Range report time
Took the SKS and one box of Winchester "USA" cartridges (picked 'em up in the "previously owned" ammo bin at the toy store, 20 unfired rounds in a ratty old Winchester USA box) to the range, this trip was to be purely a function test at 50 yards
I loaded up two rounds, with the gas system off, just to be as safe as possible, the first two rounds struck about 1" above POA, and the holes were touching!
I then loaded another two rounds, turned the gas system on, and aimed about 1" below where I wanted the rounds to hit, the first round fired just fine, and there were no slamfires, so I shot the second round, it was within 3/4" of the last shot
Since the gun seemed safe with multiple rounds (yes, i made sure the firing pin rattled freely before hitting the range) I loaded up six into the mag and fired them off
at 50 yards, the gun seems to group around 1" or so, I never expected it to be a tackdriver, it's mainly my fun-gun and my Zombie Møøse* eliminator gun, besides, it's new to me, and I'm sure as I get more familiar with the gun, what holds it likes, what ammo it favors I can get my groups more consistent, I'm not expecting One-Holers at 50 or 100 yards, just Minute of Deer/coyote/Zombie Møøse*, if I want one-holer accuracy, that's what my CZ 452 Trainer .22LR and Savage 93R17-GV .17HMR are for.....
as far as the shooting experience, it was very smooth and controllable, the Yugo definitely balances and points well, and as far as recoil goes...... what recoil? in semiauto mode, shooting free-standing, the recoil is barely stronger than a .22 Mag bolt action, from the bench, it's a hair stronger, about the only time recoil is noticeable is when I turn the gas system off and use it as a "straight pull bolt action", on a scale of 1-10, 1 being a .22LR, and 10 being a 3" 12-gauge slug, I'd rate the SKS with gas turned off at about a 2.5, with gas system on, 1.5
I had a *LOT* of fun with my Yugo, and wish I had brought more ammo for it, but all was not smiles and happiness in New-SKS-Owner-Land, I found a few things about the SKS that i most assuredly *DO NOT* like....
1; the gun is just *too much fun!*, I can see myself purchasing a *lot* more 7.62x39 ammo, thankfully, I can get the Ulyanovsk white-box from wally-world reasonably cheap, and the gun store sells Wolf "WPA Military Classic" (they appear to be the same cartridges, identical steel case, brass colored primer, and bullet that attracts a magnet) for a reasonable price, I also know I can pick up bulk Russian/Yugo corrosive surplus ammo pretty cheap, but I'd rather not shoot corrosive in it, i know it's easy clean up, but it's just one variable I'd rather not deal with, I'll pick up a couple of those 1100+ round spamcans at some point and just set them back into storage, just in case we get overrun by Zombie Møøse....
2; It tends to throw fired brass into the next zipcode/area code, and the fired shells have a tendency to dissapear into wherever it is that pens and socks dissapear off to as well, I guess it flings them so hard that they break the Light Barrier, create their own mini-wormholes and dissapear off into another alternate universe or something.... that said, I came to the range with 20 rounds, and I left with 20 pieces of fired Winchester brass, finding those last five shells was rather difficult though, they were quite well hidden
3; It seems to be overly fond of dinging/scraping/denting my nice reloadable brass shells, it's almost like it mangles the shells on purpose, with mischevous, impish joy "haha!, let's see him try to reload *THIS*... Ptooey.....ping.....", now I understand why many SKS/AK owners shoot the steel cased ammo (aside from it being less expensive than reloadable brass cased ammo), if the gun's gonna scar/dent/crush/mangle/kill/maim/destroy the brass shells to the point where reloading them is iffy, why deal with it, just use the steel cased stuff instead, maybe have a few boxes of reloadable brass cased ammo set aside for hunting/home defense purpose (although I shudder to think of the overpenetration issue of using an SKS as a home defense weapon....) but have the main plinking/range time spent using steel cased ammo
The more I think about it, the more I love this rifle, reasonably cheap to shoot with steel cased ammo, and shoots a *real* centerfire rifle caliber, punches a nice .30 caliber hole in things, and I'm a fan of guns that put big holes in things, my smallest shotgun is a 20 gauge (have both 12 and 20 gauge shotguns), and my handguns are .45 caliber (.45ACP 1911 and .45 Colt/ACP Ruger Blackhawk .45 Convertible revolver)
that said, I do still love my "lowly" rimfires as well, my one-hole-accurate CZ's and Savage .17HMR....
It's nice to finally have a .30 caliber centerfire rifle in the collection as well though, we have a problem with coydogs (Coyote-Dog hybrid, aggresiveness/wildness of a coyote, lack of fear of humans of a domesticated dog) on our property, the big one is the size of a small German Shepherd dog, and up until I got the SKS, the biggest caliber I had for anti-coyote duties was either the 20 or 12 gauge shotguns with either buckshot or slugs, or the .17HMR which had the range and ballistics, but was slightly lacking on downrange energy to humanely dispatch a coy, the SKS solves that problem, as it will pack plenty of downrange energy with a good expanding soft point
We also have a family of wild-but-almost-tame deer on our property, they're so used to people that they at times have walked within 25-30 yards of us, just watching us while we watched them, and since they've seen me out plinking on my backyard pellet rifle range that I use my Benjamin 392 .22 cal pump up pellet rifle and my CZ .22's (with Super Colibri primer-only rounds and CCI CB Longs), they've been habituated to seeing humans carrying rifles, and they don't react with fear, heck, one time I was setting up for some plinking on my pellet gun range with my CZ 452 Trainer and a deer walked up to the edge of the field, well within the range of the rifle, according to the AO bell on the scope, it was about 45 yards away, I raised the rifle (bolt back, mag out) and placed the crosshairs on the vitals of the deer, and it just stood there, looking at me, as I scoped it with the rifle, moved the crosshairs up to it's head, train the crosshairs on it's eye, then it's ear, no sign of fear, nothing.....
I lowered the rifle, and returned to my plinking range, but the deer was still downrange, so I actually had to walk over to it and *scare it away*.... if I was the unethical type, I could have easily taken it out, and we would have had some nice, fresh venison, but I didn't have a hunting licence (even though the deer was on our property, I'm assuming the hunting laws still apply....), it wasn't deer season, and a .22 would not have been a humane way to kill the deer, it would cause it needless suffering, besides, keeping the deer alive *and* habituated to humans is an easier way of keeping my yummy venison steaks nice and fresh until I truly *DO* need them....
or as Doctor Who (Christopher Eccelston, Doctor #9) would say.... "Life, that's nothing special, it's Nature's way of keeping meat fresh...."
okay, enough rambling, suffice it to say that I'm very happy with my SKS, and I understand why steel cased rounds are so popular with the SKS/AK owning crowd
*Møøse bites kan be pretti nasti
