My New Defensive Carbine

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My advice would be to buy that crate of ammo and go to an Appleseed with it. You will get plenty of practice loading with stripper clips quickly under time pressure on the Army Qualification Test that Appleseed uses. You will also learn plenty of other techniques for squeezing the best accuracy you can out of that Simonov. You will even find that green strip of canvas hanging from it is more useful than you may have thought! It's only $60 for a weekend course... some of the best money you will ever spend if you've never been to one before. www.appleseedinfo.org
 
^ +1

I will definetly see where one is located, I would love some training with my new SKS! I go to a 300-yard rifle range which should be plenty for defensive training (shooting at anything remotely even close to 300 yards or farther would have to be a full-blown emergency for me to do it) so space isn't an issue, but I'd love to get timed and find out where the gun hits at range etc. etc. Thanks for the tip! :)
 
These rifles are as reliable as rifles come and that is the most important thing with any battle type rifle. I've seen lots of AR's get finnicky although they were generally the less expensive types from a few years ago. I've never seen an SKS with a problem that couldn't be fixed pretty easily. Obviously some do have problems. People have had issues taking the grenade launchers off the Yugos for example. Sometimes the gas tubes didn't work well with the new pressures. Actually lots of these rifles have been buggered by people trying to make them look like AR's or AK's. Leave them in stock format and chances are they will last longer than you will. You got a good model IMO. I've had excellent luck with mine. I had a Yugo as a backup which was a fine rifle but I traded it off recently for a good cause. I bought it as a backup but I don't really think I need a backup. Of course as soon as I say that something will go wrong but so far it's worked very well. They're more accurate than many people think too. Get a trigger job done by Kivaari and you won't regret it. You might want a firing pin kit from Murray too. It fixes a potential problem with the rifles slam firing. Go to his site and read up on how to check if your particular rifle might be prone to that issue. It's an easy test.

It seems Murray's site is down right now. But you can find a good description of the potential problem and the test to see if your gun might be susceptible at Yooper John's website.

http://www.yooperj.com/SKS-25.htm
 
I'm with ys...

Much as I loathe Communists and current Communist run countries, It's my SKS, a Claymore bag of loaded stripper slips and a flashlight that go everywhere with me. That's how much I value a stock SKS for personal defense or the occasional critter dispatch.
 
SKS rifles are best in original form. Don't muck it up with stuff like a Tapco stock and detachable mags that don't work.
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I couldn't agree more on that. although I feel the same way about wooden stocked AK's.
 
The only thing I changed on my Chinese SKS was adding a set of Tech Sights. Doubled the sight radius and I can switch it back if I ever decided to, although I don't know why I would. Mine has been a great and accurate shooter. If I didn't have other rifles for hunting I imagine it would take game with no problems as well as being a self defense tool.
 
Generally, you grab the top round with your index finger and thumb and tilt the round up. You then use the base of the top round as your leverage and push down on the rest of the rounds. They will then slide down into the mag. YMMV but this works for me.
FYI, if you buy anything but surplus strippers, you will need to pinch the ends slightly to get them to fit into the bolt slot on your rifle.
Many recently produced stripper clips are made to load AK mags and not for the SKS. As a result, tolerances are fast and loose.
 
I have two Russian SKS's that I bought in the early 90's, and they remain totally original, and have been excellent shooters. The SKS is a great all around battle rifle.
 
kbbailey said:
I bought 2 for $65. Then sold one like a fool.
I do like my Tapco stock though. The original was too short.
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I recall vividly, "Jim's Pawn Shop" in Fayetteville, NC having them "back in the day" for $79.95 each but $69.95 ea. if you bought the entire case. In addition to the price break, the case purchases came with all the squad issue equipment as issued to Russian troops. These were unissued, no import marked guns with all the support equipment still in the Russian shipping crates.

I kept sayin' things like... "next payday" or "when I get back"... When I finally got me head outa my "fourth point of contact" and headed down to get TWO cases. Full cases were gone and individual prices had climbed.

Of course, one has to remember that about the only ammo that was available at the time was very expensive Norma so short term shooter practicality was kinda nil.

Still...:banghead::banghead::banghead:
 
My first centerfire. My dad got it for me when I was 1416yrs ago. I have since shot it a lot and refinished the stock and shot it a lot again. Thousands of rounds down the tube without a single jamb, ftf,FTE nothing
uploadfromtaptalk1408910530926.jpg
 
Awesome! Well, I'm headed off for a Sunday afternoon range session with my new carbine. It's been great so far, can't wait to shoot it again!
 
The as-is issue SKS's are very hard to beat. Super reliable, easy to carry, easy to shoot and you can top off a partially empty magazine. Some of them are pretty darn accurate with the right ammo. I know a guy who regularly nails the 300 yard, 12-inch diameter, round gong with his stock SKS.
 
I kept sayin' things like... "next payday" or "when I get back"... When I finally got me head outa my "fourth point of contact" and headed down to get TWO cases. Full cases were gone and individual prices had climbed.
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If it makes you feel any better, I sold my second rifle for $130.00.
Hey, I doubled my money......like a doofus.
At least I kept the rifle with the cool 00063 serial number.
 
