SKS or M1A: SKS might be better

Самозарядный карабин системы Симонова, 1945; (Samozaryadny Karabin sistemy Simonova, 1945 tran. Self-loading Carbine of the Simonov system, 1945)

Rifle, 7.62mm, M14

One is a carbine, one is a rifle . . . .

God I love America where we are all free to voice an opinion. I have an SKS going back to the early 90s, nice little Chinese Communist rifle that it is. I also have a M1A and also an M1 Garand. Having and shooting all three I am not about to lay down in the prone position at the 500 meter line with my SKS. I have no reservation with the prone at 500 meters with my M1A or M1 Garand. Any comparison between a SKS and M14 (M1A) seems to be an apple / orange thing. There is nothing to compare. Damn, ain't America great!

Ron

SKS were not even worth the 69 bucks 30yrs + ago.

Pumped out by the millions and not good for much... Whatever floats your boat.

adcoch1 said:

I don't know if I'd call the sks better than the m1a, but an sks in the hands of someone who understands it is a very useful tool. I have had a few that were very accurate, and if you resist the urge to modify them, they are incredibly reliable.

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I poked 4 reasonably large holez in my sks' gas tube just to get its ejection to a .....not offensive, distance and angle.
Things so heavily over gassed you could probably use gummy bears for lube and it would still run.
Of the military autoloading rifles ive owned/used, the sks is my favorite.....wish its action was a couple inches shorter tho.

I did cut all the stuff of the front of mine, and converted it into a 5shot internal.

tarosean said:

SKS were not even worth the 69 bucks 30yrs + ago.

Pumped out by the millions and not good for much... Whatever floats your boat.

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Hey, my SKS takes offense to that. At least that’s what I think it’s saying to me, it’s speaking Mandarin, and I only speak Mandarin Chicken and Pork fried rice.

Personally, I think a good condition SKS is worth $300-350 to me. They are great little carbines, are they better than an M1 Carbine, Garand, or M1a, no but they still are very capable and fun to shoot.

I had one years ago for my kids to hunt with. I used it some. I also owned several AK's. It is fun for plinking as it has low recoil and it works at close range. I killed a nice buck with either the SKS or AK. I don't remember which. I can see why someone might prefer it. But in no way shape or form is it equivalent to a better built more accurate by far and way more powerful M-14 or clone. The SKS is no all that much lighter either. I would like it better if it was short and lighter and no so front heavy. The main thing I didn't like was the horrible accuracy of nearly all the Commie made guns. Sighting in an M-14 i was able to put 9 out of 10 shots in one hole with an off the rack issue weapon. At the same range with an SKS and most AK's you are lucky to hit a pie plate with some of them. Some are a little better. I have shot a Saiga that was fairly accurate, just under 3 MOA. but the was an exception.
You can like an SKS better. That's understandable. But to say it is better than an M-14 is by any reasonable measure very false. They lack accuracy, range and power by a wide margin.

Decades ago, an SKS was a good choice for someone with limited funds that wanted a military proven centerfire autoloader.

Considering you could get a Chinese or a Yugo in unissued condition with accessories for less than the price for a new base model Ruger 10/22 was something indeed. There was no way you were going to buy a heavily used M1A for less than a new base model Ruger 10/22 back then, or now.

But most of us here have more money than we did back then, so it's easy for us to dismiss the SKS these days. Especially since the SKS isn't Hi-Point cheap anymore and our eyesight requires optic ready rifles now.

ColoradoMinuteMan said:

I’m surprised to hear it’s nearly as cheap for you to reload 7.62x39 as purchase steel cases ammo. Before the latest crisis I was paying <$0.25 per round for steel cased Wolf pretty regularly and couldn’t reload once fired brass for <$0.40 for primed, powered and projectile alone. If you count the cost of brass it would be roughly double the cost for me. What projectiles do you use? I also don’t get measurably better accuracy out of an SKS with hand loaded ammunition.

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Using hornady 147 FMJ, primarily all bulk purchased, those and bulk bought remcorelocks, well before all this stupidity I looked around all over and scrounged deals, even found several big lots of WC 860 that functions well, bulk primers and GI brass rounds it out, some time ago, I believe I pencilled it out around 32 cents for my std ball ammo replacement. Even bought bulk Nozler Match 168s for match shooting, these obviously increased the bottom line.
I tried various 7.62x39 hand load options with boxer primer .310" bullets, cast sized .312" different powders.... but no real appreciable accuracy improvement

Apples and oranges. I don't like apples much, doesn't mean I don't see their appeal to others.
If these were my only options, and I got conscripted to to fight building-to-building, block-to-block, or in a dense jungle with limited visibility? I'd want the SKS. A little lighter, a little quicker back to target in the ranges I'd see.
Stuck out on the plains, mountains, open desert? M1A all day. Reach out before an SKS can touch you. Wouldn't be as happy with some extra recoil and report clearing out a basement.

I’ve always liked my SKS in the NC woods. My farthest shot on a deer was a measured 178 yards. M1A is no doubt nicer, but budget 308 bolt rifles are more accurate, and a fraction of the price.

An SKS with a good trigger job makes shooting it a lot more enjoyable.

Conelrad

For simple fun and with nobody to ever Need to impress, I enjoyed the three SKS.

The basic enjoyment finally morphed into wanting a few imported varieties of AKMs. Then adding a CSA/Czechpoint VZ-58. I'm 65, and this is all I want plus several .22 and 9mm handguns.
With no interest in wanting to even Have true sniper skills, I enjoy guns with which there would be Zero regrets if I were to become somehow incapacitated or die weeks from now.

It's about what we enjoy. Never owned a scope, bipod etc. Life's too short to care about any of that, unless the eyesight really goes downhill.
If we lived near available open desert shooting, a basic M1-A1 (iron sights) to use on small painted rocks at 200-300 yards might -then- be considered.

