Is the SKS still worth collecting?

[JohnKSa]

Some variants of the SKS might be worth "collecting". Run of the mill SKS rifles are worth owning and shooting if you like owning and shooting that kind of gun, but they aren't really worth "collecting", IMO.

...when I was in high school a surplus SKS Rifle & 1200 rounds ammo was $89.

In the early 1990s, before Clinton stopped the import of most Chinese small arms and ammunition, you could still buy new Chinese SKS rifles and 500 rounds of new Chinese 7.62x39 ammo for less than $100 before tax. There was a pawnshop near where I worked at the time and their regular retail price was $49.95 for the rifle and 10 cents a round for the ammo.

 

[saiga308]

just shoot them i like my yugo seems very spot on at 150 yards with a red dot and that good enough for me in a short range street scenario fight, 40 round mags are great also get a jam once i a while but easy to clear and keep in the fight

 

[Ignition Override]

If you tend to be a collector or want variety, yes: Romanian (pretty rare in good shape), Russian, Albanian. The actual Chinese Type 56 which were imported several years ago (legal via a Third Country...) have much harder wood than the semi-commercial Chinese, which are the main type here.
Notice how few SKS people seem to realize that the Yugo M59 is Not a 59/66? It was the first design, with the later design having the grenade launcher and many with corroded gas valves which can be trouble.

What a shame that so many people abused huge numbers of them, or lost, sold or sometimes traded the original wooden stocks for tactical "gear" and Mattel plastic stocks which don't sell so well on Armslist. They look like garbage.

My SKS interest was with the M59, but both the looks and similar ruggedness of Imported AKs "stole" my SKS interest.

 

[ColoradoMinuteMan]

I with you on the M59, by far my favorite SKS. Zastava built a nice carbine, great machining, nice metal treatment and plating, hammer forged barrel, and anecdotally the most accurate SKSs that I've owned. I like the M59/66 as well, but they are a bit front heavy. I've never had any issues with the gas system, though I know if they are neglected it can become an issue.

If you tend to be a collector or want variety, yes: Romanian (pretty rare in good shape), Russian, Albanian. The actual Chinese Type 56 which were imported several years ago (legal via a Third Country...) have much harder wood than the semi-commercial Chinese, which are the main type here.
Notice how few SKS people seem to realize that the Yugo M59 is Not a 59/66? It was the first design, with the later design having the grenade launcher and many with corroded gas valves which can be trouble.

What a shame that so many people abused huge numbers of them, or lost, sold or sometimes traded the original wooden stocks for tactical "gear" and Mattel plastic stocks which don't sell so well on Armslist. They look like garbage.

My SKS interest was with the M59, but both the looks and similar ruggedness of Imported AKs "stole" my SKS interest.

 

[Ignition Override]

The only problem with my M59s: each had a serious popped primer issue, and were probably using Tula ammo. When a firing pin is blown Out the Rear of the bolt against the bolt cover, that might be called serious.

The possible reasons are too long for this forum. Mr. Murray has a forum at SKSboards with plausible explanations (short leade dimensions/"spiked" case gas pressures etc).
At very moderate cost Murray's Gunsmithing gave both M59s permanent cures.

Extra, unrelated info:They can even ship, or install Murray's firing pin springs.

You guys knew that the original Russian SKS all had springs to retract the firing pins? Why later productions were not so equipped has been a mystery.
If you are really into SKS and didn't know that, you might want to read specific topics on SKSboards when you have the time. You might (sometimes) be reading the wrong websites about SKS.

 

[kBob]

In the way back I made a call to BATF and asked and back then they would make an effort to answer questions they said IIFC "about SIX million" SKS came in the country. Gosh knows where they are it seems folks are simply holding on to them.

I wrote a news letter article for my club based on that call back then and will look for it.

I did hear more than a couple of guys in shops during round one of the Assault Weapons horrors discussing just burying a cheap SKS and 440 round tin of ammo and thinking of it as a $100 onetime insurance policy.

Maybe my wife is correct and I should take up metal detecting.....

-kBob

 

[Kp321]

I cannot forget the days of $49 SKS rifles so there is no way I would pay the inflated prices I have seen recently. That being said, the one that I have put back is an original Russian model. I believe it has some collectors value.

 

[Speedo66]

I missed the golden days. I had to pay $89 for mine, but Chinese ammo was still $2 a box of 20, so at least that wasn't too bad.

I can still get Russian steel Wolf ammo for $4 a box, so the ammo has stayed cheap. Adjusted for inflation, it may be less than the Chinese was.

As far as collecting, people collect anything, i.e., matchbooks, beer cans, etc., so why not SKS's?

 

[P5 Guy]

USSR SKS is my only one, I'm keeping it and shooting it.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

The only problem with my M59s: each had a serious popped primer issue, and were probably using Tula ammo. When a firing pin is ejected from the Rear of the bolt against the bolt cover, that might be called serious.

