I need advice on Yugo sks barrels

[El Barto]

Good morning friends. I submitted a post on sks boards, but no one offered any advice so I thought I'd ask here. Here is my posting, word for word and I really do appreciate any opinions.

I got 2 yugo M59's as Century u-fix-ems, $69 each. All the parts are there, but the bores are horrible.

One rifle is basically shot out. The bore is rusted and pitted and the rifling is almost gone. Imagine a smoothbore sewer pipe. The second rifle looks good, but again the bore is rusted and pitted. The lands and groves in this rifle are ok but even if I can get the rust out, the pitting will never go away. Again a sewerpipe.

I found replacement barrels for about $60 but I don’t want to spend the money to have a gunsmith do a change over. I live in an apartment so I don’t have a workbench or vise to do the work myself. My other option is to buy 59/66 barreled receivers from Heddonpal for about $30 and build up a working gun; there are less parts that need to be switched over going this route.

I have no problem taking the 2nd rifle out and using as a plinker but rifle #1 I wouldn’t trust. I know that I can get a shooter 59/66 for about $120, but I would like to salvage something from these old girls. That is unless it can’t be done for safety reasons.

Can I get opinions?

 

[DMK]

I bought a couple of those too. Luckily both mine have decent rifling, but badly pitted bores.

I'd leave the one with just pitting alone. Mine aren't bad shooters. I made a post about dark bores in another recent thread (and probably something similar in every such thread I read), but I don't believe that pitted bores are as bad as some think, especially in something like an SKS which isn't an MOA shooter even with a perfect bore. Don't try to brush the pitting out. You can't. Just give it a moderate cleaning with some foam cleaner, soak it 24 hours, patch it dry, keep it oiled and otherwise shoot it as it is. The best you can hope for is that copper fouling will fill in the pits.

As far as replacing the barrel in the shot out one, it's going to require a barrel block to put in a vice and some kind of receiver wrench (you'll probably have to make one). Without a decent shop to work in, you'll probably have quite the exercise in frustration. Even in a decently equipped shop, it's a big job.

If you buy a replacement barreled action, you'll need some parts that weren't on your M59 (I believe even the gas tube and piston might be different on the 59/66). You'll need to check your headspace because you'll be using a replacement bolt for that reciever. If it's off, I'm not sure how you'd correct it on the SKS. It looks to me like it uses a locking shoulder similar to a FAL. Also be aware that many of the M59/66 barrelled actions are just as bad as the ones you have. I picked one up for really cheap a while back and it was horrible.

All that said, it would probably be better to use that SKS for parts. Maybe you can find a bubba'd Romanian or Chinese for cheap and restore it.

 

[Lonestar.45]

Have you shot either of them yet? My advice would be to at least shoot the one you trust first before doing anything. Sometimes what looks like a pitted, wore out barrel will shoot pretty good and you may not even want to change out the barrels.

Barring that, it sounds like you have two good parts guns, but without being able to change barrels your self or paying a gunsmith to do it, you may need to relegate them to parts donors and get yourself a shooter.