IMHO comparing the SKS to the M-14/M-1A is like comparing the M-1 Carbine to the M-1 Rifle. A light handy shoulder firearm with enough punch to stop or at least distract an assailant at close-say 50 yards range as opposed to a full sized battle rifle which offers more range and punch but requires more training.

ColoradoMinuteMan said:

The AK platform, has likely delivered more death than any other small arms platform, and a great deal of that was done with the 7.62x39 cartridge.

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Because they were made for cheap, there’s approx 100 million of them, and were bought by countries with large forces that have a habit of being in conflicts. It would stand to reason then that they deal more death.

I think they are similar rifles which bring similar things to the table in the real world. They’re both old school wood fixed stock primarily iron sight semi autos designed first and foremost for soldiers to fight with in pitched battle.

I think if you take a popular imaginary use-case, where you are a ripped marine sergeant, obliged to fight, either alone or with a few buddies, in varied terrain, and can pick whatever weapon you wish, money being no object, the versatility of .308 makes the M1A a great choice. You could use it close in or reach out and touch someone 600+ yards, use it against almost any wild animal, take it to a shooting match too with some work, etc.

On the other hand, most of us are going to actually be shooting at 50-300 yards on a range, or within that envelope either hunting, plinking, or maybe, just maybe, in combat or self defense. In which case the SKS for practical purposes is just fine, but notably cheaper, and ammo that is typically a lot cheaper also. And if your use case involves Revolution, guerilla insurrection, organized resistance, or organizing an army in any capacity where budget is a factor, the SKS will be a better choice. Hence why there hasn’t been a lot of demand for M1As in former Yugoslavia or sub-Saharan Africa.

Love the x39. It’s a fun little cartridge and very lethal inside 250 yards. I like the SKS. Trigger sucks but it was never intended to be anything but a mass produced battle carbine. But an M1-A or M-14, it is not. And it shouldn’t ever be expected to be.

I don’t think this invalidates that 7.62x39 is ineffective at the job it was designed for.

BigBore44 said:

Because they were made for cheap, there’s approx 100 million of them, and were bought by countries with large forces that have a habit of being in conflicts. It would stand to reason then that they deal more death.

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Some of you guys are vastly overestimating the effectiveness of the SKS .vs M-14. It is not a handy carbine, it is long and bulky, about the same size as an M-14 but more front heavy. Poor handling. The power and accuracy is also a huge difference at any range. I fought against them and used them for hunting. I also was issued an m-14 and ;later an M-16. To think an SKS is very effective beyond 125-150 yards is certainly not true except volley fire and marginal at that. First of all you can't hit anything in an aimed shot, and the energy level and trajectory really drops beyond that. An AK being shorter and full auto is a different story. Meanwhile an M-14 is more lethal close and where penetration is needed and by contrast a good shot can hit a person at 600 meters with enough energy to kill. Something we were still doing when I was in training. So no an SKS isn't better at any range. And I don't believe any stories about long range shots. You're welcome to come in person under field conditions. Btw one of my best friends was a Sniper equipped with an M-14 and you can read about it in the book "Black Horse Riders" a history of a real battle he was in.

The 7.62x39 cartridge has never lit my fire and I have even reloaded it. In decades past, I was interested in getting an AK. I bought an SKS first due to the lower cost at the time. A few years later, I shot a Service Rifle Match AR-15 and was impressed with the accuracy. I never wanted any more 7.62x39 rifles after that. I just never saw that the AK or SKS series rifles could match the accuracy of even a standard AR-15.

Given the OP's choices, I'd choose the M1A hands down.

Murray's Gunsmithing – Offering Quality, Full Service Custom Gunsmithing

This company in Bowie TX does a wide selection of various SKS component mods.
They now might also do specialized work on ARs etc.

As a lower-cost plinker, the SKS and its ammo certainly meet the definition of better economics.
For "insurgencies" on private or public land -- the non-fantasy type, i.e. feral hogs -- these rifles reportedly do a fine job.

I trained with an M-14, shot Expert Rifleman with it, engaging targets out to 600 meters. Not happening today of course with these aged eyes. lol

I have a Norinco SKS, which I like very much. However, in my opinion, while the SKS has several things going for it, i.e., it was inexpensive when I bought it, ammo, until recently, was cheap and less recoil, it works well even when dirty, etc., it is not in the same ballpark re: quality as an M14.

Cheap stampings, pinned barrel, open V sights, limited range, 10 round fixed mag, etc. all are reasons I would take an M-14, or its clone, over any SKS as a battle weapon.

Speedo66:

Instead of “stampings”,
all three of my SKS were milled.

Most Warsaw Pact AKMs used in combat around the world are made of stamped metal.

SKS doesn't hold a candle compared to a M1A or M1 Garand, my opinion. If I was a Taliban in Afghanistan that had any kind of remote long distance shooting skills (200 yards plus) I 'd want a Mosin or Dragunov over a AK or SKS.

100 yards and closer well maybe a different story.

just my opinion

No comparison.

Speedo66 said:

I trained with an M-14, shot Expert Rifleman with it, engaging targets out to 600 meters. Not happening today of course with these aged eyes. lol

I have a Norinco SKS, which I like very much. However, in my opinion, while the SKS has several things going for it, i.e., it was inexpensive when I bought it, ammo, until recently, was cheap and less recoil, it works well even when dirty, etc., it is not in the same ballpark re: quality as an M14.

Cheap stampings, pinned barrel, open V sights, limited range, 10 round fixed mag, etc. all are reasons I would take an M-14, or its clone, over any SKS as a battle weapon.

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If you do indeed have a stamped SKS it’s much more rare than your typical milled SKS and more valuable.