Just shot 120 rounds through the SKS.

This. Thing. ROCKS!!! :D A guy at the range asked me if I was shooting an M1 Garand. I said "No, SKS" and he just looked at me LOL! I guess I had him fooled as the rifles are vaguely similair and he probably saw me loading through the top with stripper clips which made him think of the Garand's en bloc clips or something.

I have a new shipment of ammo coming tomorrow... 290 rounds of Golden Tiger ammo, supposed to be good stuff... I need it to, almost out of rounds!

I love this gun, and it's inspired me to possibly get a Yugoslavian M56/66A1 in the near future.
 
Cooldill said:
Just shot 120 rounds through the SKS.

This. Thing. ROCKS!!! :D A guy at the range asked me if I was shooting an M1 Garand. I said "No, SKS" and he just looked at me LOL! I guess I had him fooled as the rifles are vaguely similair and he probably saw me loading through the top with stripper clips which made him think of the Garand's en bloc clips or something.

I have a new shipment of ammo coming tomorrow... 290 rounds of Golden Tiger ammo, supposed to be good stuff... I need it to, almost out of rounds!

I love this gun, and it's inspired me to possibly get a Yugoslavian M56/66A1 in the near future.
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This is just my opinion, but the Norinco SKS are the best by far.
Will only go up in value
 
I'd rather use a SKS than a $1,500 AR. Remember, anything used in a shooting will be held as evidence until the shooter is cleared of criminal misconduct. For self-defense in a home, the SKS will do nicely.
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I agree that I would rather have a SKS confiscated then an AR15... BUT a 7.62X39 may not be the best HD round. Might be a little too much risk of over penetration.
 
So has anyone still got any of the East German training ammo for 7.62x39 that had a plastic filled metal jacket?

Anyone else ever use any?

It came in little blister packs with German print on the back of ten rounds and at one point folks could just about not give it away. The AK crowd complained that it did not reliably function but the few rounds I tried in an SKS (two packets) worked fine and hit near where I was shooting at 25 yards (been a few years and targets were just soda cans, hitting a soda can full of soda with a 60 grain fmj plastic filled bullet at 3000+fps is neat BTW). Another friend claimed to have fired about five packets with no problems. A Friend with a Dealer Sample (he is a dealer) RPD reported they cycled the RPD just fine and that his brother with the sights set for 800 yards was hitting a 3 foot tall four foot wide bit of steel at 300 meters with short bursts.

One gun club aquaintence got a "good Deal" on a case of 7.62x59 back around 1990 or so and was POed that it turned out to be this stuff. he sold it at a loss before I could make an offer. Reminded me of the 10 meter Swede 6.5x55 plastic filled metal wad cutter that is also getting hard to find, but visualy this resembled a normal Ball round un like the Swede 6.5 gallery loads.

Recoil did not feel significantly lighter or anything but they were LOUD.

I would really like to have seen some barrier tests and gel testing done with that round with a view toward home defense.

The only change I have liked on an SKS so far is the addition of a hard rubber but plate about an inch thick to lengthen the pull and I am considering getting rid of that. Tech Sights do look interesting and I like them on my 10-22 I used for an appleseed. On the SKS Tech Site to be used inside the home I might consider drilling out one of the two peep sights ( I assume the SKS model uses a flip L type sight like the M16 A1 ) to make a "ghost ring" rear sight of large diameter to allow one to see through it to the front sight and target in lower light conditions.

I have toyed with the idea of figuring how to mount a flash light in place of the bayonet, though I usually dislike the idea of a fight on a home defense gun (tempts one to look at things with the gun light and thus point the muzzle at things one might not wish to shoot) I have found mounted lights usefull in critter control out by the chicken coop or barn at night, using a hand held light to identify the problem then using the weapons mounted light during actual engagement. Of course with a semi auto like an SKS one could use a hand held flashlight with decent success rates especially at HD ranges and would even be Minute of raccoon at twenty or twenty five yards for critter control.

For a bit on survival boards before Y2K (man that is getting to be ancient history according to my kids) I refered to the SKS as the Volks Rifle, given the millions that had been imported to that point and how common they were with the survivalist crowd. I like them as a basic centerfire rifle and feel it assamed that some folks turn their noses up at them.

-kBob
 
Cooldill said:
A guy at the range asked me if I was shooting an M1 Garand.
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It's sad that anyone who would even put "M-1" and Garand correctly into a question might confuse the two rifles.

Makes me think of someone looking at Ford Bronco and asking if it's an F-250.

It sure is refreshing to see someone get so much enjoyment out of very basic shooting without whining about what the gun isn't doing or doesn't have. Good for you!
 
some folks turn their noses up at them.
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That is a shame.

IMG_1848.jpg

It does not matter what you use, if brought before a judge for arraignment the first thing he will do is ORDER you to turn in ALL you rifles and handguns until after the trial is over. Failure to do so is a criminal offense as well and get you time in jail.

Sorry but that $1,000 AR will need to go to police evidence as well.

Jim
 
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