Has anyone wore out an SKS?

[ThomasT]

I have a Norinco SKS Paratrooper. My dad and i bought these before the Chinese ban. I sold mine and when my dad died i received his. It was unfired. I have fired 80 rounds through it so far. I think this gun has the pinned barrel. It seems like i read that the service life is about 10,000 rounds. Has anyone ever seen one that was worn out?

I also received 600 rounds of the yellow box Norinco ammo. I saw some for sale on GB and it was pretty expensive compared to what we paid for it. Should i save it or go ahead and shoot it?

 

[Wolfgang2000]

The SKS "paratrooper" or "cowboy" Or whatever name they have been given, are handy little rifles. I would hang on to this one. I doubt that you will wear it out any time soon.

As far as the ammo goes, check GB and see if any of it is actually selling. People can ASK what ever they want but if it's not selling it doesn't mean anything. If you you can sell it and buy more of another brand fine. Other wise keep it and buy some blasting ammo. You can never have too much ammo!

 

[DMK]

Has anyone ever seen one that was worn out?

I have a surplus Yugo M59 with a shot out barrel. But Yugos don't have chrome lined bores and this one was rode hard and put up wet. It saw a lot of corrosive ammo and not much maintenance.

Mechanically though, it's still solid.

You won't get your rifle to this point in civilian life unless you were intentionally trying to destroy it and you had a lot of money to shoot up.

 

[Ignition Override]

Herr Wolfgang:

"You can never have too much ammo". Volltreffer!

On that other thread about the top ten military rifles, I will ask a German friend which he would prefer. I doubt that he will be objective. He just bought a small Walther pistol a few months ago (PPK?).

When his kidney stone fragments are gone-he
left the hospital yesterday-we will go shoot some large cartons of (empty) Tropicana Orangensaft, hanging over the water. In my fairly inexperienced opinion, paper targets are no fun at all-zero .

 

[dstorm1911]

Don't let anyone BS ya bout those pinned barrels they are not simply pressed in then pinned.... the reciever is heated to 800 degrees then the barrel is pressed in even without the pin ya canno seperate them its not possible to press the barrel in otherwise as the barrel journal is almost a full mm oversize, I recently had to put 5 together from original never assembled recievers/parts I destroyed one barrel trying to just press it in with a 30 ton powered press, then consulted our China contact a former Arsenal 26 supervisor he walked me through the proper assembly it was easy when heated properly the recievers are so hard I had a tough time milling the pin hole (these were never assembled Norinco recievers they are "virgin" the pin holes are only marked with a milled "dimple") I tried to remove one barrel after I found a threaded muzzle Type M barrel in the inventory and could not budge it with no pin even drilled yet using the same press that effortlessly presses out AK barrels everyday, I had to reheat the reciever in order to remove the barrel.......

We have 2 barrels mounted on a dealer post sample dual barrel machine gun with a custom reciever I made using SKS bolts single trigger FCG those two barrels have had over 20K rnds full auto fired through em and are just starting to show signs of throat errosion however the original accuracy has went to cr@p because of excessive heat more than bore wear, they are fed by a pair of 100 RND Norinco AK drums which has allowed me to get em literally cherry hot, the next set of barrels are being made now, they are BREN barrels I've turned down to fit the recievers after rechambering to 7.62x39, the gas blocks are milled into each barrel next they will be fluted to help dissipate the heat..... I want to totally burn down the two norinco barrels first though

 

[ThomasT]

Thanks dsstorm and everyone else. Thats what i thought about wearing a gun out. I've had the gun for nearly 5 years now and only fired a small amount of ammo out of it.

I did check GB and some people were asking $120.00 for 200 rounds. I think i'll pass. I have around a 1000 rounds now and so should be good to go for awhile.

The next time i am by Cheaper than Dirt i may pick up a couple of hundred more. Thanks again.

I also bought or traded for a 22 that had a pinned barrel that was loose. I made sure the barrel was seated and redrilled the pin hole and repinned with larger size drill rod. It worked fine and was eventualy sold or traded.

 

[RP86]

I did check GB and some people were asking $120.00 for 200 rounds. I think i'll pass. I have around a 1000 rounds now and so should be good to go for awhile.

http://ammoman.com

$189/1K rds for Golden Tiger or $199/1k rds for Wolf.

One of the best places to buy ammo that I have found, and those prices include shipping!

 

[Oohrah]

Nope, still have the Norinco and the Russian (used) since eary 90's.
Both like new with many chinese ammo and reloads through them!

 

[dstorm1911]

RATShooter, get your ammo now while ya can get a decent price...... its only going to go up as the new game is to drive up the cost of "sport" shooting in order to thin down the number of people getting involved in the sport, if the number can be reduced then that means the number of voters blocking anti gun legislation can also be reduced...... if ya wait till your 1000 rnds runs down you may very well find yourself paying that $189 that right now will buy a thousand rounds only buying your 250 rounds..... A lesson learned by many milsurp caliber shooters in the past year as the prices have steadily ascended

 

[ThomasT]

Thanks everyone. I plan on making a "bullet run" in the very near future.

I have posted before about this that the people who mine and recycle lead have caused a glut on the market taking advantage of the high prices. The report said that lead prices should fall quite a bit in 2008. We can only hope that brass and copper will follow.

Remember the "Primer scare" in about 94.

Go to Google and type in lead. I found the report there.

 

[KC&97TA]

I had a Chinese model that I got for $55.oo back in 1992, looked like it had been drug behind a truck, would shoot decent enough to hit Red Fox and Racoons at 100 yards, but that was pushing it, ammo was less than $50 for a spam can I think it was around 900 rounds of Russian surplus crap, and I wore her out, the internal mag wore out, then switched it over to removeable 30 rounders and a fiberglass stock, don't remember what I paid for that but I remember I could have gotten another rifle for what i paid for 2 mags, the gunsmithing and stock. 2 removeable mags led to her demise, before i knew it, I had a 30 round slam fireing rifle, that I only fired from the prone... dad soon chopped it with the plasma cutter before the ATF came to lock me up

I found the AR bug shortly after

 

[dstorm1911]

KC, if ya woulda cleaned the bolt out it woulda stopped the slam fires no plasma cutter needed if the bolt is not kept clean on an SKS the fireing pin jams forward.......

 

[Tokugawa]

High on a mountaintop in Korea, nestled in the clouds, lives an ancient Chinese veteran named Chang Yung Li. Revered by a tiny sect of commie gun nuts, Chang once fired 18,643,728 rounds through his SKS while participating in a human wave attack. (Chang always counted his rounds) After the war, while receiving the "Cherry Red Star Peoples Barrel Award", Chang expressed his desire to engage in a Yeti hunting expedition in Tibet, and ........

 

[grimjaw]

(Chang always counted his rounds)

On an abacus, no doubt.

jm