New, Unissued "M59" from Wideners

[Mikee Loxxer]

Last month Wideners was offering what they had called an unissued, new Yugo M59 SKS. I ordered one on December 10th. I finally took receipt of the rifle a few days ago.

From the picture on Wideners website it was clear that this was not an M59. It has the gas shut off valve instead of the gas block that the M59 has. It appears that these rifles are simply 59/66 rifles without a grenade launcher and sight installed.

I’m curious as to what the story on these rifles is. Unlike the other 59/66 rifles I’ve encountered these have the serial number only on the receiver. Additionally the serial number is very low, mine is below 1200. I suspect these were serialized very recently.

The wood is also different than the others in that it is darker, kind of like that of a Russian SKS rifles. The older Yugo SKS rifles have what I believe are teak stocks.

This rifle is in great shape and should be good shooter. Here is a picture of mine.

 

[nathan]

Looks neutered with the muzzle removed.

 

[W.E.G.]

...and I came into this thread looking for a nice Smith and Wesson.

 

[willypete]

Nice looking rifle! Wish I'd found out about those soon enough to order one.

 

[trueg50]

It is a gunsmith special, they replace the barrel, bastardize an m59/66, refinish or replace the wood, and add a hefty bit to the price tag ($80-90 at the time). They are sadly not M59s at all, and wideners used to include some dumb story about how these were for the Bosnian civil war, but some one from the sksboard forum called them out on it and they removed the story.

I almost bought one, but chatted with the sksboard forum guys, and they sent me to Dans Sporting goods, and I got a beautiful 1983 m59/66a1 instead.

Should be a good shooter since it is one of the nicer SKS's (the yugo ones).

 

[mberoose]

Weird stock. Here's my old M59 for reference.

 

[trickyasafox]

I love those straight 59s. I had one and a 59/66, the 59 was more enjoyable to shoot and carry hands down. I preferred the 59s especially because of the lack of grenade launcher -it really lightens them up.

 

[Mikee Loxxer]

That is a nice SKS mberoose, I wish I'd gotten a nice M59 when they were available. I sold my 59/66 this summer to finance the purchase of a Colt HBAR. Later I decided that since I still have a bunch of 7.62 X 39 that I should get another rifle to shoot them in

 

[mberoose]

Thank you. Apparently it was an early Samco import. It's gone now, but it definitely made me a fan of the M59 SKS. Excellent accuracy for what it is, better than the couple of Russians I had a while back.