Range day with the new SKS

[kingpin008]

Just wanted to drop in and say thanks to everyone who helped out with advice & suggestions when I posted about picking up my first SKS awhile back.

We got a chance to visit the rifle range yesterday, and the SKS was first on my list to work with.

I made sure to only load three rounds to begin with, just in case the thing went full-auto on me. I am very happy to report that not only did it not go full-auto on me, it performed beautifully.

No cosmo has seeped from any part of the rifle, which is very nice. If you remember, I had the luck of finding this particular rifle in an extremely cosmo-free state, and it seems that it is indeed better than I thought.

I still can't shoot worth a damn with it, but I think that's understandable for never having shot a centerfire rifle before, and never having visited this particular range before.

My fiancee did take a turn with it, but only fired one round. She's never shot a rifle before, and I'm proud of her for giving it a try. She did say that she liked it better than the Marlin .30-30 levergun one of our friends brought with him, but then again, the .30-30 had a sharper kick and a lighter trigger, heh.

I'm sorry I don't have pics, but both of us with cameras totally forgot to take any pictures! Having such a good time it totally slipped our minds.

Anyway - thanks again to everyone who helped me with my SKS, and provided great advice and tips on getting it ready to shoot.

 

[RockyMtnTactical]

They are fun guns. Great weapon for the money.

 

[DMK]

I still can't shoot worth a damn with it, but I think that's understandable for never having shot a centerfire rifle before, and never having visited this particular range before.

Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it. The SKS was my first centerfire rifle too. The SKS might not be the most accurate rifle out there, but it's "good enough" and it's very durable and reliable.

I did a ton of shooting with it at 50 yards, first off the bench, then moving on to shooting off hand standing and sitting, mastering that before I even tried 100 yards.

Make sure to pay attention to the basics (sight picture, breath control, eyes open, smooth squeeze of the trigger).

 

[nwilliams]

Great!

SKS's are fun guns to shoot and I've never owne done that didn't go bang every time. Sure they aren't the most accurate guns in the world, they aren't the most beautiful, but they function, they're fun and they're cheap!

In a few years when even SKS prices go through the roof you'll be glad you picked one up while they were still a great value for the money.

You can buy stripper clips for them and that makes loading a lot faster and more fun, the only problem is you may go through ammo a lot faster

 

[Gingerbreadman]

What kind of SKS do you have? I have a Yugoslavian version. Very fun. Mine did have some major bugs when I got it (wouldn't go bang-who knew that could happen?), but it shoots beautifully now.

 

[kingpin008]

DMK - Good tips, thanks. I'm sure part of it was being at a new range, and getting used to how the shooting area is set up. The way the baffles were set up, it seemed to me that if I wanted to properly aim, I would risk shooting the first set of baffles in front of where I was aiming, so I kinda changed my POI to make sure I didn't. Probably just a perception thing, not being used to the fact that there were baffles in the first place.

NWilliams - Yea, it's a lot of fun. I have a bunch of stripper clips already, but I have to weed out a few of them that didn't want to feed properly. I neglected to seperate them out at the range, so I have to see which ones act up again and throw 'em out.

Gingerbreadman - I have a Yugo as well. Beautiful rifle, and I was lucky enough to buy it already mostly cosmo-free. I only had to do a minor wipe-down of some of the parts and it was good to go. What problem was causing the failure to fire with yours? What did you do to fix it?

 

[chris in va]

If you do nothing else to the gun, get TechSights. It'll transform the thing, trust me. Everything else is fluff.

Don't bother with the Mojo or Wilson versions, they're too far away to be an effective peep sight.