What is the most accurate hunting ammo from your SKS?

Joel

Joel

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Looking for some inspiration here. Yep, I know guns are all different beasts, but hoping there are some clear winnes haha. Its interesting to find out.

I've got a Chinese blade bayo SKS here in great shape. Shoots a 6" 10 shot group with Chinese surplus and I am sure thats mostly because of me and not it. Problem is, it does noticably worse with PPU soft points and one load I tried with Speer gold dots. Forgot if it was N120 or RL10x I loaded those with but like...Big ugly 5 shot group.

Did about 4-5" with Barnes 123gr TSX.

Obviously it has preferences.

Have you guys ever noticed a certain load tightened things up for you at all? Either way I am absolutely not worried about hunting deer at 100 yards tops with a 4" group. People do it with iron sighted 30-30s all the time. Just curious.
 

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ShortStrokeArmoury said:
My SKSs will tighten the group 1-2 in with the bayonet out. Last time the Tula w/ Barnaul got 5.4 MOA Bayo in, and 3.42 MOA Bayo out. 5 round groups, also shot 2 in closer to point of aim
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I'll give that a try just for kicks. Shoot a couple groups with it folded then with it extended.
 
Butcherbill said:
I’ve never found ammo to make any difference in accuracy in any sks I’ve owned, shimming the action tight into the stock shrunk groups in half. PPU, MFS, Hornady all shot the same as non corrosive Norc white box or Romanian surplus.
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How did you shim it?

I thought the same on "ammo doesn't make a difference" til I saw PPU and a handload shoot worse than my acceptable Chinese ball ammo
 
Metal shim stock between the rear recoil lug and the stock and between the cross bolt and the front lug, the front shim has a long enough tab that I can grab it with needle nose pliers when I’m taking the barreled action out of the stock. You can’t get to the rear one till the action hinges out of the stock and it falls out, the trigger group pushes it flush with the stock inlet for the trigger group.

If you shim it tight you need to be able to remove the front shim to give enough space to get it out of the stock. Groups went from 6-7” down to 3-3.25” consistently with irons and any ammo I used, the odd 4-4.5”. Doing a trigger job would improve groups I would bet.

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Butcherbill said:
I’ve thought about hunting with it but then I come to my senses lol, I’ve got lighter things to carry around that shoot better. It would be fun in certain situations though.
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Yeah, know what you mean.

Its an odd fascination here haha. Not based on anything practical
 
I'm in no way reccomending that you try this load, but what works in my sks is a hornady 123 grain SST loaded over 27.2 grains of Reloader 7. I get between an 1 and 1.5 inches at 100 yards
I must add that I put the barreled action in a Timbersmith stock that has absolutely no play in it. I also mounted a primary arms 3x optic on a Magwedge rail that is rock solid. It is obviously a combination of things that produces consistently good accuracy.
Why go through all that for an SKS. Well, I love the platform, but for me accuracy is everything. Regardless of how much I like the platform, it was either I get it to shoot accurately or it and I would have parted ways.
One other thing, I read somewhere that on the muzzle side of the front sight there is a number stamped. Number 1, 2, and 3. I think it denotes the accuracy of a particular rifle all matching 1 being the best. Now, I don't know if that's true, but mine was a 1. By the way mine is a Russian Tula. I don't know if it's the same for Chinese products.

4 Shots
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Quigly said:
I'm in no way reccomending that you try this load, but what works in my sks is a hornady 123 grain SST loaded over 27.2 grains of Reloader 7. I get between an 1 and 1.5 inches at 100 yards
I must add that I put the barreled action in a Timbersmith stock that has absolutely no play in it. I also mounted a primary arms 3x optic on a Magwedge rail that is rock solid. It is obviously a combination of things that produces consistently good accuracy.
Why go through all that for an SKS. Well, I love the platform, but for me accuracy is everything. Regardless of how much I like the platform, it was either I get it to shoot accurately or it and I would have parted ways.
One other thing, I read somewhere that on the muzzle side of the front sight there is a number stamped. Number 1, 2, and 3. I think it denotes the accuracy of a particular rifle all matching 1 being the best. Now, I don't know if that's true, but mine was a 1. By the way mine is a Russian Tula. I don't know if it's the same for Chinese products.

4 Shots
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Would be happy to try that load.

Heck why not go that far on trickin out an SKS! It worked. Thats a sweet shooter.

Having the action solid in the stock must make a big difference.
 
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