What percent of SKS rifles are "more accurate"
- Thread starter flyinlead
- Start date
How are you acheiving this? Scope? Lead Sled? Rock steady shooter?
I use a pair of bag rests to steady the rifle. I use Czech surplus ammo, and it has a red dot sight on it, but even without the sight it worked pretty good. Cleaning up the rough trigger helped a bit as well.
There is a fella at the range that replaced the front sight with the Tru Glo one and he can really shoot his well, His groups are almost always under 2" just using block of wood for a front rest.
Yes, and that could be attributed a lot to the fact that the Chinese SKS were brand new where the Russian were refurb for the most part or unrefurbed but issued, so a lot of the time, the barrel may have already had a few thousand rounds down the pipe, as long as it met the specs going through refurb or restocking, then it would not get replaced! Therefore they may be a bit more inaccurate than the new Chinese barrels!
- Location
- West Quebec
I am keeping one of my chinese military SKS unfired for posterity... JP.
Why lol..
The last time Marstar did find some in the wharehouse, i bought 2, they were pricey, i left one in cosmoline as we were told that factory 306 would be seldom seen from now on as a BNIB...
Just an old man fantasy, i guess...
Must be right on, never seen no more for sale after that JP.
Good on you! I wish I had your foresight. Ten years from now, if you want to sell that one, I will be interested.
Eaglelord17
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Sault Ste. Marie
I have found the Chinese ones I have shot, shot better than the Russian ones (again as mentioned above the fact that they were like new probally had something to do with it). I also think the type of ammo has a fair bit to do with it as well. I haven't played around with better ammo in the SKS but I have with a Mosin. The results with the Mosin (mint bores) were astounding with handloads, honestly comparable to my K31 at 100m (this is with irons, that extra little bit for the grouping is the shooter not the rifle). I don't even like shooting surplus through them anymore as it is so inaccurate (when your able to get inch and a half groups with handloads and surplus is at least 4 inches), it just defeats the fun. I imagine you could do the same thing with a SKS, though I doubt it would be as dramatic a difference.
Hey, you might be on to something there, where exactly do you put the shims in? The other day I actually felt the receiver shift a couple times in the stock as I was shooting.
the front cross bolt, and that will tighten things up nicely.
I read that sticky that Ganderite did, what I gather from it is that most surplus ammo is way more accurate than an SKS, so the ammo choice should not make much difference.
Many variables involved, including variations (and exaggerations)in how groups are measured in guys claims/reports.. With measuring devices or lack thereof!!
I'm using a Russian SKS, solid bench equipment and technique (I shoot sub 1/2 moa with custom bolt gun on it so it's not me) using the stock sights which doesn't help..
SKS is such a cool gun and so widely available... Trying to get an idea if I should keep buying until I get that "gem"
I'm glad I kept on buying, just for the thrill of finding "good" ones among the "okay"
AHA! You are going to sell those you don't want? As long as they are blued, I will be interested.
I think most of the ones I sell will be parkerized but I will look for whatever year you need in blued at the sale, let me know the year, they have most of them labeled! I would say 50% of the 150 they have are blued, some have nice stocks some are fuggly. At the sale they will be $179.99. Which isn't as good as I thought but not too bad!
I appear to be leaning towards a collection,,, whereas previously I just bought whatever was nice and also maybe a bit more rare! I would buy almost every izzy I could find, I got lucky and found a few, some parked and some blued, as I said in another thread, there is one 54 izzy there with a butt ugly stock but the blueing is awesome, and I didn't put it aside, plus there was what looked like a non refurb 51 I believe and I already had 6 put aside so I let it go,, ( might revisit that one)!
I appear to be leaning towards a collection,,, whereas previously I just bought whatever was nice and also maybe a bit more rare! I would buy almost every izzy I could find, I got lucky and found a few, some parked and some blued, as I said in another thread, there is one 54 izzy there with a butt ugly stock but the blueing is awesome, and I didn't put it aside, plus there was what looked like a non refurb 51 I believe and I already had 6 put aside so I let it go,, ( might revisit that one)!