The possible reasons are too long for this forum. Mr. Murray has a forum at SKSboards with plausible explanations (short leade dimensions/case pressures etc).
At very moderate cost Murray's Gunsmithing gave both M59s permanent cures.

Extra, unrelated info:They can even ship, or install Murray's firing pin springs.

You guys knew that the original Russian SKS all had springs to retract the firing pins? Why later productions were not so equipped has been a mystery.
If you are really into SKS and didn't know that, you might want to read specific topics on SKSboards when you have the time. You might (sometimes) be reading the wrong websites about SKS.

Same reason the Garand, AK, and lots of other military weapons have free floating firing pins, I imagine- their originally specified ammo used hard primers which were (mostly) immune to slamfires and it could trap dirt and mud in the FP channel?

 

[Ignition Override]

NIGHTLORD40K: Excellent reasons for no firing pin springs. Well thought-out reasoning

 

[Big7]

I wish I would have bought one when they were 100 or even 200, but there is no way I would pay the current 400-500 for one. I’m a fan of the cartridge but not the rifle.

Me too!

I bought a FLAWLESS U-GO a while
back. Bayonet, grenade launcher,
issue sling and the whole 9 for
$149.00. A box (if that) shot by me
and sold it for $450.00 ten years ago.

I wish I had it sometimes.

 

[FL-NC]

Sure, if you like them. They cost as much as an AR now.

 

[Glockula]

The funny thing is Mosin Nagant are 250 to 300 dollars, so what do you expect to pay for an out of production milsurp semi auto? I think 350 to 450 and even higher for actual Russian variants is in line with the current market. Comparing it to a cheaply manufactured new AR is apples to oranges. There are all kinds of ARs being made. Production of the SKS has stopped.

Certainly the SKS is not a tack driving modern semi and does not have the modern bells and whistles. There are a lot of milsurp that cannot hold a candle performance wise to their less expensive modern cousins. Think Ishapores, Carcanos, M96 Swedes, Arisakas with the mum, or even the the vaunted K98s pitted against the savage Axis, Ruger Americans, Howas, and Mossberg 4x4s.

Although not nearly as sexy all these modern soulless rifles have much better utility for plinking and hunting, especially when paying for ammunition is factored in. Hey, at least the SKS still has reasonably priced ammo available.

So just because Roses had barrels of SKS rifles for $79 dollars in the 80s and 90s does not amount to a hill of beans now. In fact it seems to be natural progression for collectable milsurps

 

[ColoradoMinuteMan]

I’m betting that Simonov had intentionality in removing the spring beyond saving a couple of kopeks.

Unless an engineer documents the why, it’s hard to know, however, I believe a lot of military rifle designs such as M1 carbine, M1 Garand, M1A, M14, AR15, AR10, AK-47, AK-74 have done this in consideration of field use. Considering that fighting rifles are made to be taken apart in the field for maintenance, the fewer pieces to keep track of the better, and the fewer things to go wrong.

In particular when you think about how often we lose track of small springs even when sitting at the kitchen table. How many of us have taken something apart only to have a small spring go flying and then be down on our hands and knees looking for it for 10 minutes. Imagine doing this in a dessert or jungle. Losing a small part like that in the field would in some cases render the firearm inoperable. Almost small parts can break. An example of this was when a Murray’s has a bad batch of SKS firing pins and there was at least one documented car of the broken pin binding against the return spring and the SKS going full auto.

Perhaps Murray’s firing pin is a benefit for soft primered ammunition that the SKS was never designed to be used with, however, in my experience with the SKS, which is honestly pretty extensive (exposed to hundreds of examples) I’d never witnessed or experienced a slam-fire that was not the result of Cosmoline in the firing pin channel. Many people just don’t take the time to disassemble the bolt to clean it out, and that is an essential task to complete after something has been stored in heavy petroleum-wax. If the bolt is cleaned to the extent that you can hear the firing pin click back and forth in both directions when shaking it forward and aft, and using stiff orimered ammunitioncthantthe AK and SKS were designed for, your chances of having a slam fire are no different than with any other rifle that has a free floating firing pin.

NIGHTLORD40K: Excellent reasons for no firing pin springs. Well thought-out reasoning

 

[boom boom]

I have and use the Murray firing pin and kept the original firing pin as well. Primary reason is that during the great primer shortages, you could not always get the harder milspec primers so all of my choices for accessories and calibers are for being able to shoot during shortage periods. However, I always detail strip and clean my rifles upon acquisition.

Last great rush, forgot about stocking .22 LR's though and simply did not fire them much.

 

[JONWILL]

They can be fun to collect. I used to have a lot. Russian, Romanian, Chicom's

They were cheap then. The Russians were around $100.

