SKS good for hunting?

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MC, I still laugh about the last mule deer I ate. Here I've practiced and practiced for years, making sure that anything inside of 400 or 500 yards belonged to me. So there I am, ambling along up in the Davis Mountains and Bucky sticks his head up. He'd been napping in the sun, in tall grass.

So I broke his neck. Musta been every bit of 25 or 30 yards.

Sorta felt ashamed for using a rifle that close up, but I didn't have my Redhawk with me.

Lot to be said for learning how to walk quietly. :D
 
My SKS is my favorite wild pig gun. It's semi-auto, reasonably short, easy to operate, and the cartridge is quite adequate for deer or hogs. It's good for hunting through brush...but use no larger than a 10-round magazine! The long after-market 20 and 30-round magazines are a serious handicap...brush catchers, add much weight, and you have no need for more than 5 shots anyhow.

The best hunting ammo is also the cheapest...Wolf 154-gr soft points, available from Midway (INET) at less than $5/box of 20. That's MUCH superior to the Remington or Winchester soft points, which are only 123-gr and cost three times as much! My shots are one-shot kills on hogs to 350-lb.:D
 
I'm glad to hear someone who has shot something with the Wolf 154. I thought it'd probably be superior to all that 123 grain stuff and especially the hollowpoint "hunting" ammo. I ordered some 10 gauge buckshot loads from midway a while back and was going to kick in a few boxes of the 154 Wolf, but it was back ordered indefinitely. Hopefully, that's not be the case for too much longer.

If you like high cap mags, I have a chinese 20 round fixed on my carbine that is just like the 10 rounders only sticks out a little farther. It works fine except on the last shot it stove pipes the fresh round. If I bend the feed lips down to stop it, then it won't pick the round up. I could play with it some more, but I don't really care. It's just a range toy. It works fine except on the last round. The rifle is the one I use in the field, also has a crisp trigger which is unusual on Norinco SKSs, not sure about other countries of origin. The carbine is pretty spongy.

As for brush catchers, I cut the bayonet lug off the rifle for that reason, caught every piece of brush I walked past. LOL I carry the gun on the sling muzzle down on my off side so I can flip it up quick. The bottom of the gun faces forward when so carried.
 
Looks like we hunt the same way. My SKS is also a Norinco, with a fine trigger. I can hit the 300-yd 10" square steel plate at my range every shot, using a 3 x 9-power scope and a case deflector (essential when using a scope projecting over the action, as the SKS ejects vertically!) mounted on the sight just ahead of the action.

Using a long scope also pretty well dictates using an after-market detachable magazine, as stripper clips can't be used to load the original mag. I use a ten round detachable magazine, which is ample for hunting.
 
I bought my SKS last year. I did several Google searches about hunting with an SKS. There were several forums that had comments about how an SKS was not appropriate for hunting. It didn't take long to figure out there is a prejudice of some gun owners/hunters against hunting with military style or surplus firearms. The folks that believed the SKS was good for hunting usually said keep shots under 150 yards and work on your shot placement. I remember one "pro-SKS" poster stating that he can take his SKS to the range and fire 200 rounds of ammo for the same cost that someone shooting a "traditional" hunting rifle spends to shoot two boxes of ammo(back in the days of $3.00 to $4.00 boxes of ammo).

Good hunting takes practice. So grab the SKS, practice, and be happy you aren't spending $20 a box for ammo.
 
Cost of shooting hunting rifles depends on if you reload. I do. :D It's fun, though, to be able to just plink away and not worry about where the brass goes. I have removed the gas piston and made a straight pull bolt out of it to keep my reload brass from disappearing.

I had a 3x9 scope on the gun, but I tired of it. I have other hunting rifles I favor. I can hit a coke can every shot at 300 with my bolt guns off the bench, a .257 Roberts, a .308 Winchester, and a 7mm Remington Magnum. The 7 mag is the LEAST accurate and it's a 1 MOA gun. What the SKS is really neat for is a utility gun, ranch rifle, truck gun and since I can't see much more'n 150 yards for a shot on my place anyway due to brush, why bother with the scope? It's much handier to tote without it. If it were all I had, though, it's accurate enough for at least 200 yards for me. I can group about 5" at 200 yards with Wolf 154 grain stuff using the scope and the cartridge has plenty of power at that range for deer and hog. It is not ideal as a hunting rifle, but it will do the job nicely and is fun to shoot. At the price the things go for, everyone should get one just to play with. :D