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Ha, I know I am running of at the mouth like a soup sandwich, however, something to think about for folks looking for an SKS, if you want a shooter, you may be better off with a refurb rather than non refurb, especially if you can tell that the barrel is replaced! Non refurb would have all original equipment that has likely been looked at before being put back in stock,, the refurb has had a lot of parts replaced hopefully including the barrel (.say a 1950 with chrome barrel would for sure have had the barrel replaced!)
Some of my latest purchases have most, or all the trigger group/ springs replaced and it looks like the bolt carrier and possibly the bolt replaced, they look like new!! The parkerizing on the ones I have is very tough so the rifle can be beat around( truck gun) without much damage. I don't have one but I seen a 55 with parkerizing that looked like truck bed liner( small bumps/ rough looking finish,, in a good way) this looked and felt tough, if I wanted a brush/ truck gun that was going to have a rough life, that would be the gun! So if you aren't looking for collector value or future retirement money then the refurb would be they way to go from what I have seen!
Some of my latest purchases have most, or all the trigger group/ springs replaced and it looks like the bolt carrier and possibly the bolt replaced, they look like new!! The parkerizing on the ones I have is very tough so the rifle can be beat around( truck gun) without much damage. I don't have one but I seen a 55 with parkerizing that looked like truck bed liner( small bumps/ rough looking finish,, in a good way) this looked and felt tough, if I wanted a brush/ truck gun that was going to have a rough life, that would be the gun! So if you aren't looking for collector value or future retirement money
then the refurb would be they way to go from what I have seen!How are you acheiving this? Scope? Lead Sled? Rock steady shooter?
Yup, a proper scope system, trigger job, a lead sled, and decent ammo. Haven't come across an SKS yet given these conditions that hasent shot under 3".....
I have own many sks. I have never had any that were terribly inaccurate. Folks shoot the cheapest surplus they can get their hands on with a cheap receiver cover scope, and a cheap tapco stock and they say that their sks is inaccurate.
There are some mods that you can cheaply do that will enhance it. Polishing the sear and hammer, bedding the stock. Shoot decent ammo. Of the surplus stuff I liked Russian best.
Modified this way which might cost 6 bucks in materials it is rare to find a sks that is not capable of 3-5 MOA.
I have put techsights on a couple of sks. Yes it will increase the sight radius, but you lose the ability to adjust for range and the aperature is pretty small. I prefer the stock sights.
This is a picture of a group shot at 500 Meters. The target was just leaned against the berm so what I am seeing from the firing line is much smaller than it should be.
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People of compare accuracy of the SKS to the AR platform. If you load crap surplus in an AR you will end up with very poor accuracy.
this is article from the box o truth http://www.theboxotruth.com/educational-zone-8-5-56-military-ammo-accuracy/
So is it the rifle or is it the ammo that we feed it. I have not really explored that too much as the sks is minute of capitalist pig out to 500 Meters with cheap socialist ammo.
I like what you said about the cheap mods to improve the sks. My philosophy with the sks is that it's a cheap reliable utility tool, so I am not willing to put a lot of money into one. The gun is pretty good the way it is, just a few minor things need to be done.
I just built my own peep sight with a sling swivel stud, I will be posting a thread on that soon with pictures.
I also plan on doing the stock shimming thing, and possibly my own trigger job, via YouTube.
I'm not much for flimsy, expensive aftermarket stocks, the original laminate is good for me.
Hoping to see soon how my accuracy improves.
Can you guys recommend a good YouTube video for trigger work. My first SKS is a 54 lam from Westrifle, nice looker but sloppy in the stock as a hooker on Sunday morning, I am going to bed it,( could use a good recommendation on a YouTube for that too) do some light trigger work and maybe a peep for my old eyes!
I'm still kicking myself for not getting at least one, from that batch.
