Joined the SKS club

[MegaPlinker]

I just got home with my 1st sks, a chinese norinco sporter. It has no rust or visible cosmoline, a good barrel, and only minor scratches and dings on the wood. It also came with two extra dust cover scope mounts. Its missing the bayonet and cleaning kit but for a $130 shooter I'm pretty happy. I can't wait to take it apart and clean the internals so I can try it out.

A question on ammo: I got some 20 rnd boxes of wolf ammo that "claims" to be non-corrosive. Does anyone know if this can be trusted as non-corrosive?

 

[tele_mark]

So sense taking a chance. Just squirt it down with a 50/50 mix off ammonia/water, then clean as usual.

 

[SKS Ray]

Congrats. Does it have the scope rail on the side of the receiver? The sporter models were comonly refered to as paratrooper models and have shorter barels with a scop rail attached to the side. No one knows what kind of mount fits on these though. They were made up for the US civillian market by Norinco.
Wolf is non corrosive btw, and make sure you take the firing pin out of the bolt and clean the inside well. I use a light spray of Remington dri lube on my firing pins before putting them back in. Its gotta be as dry as possible in there with no oil at all. This allows the pin to slide back and forth to avoid slam fires if you get ammo with soft primers.
Any SKS or AK in 7.62x39 is fine with Wolf, or Golden Tiger. Those brands of Russian ammo are non corrosive. Its when you get into the surplus Yugoslavian stuff and old Chinese ammo that you have to worry about corrosive clean up.
You can find slings, bayonets, and just about any accessory you need for them online, just make sure they're listed as Chinese.

One more note: If you have a chance, get at least a sleeve (or half case) of ammo. Should run you about $100 for 500 rounds. Its a lot pricier than what it used to be but you'll find these guns are fun to shoot and blast through ammo fast.

 

[MegaPlinker]

Thanks for the reply on the wolf ammo. The stock reciever has no rails and mathing #'s. It came with two additional reciever covers with scope mounts. One is an elevated top mount marked BEC on the back. The other is a side mount with set screws on both sides, and Leapers scope rings.
I have heard that these dust cover mounts are not stable enough to be accurate. The one with set screws should be better, but I hate to put marks on a clean reciever.
I saw a good review of a side mount that requires drill & tap that I may look into later for a red dot. If I'm going to mark the reciever at least it would be solid.
Anyway, I'm off to the range! I'll report back later.

 

[SKS Ray]

You're thinking of the Choate mount. I have one but have been too lazy to dril and tap a receiver and instal it. This page http://www.simonov.net/gear.htm has lots of reviews on cover mounts as well as other accessories.

 

[MegaPlinker]

You're thinking of the Choate mount. I have one but have been too lazy to dril and tap a receiver and instal it. This page http://www.simonov.net/gear.htm has lots of reviews on cover mounts as well as other accessories.

Yup, thats the one. Looks like a better setup then the reciever cover mounts.

I just got back from the range and the SKS performed well. The only problem was twice the lower ammo door sprung open on recoil spilling all the ammo on the ground. I'll see if I can strengthen the latch spring somehow. Accuracy was decent considering it was EXTREMELY windy. 100 yds was pretty scattered but I'll reserve judgement on that till a calmer day.

Man, that wollf ammo stinks!! I mean it literaly smells terrible.
I usually love the smell of spent powder but this stuff was pretty noxious. For 4$ a box I guess I can deal with it for now.

I think my 1st upgrade will be a recoil pad to lengthen the stock. I had to move my thumb to the side of the stock to keep from giving myself a nose job.

 

[SKS Ray]

Welcome to the world of shooting surplus rifles. That ain't yer Daddy's 22.
Yeah the Wolf smells bad, but I've actually become conditioned to the smells of certain ammo types. Nothing is worst than British surplus 303. Literally smells like your shooting used cat litter.
Check that link I posted and also check a Sarco add in a copy of Shotgun News for accessories. A Choate stock will also help with the accuracy and length of pull. Heres a shot of mine.

Its a bit heavy but I got a nice increase in accuracy and the butt pad has spacers you can add or remove, plus theres a removable cheek piece in case you add a scope mount. You can also add a sling swivel mounted bi pod because theres a sling mount on the stock and that makes for better accuracy than having the clamp on barrel type. Price was pretty good too, ya just gotta hunt for a site with the best price, usually about $50.

 

[Len-2A Training]

Caution on Chinese SKS and bayonets. IIRC, installing one on most Chinese SKSes is a violation of Fed Law (922r). Check carefully before doing this. There is a prior thread here on the SKS referring to a particular website with all the info on this variety of rifle, including the legal intricacies.

 

[GaryNH]

Congrats on your SKS! I have a '52 Tula in super excellent condition. Thinking of picking up a beater Yugo so I don't have to shoot the Tula.

Gary

 

[Pilgrim]

Does it look like this? I love this thing..very accurate.

 

[Thor67]

I have a Yugo SKS and love it too. Sweet shooting and accurate. The ammo is cheap too. It's a tank!

 

[LORD of WAR]

here ya go...sks's from across the globe

top to bottom:
chinese paratropper
norinco with the spike bayonet missing
yugo
rearsenaled russian
laminated russian
albanian

the only one im missing is a romanian i think

there are also 2 other yugos not included in the pic

 

[tele_mark]

Show-off!

 

[LORD of WAR]

oooops...i just realized i put this in the wrong thread....it should be in the "any sks pics" thread

 

[SKS Ray]

here ya go...sks's from across the globe

top to bottom:
chinese paratropper
norinco with the spike bayonet missing
yugo
rearsenaled russian
laminated russian
albanian

the only one im missing is a romanian i think

there are also 2 other yugos not included in the pic

I'm down an Albanian and a laminated Russian from competing with your collection. You and I both need a Romanian, Korean, and the rare and elusive East German.

 

[LORD of WAR]

milsurps...never seen an east german for sale...and i heard that koreans are nothing more than chinese norincos that were shipped over there

 

[SKS Ray]

So little is known about the Korean SKSs. What is known is that most made their way to Vietnam and some Vietnam bring backs are Russian or Chinese. The Korean ones, while possibly being from a diferent country, still bear a Korean stamping thats unique to that country's rifle. Then theres the Sino-Soviet models, Chinese honor guard models, and lots of factory codes for the Chinese especially and a good number of Russians with diferent stocks and other minor diferences. There is literally a complete collecting need alone in just SKS rifles that one could probably never fill.
I know I'd like to check out the Howard Bearse collection.
http://www.simonov.net/howiecollect.htm