones aren't as flashy as the Russian ones, and are more plentiful, so if you get it and neglect or bang it up, you don't need to feel as bad. Bad, but not as bad. Out of my five SKS's, including Russians, a Yugo, and Chinese, my first Type 56 sees by far the most use.
Whatever you get, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. These things won't be around at this price for ever, and when they're gone, you'll regret not buying one at this price. Keep it stock, too. If you want to put some tacticool plastic garbage all over it (which won't change the fact that it's STILL AN SKS), get another one and keep that one stock. You'll not regret it when they're going for 500 bucks a piece. Back in the early 1990's, Danish Garands cost under 300 bucks a pop. Look at what they sell for now. One day, the under $200 we pay for most of these will be nothing but a memory we tell on CGN 2.0 to the new shooters of the future about how much better things used to be.
It was very tight to take apart and put back together the first few times, the finish is fine but nothing spectacular, and it came covered in enough cosmoline to preserve a tank. After five range trips, it was very smooth to disassemble and re-assemble, the finish was the last thing on my mind, and the cosmoline was of course long gone before I first shot it. The rifle is as accurate as an SKS can get, and I literally cannot make it stop working. I've stopped cleaning it - all I do is neutralize the corrosive salts and then reassemble. The working parts are caked black, the gas tube has so much carbon in it that you can tap on it and some will fall out, and the barrel is actually fine looking, dirty, but no corrosion and the chrome lining is holding up. It's been over 4000 rounds of Chinese, Romanian, and Polish corrosive surplus since it's last cleaning and it hasn't jammed and accuracy is the same as when it was clean. I even threw all the working parts in the mud at the range, re-assembled, and shot 200 rounds - no malfunctions. I can't get it to stop working.
For the $199 I paid for it, it's probably the best deal in Canada. The Chinese ones aren't as flashy as the Russian ones, and are more plentiful, so if you get it and neglect or bang it up, you don't need to feel as bad. Bad, but not as bad. Out of my five SKS's, including Russians, a Yugo, and Chinese, my first Type 56 sees by far the most use.
Whatever you get, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. These things won't be around at this price for ever, and when they're gone, you'll regret not buying one at this price. Keep it stock, too. If you want to put some tacticool plastic garbage all over it (which won't change the fact that it's STILL AN SKS), get another one and keep that one stock. You'll not regret it when they're going for 500 bucks a piece. Back in the early 1990's, Danish Garands cost under 300 bucks a pop. Look at what they sell for now. One day, the under $200 we pay for most of these will be nothing but a memory we tell on CGN 2.0 to the new shooters of the future about how much better things used to be.
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Sks is the way to go for a first rifle IMO. That's what I did. I got a SKS with the ammo deal by Marstar. I'd say get a russian and keep it stock cause after a few trips to the range and seeing all the cool CZ858 pics and vids, you'll quickly want one...lol.
You have to be careful when listening to comparisons made by people who don't shoot these rounds. Most people hunt 30-30 use 170gr bullets and almost never the 125gr bullets even if they could find them, where 7.62x39 commercial soft points are 125gr. So in reality, the answer is no, they are not the same if you compare the common and most used 170gr bullet to the 125gr in X39. yes, it can kill a deer, but no , they are not the same.
Thanks for all the advice guys, sounds like I will have to try one out. I always wanted one and now that I have a PAL I think I better jump on them before the price skyrockets. I don't plan to modify it, would like to keep it stock. Will look into the trigger job maybe if it looks like it needs one.
Good to hear. In my experience, Russian and the five or so Chinese SKS's I have fired have acceptable triggers, with one of my Russians having a trigger that I would actually describe as quite good, believe it or not. Strangely, my Yugo has a horrible trigger that is so bad, I gave it to my girlfriend who knows next to nothing about shooting and when she tried the trigger she said it was really uncomfortable to pull.
You may need to do a trigger job, but there's a good chance it won't be that bad.
I can't remember how many sks's I've owned over the years, but its alot. They're one of my favourite mil-surps. As to which is better, as stated above, its a crap shoot. In my experience its more individual rifles than country of origin that determines accuracy. That being said, I prefer the Russians. I recently bought a 53 russian, it shoots well now, but when I first got it, it had a horrendously bad trigger. But, as mentioned before, it was an easy fix. It will keep 3 shots of most ammo inside 3 inches at 100yrds now and thats all I can ask of any sks.
They are a viable deer cartridge, not quite a 30-30 win, but to be honest I have rifles better suited for deer hunting.As long as you don't stretch the range on it, the 7.62x39 will cleanly take a white-tail sized animal. I have 2 friends that use theirs for deer and have seen the results on 4 animals.All were shot under 100yrds with 123 gr soft points, complete penetration on all, none went more than 50 yrds after being hit, all in all decent performance.
In short, buy one, you wont regret it. Dont expect it to do was it wasn't designed for and you wont be dissapointed.
A2
They are a viable deer cartridge, not quite a 30-30 win, but to be honest I have rifles better suited for deer hunting.As long as you don't stretch the range on it, the 7.62x39 will cleanly take a white-tail sized animal. I have 2 friends that use theirs for deer and have seen the results on 4 animals.All were shot under 100yrds with 123 gr soft points, complete penetration on all, none went more than 50 yrds after being hit, all in all decent performance.
In short, buy one, you wont regret it. Dont expect it to do was it wasn't designed for and you wont be dissapointed.
A2
steamy teabag
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Inside Carneys Reich
Think no more. Go and get one. Cheap to shoot and you can harvest deer with it. Great rifle.
Major Sights
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Westlock, AB
Please, for the love of GOD! STOP thinking about it. Just go do it. You won't be sorry! 
- Location
- Saskatchewan
Sks is an excellent choice.
They are cheap and fun !!
I've had my Yugo for nearly ten years now...don't think I could part with it.
My .22's get more action these days...but she still comes out to play from time to time.
They are cheap and fun !!
I've had my Yugo for nearly ten years now...don't think I could part with it.
My .22's get more action these days...but she still comes out to play from time to time.
- Location
- Steel Town and The Peg
The SKS is by far my favourite rifle in my collection. It's a combination of history, durability, 'cool factor', and dirt cheap ammo. Oh, and an inexpensive rifle to boot!. It's damn hard to beat that combination.