If I did it now, I would look for the better and unique ones. I liked to look for different factory codes on the Chinese. I had one that was Factory 223. I thought that was interesting. 7.62x39 from Factory 223.
I also liked the Sino-Soviet ones. They were very early Chinese guns made on Russian Equipment and had a Cyrillic letter before the serial number. They were also what they called the "Long Collar"

 

[Ignition Override]

As for free-floating firing pins, the Makarov handguns (i.e. my .380 Russian Izhevsk) also have them as standard equipment.
I can't remember reading about Mak pins sticking, but I would not want a Mak or SKS firing a few bullets at any increasing angle above the horizon.

One benefit of the SKS over the vast majority of AKs is the longer sight distance and the major benefit is that the classic SKS (with internal 10-rd. mag) is Still legal in the P.R. of California, where the AK no longer is.
Of course.... the career criminals all got rid of their AKs, right?

 

[frankmako]

everybody needs a sks hanging around. don't know if they are worth collecting, but they sure do make a good truck gun. i wish they were cheap like to good old days.

 

[ColoradoMinuteMan]

You can remove a Makarov firing pin without any tools which makes it much more convenient to clean. Some SKS examples require a serious hammer and punch to remove the firing pin retainer pin to disassemble the bolt. I’ve even had them so tight I had to use a hydraulic press to remove the pin after being stored for 30 years in Cosmoline. Once they are removed and cleaned you generally can use a punch (even the one in the OEM cleaning kit) to remove the retainer pin.

As for free-floating firing pins, the Makarov handguns (i.e. my .380 Russian Izhevsk) also have them as standard equipment.
I can't remember reading about Mak pins sticking, but I would not want a Mak or SKS firing a few bullets at any increasing angle above the horizon.

One benefit of the SKS over the vast majority of AKs is the longer sight distance and the major benefit is that the classic SKS (with internal 10-rd. mag) is Still legal in the P.R. of California, where the AK no longer is.
Of course.... the career criminals all got rid of their AKs, right?

 

[Ignition Override]

Without a vice or correct tools to solve the serious popped primer problems in both M59 (pre-59/66) Yugos, Murray's Gunsmithing used their permanent solution at very moderate cost.

It was about three years ago.

 

[Jeff Burgess]

Here the Chinese versions are 3-400 bucks. The Russians are going for 4-500 and there still a lot of them out there. They come up on armslist regular.

 

[303 hunter]

Went to the local gun show Saturday, and was amazed at the high prices people were asking for SKS’s. Cheapest was $450 for a beat up Norinco, and highest was $650 for a pristine Russian with laminated stock. I got really lucky and picked up a Romanian AK for $400 from a private seller.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

I am amazed that the SKS Collectors didn’t get stupid like some Mosin Collectors. Now I’m talking about when Mosins were still selling for under $100. The Purists would scream if you did more then wipe off the cosmoline with anything more then a dry paper towel. These were guys buying the cheapest surplus rifle and acting they were made of gold. Those were the Collectors that I put in the McDonalds Happy Meal Toy Collectors Club.
The SKS became the semiauto 30-30 of America. Just about everyone I knew had one. Some were kept as is and others got dressed up in new stocks. Some had sins committed against them. Many deer fell to the bark of an SKS.
Now, are they worth collecting? The answer is yes. Now if you’re just looking to buy so that you can turn a profit down the road, I would say that there are better things to invest your money into.
I bought several Chinese SKS’s back in the day when they were less then $80. I did some horse treading and selling and ended up with some nice guns, one SKS and some money in my pocket.
I still have one, it’s set up for hunting, but spends more time in the safe these days.

 

[giggitygiggity]

They're definitely worth collecting, but not worth investing in. What I mean is that if you don't have an SKS in your collection, they're great to collect as there are so many variations from different countries and what not. They are also reliable shooters.

However, if you have grandiose plans to buy an SKS and plan to sell it in the future for a profit, there are far better investment options (mutual funds, stocks, CDs, etc). With surplus firearms, they're usually priced cheap upon initial import into the country. Once the stock dries up (often after 2-5 years, depending on what it is), they jump in price a fair amount and then stabilize at a new price-point and ever-so-slowly increase in price (maybe 1-3% a year). You can see that with the Swiss rifles... K-31 rifles came into the country in large numbers back in 2013. K-31s were selling for $300-350 initially. Within the last 6-12 months, they have increased to $500-550 since the primary market stock has pretty much dried up. At best, that's a $250 gain on a $300 initial price (183.33% return on investment over the course of three years or about 36.66% gain per year). However, they have pretty much stabilized at the current price point. With SKS rifles, in the same timeframe, let's use the Chinese SKS rifles as an example. In 2013, I bought a couple Chinese SKS rifles for $300 a piece and a couple Yugoslavian SKS rifles for $375-400 a piece. Both the Chinese and the Yugos have gone up by maybe $50-75 and that's over the course of 5 years. That's an average increase of 2.5-5% (best case scenario and pretty much on par with inflation). Historically, the S&P 500 returns somewhere around 6% annually so if you're looking to make money on investing in SKS rifles, you'd likely do better investing in an S&P 500 mutual fund. You also need to factor in that when you sell a gun, you may have to pay transfer fees, shipping costs, etc which will future erode returns.