Oh, I can reload my 5 round mag just fine without removable mags and the removable mags are mostly junk that I've seen and the few I've tried. Just load 'em like you do any sporting rifle with a scope, one at a time. You don't NEED a stripper clip to load the gun. I've got a few, but never ever use 'em. Why bother? I have never been in a fire fight with it, so fast reloads are not really necessary. The mag I put on the rifle only holds 5 rounds and does not protrude from the bottom of the gun which makes it much easier to carry in the field. It only took one round to kill the deer I shot with it, after all.
 
Good advice, MCGUNNER! You've pretty well summarized it. The SKS is a great utility rifle, and I frequently use mine where my fancier rifles fear to tread. I've taken the scope off mine also...but I put it back on when I go to the range. It is fun plinking that 300-yd 10" square steel! Especially when folks shooting along side me with fancy rifles and scopes have trouble hitting it!:evil:

All said, it's one of the best bargains on the market...though they seem to be getting scarcer. It appears that people who get them don't get rid of them. I haven't seen a Norinco on the market for at least a year...
 
My brother's father-in-law and his uncle both hunted with SKS's with Wolf SP's last year. One had a 1x red dot scope and the other had a fixed 4x scope. They took 4 deer between the two of them out as far as 200 yards. I'm not a big fan of the SKS as a deer rifle, but not because it won't work, but because I have never owned one that was up to my accuracy standards for a hunting rifle. If I can't get 2 MOA accuracy every shot out of a rifle, I just can't bring myself to trust it in the woods. If I miss, I want to know that I was the problem, not the rifle.

Mike
 
3 MOA means that at 200 yards, the round is going to land within 3" of point of aim. That keeps you from making a head or neck shot, of course, but the shoulder is WAY bigger than that.

I understand the desire for an MOA rifle, though, and is what I strive for, but woods hunting doesn't actually REQUIRE MOA accuracy. The deer I killed was facing me at 80 yards and I whacked her right where I wanted in the neck.

I mean, I don't actually hunt with the gun much, I'm just sayin'.....:D
 
3 MOA means that at 200 yards, the round is going to land within 3" of point of aim. That keeps you from making a head or neck shot, of course, but the shoulder is WAY bigger than that.

I understand the desire for an MOA rifle, though, and is what I strive for, but woods hunting doesn't actually REQUIRE MOA accuracy. The deer I killed was facing me at 80 yards and I whacked her right where I wanted in the neck.

I mean, I don't actually hunt with the gun much, I'm just sayin'.....
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I don't, as a rule, take neck shots, and 3MOA is enough for 100 yards shots on deer, but I like a more accurate rifle. I said 2 MOA, but that is that absolute MINIMUM acceptable accuracy for me. I strive for sub-MOA from all my rifles, and can usually get at least 1.5 MOA from factory rifles. So if my deer rifle shoots 1 MOA, and I blow a 150 yard shot, I know that it's not the rifle that let me down, it's the guy behind the trigger. The best SKS I owned (of the three), shot about 4 MOA off the bench with iron sights, the worst wouldn't keep all the rounds on an 8.5x11" sheet of paper at 50 yards. I never put a scope on it because I figured why bother. SKS's also have HORRIBLE triggers, which is definately part of the reason they don't generally shoot very well.

Mike
 
I've used my SKS to take deer for years. the Wolf 154grn SPs are quite good, and very accurate...at least out of my gun...and they have done the job time and time again.
 
Well, driftrider, I ain't arguing the point. I'm just relating experience. My two Norincos will shoot 3 MOA and with 154 Wolf, the rifle shoots 2.5 MOA, which is a lot better than what you've experienced. I've bought 25 or 30 Norincos back when I had a FFL and used to put them on football pots at work. My thoughts at the time were that I was arming Texas against Clinton's gun bans. LOL Anyway, I fired a few of 'em. I never fired one that was worse than about 4 MOA with FMJ ammo. However, the ONLY SKSs I've messed with were Norincos, which back in the early 90s were cheap and plentiful. I found that about one out of 10 had a crisp trigger, rest were spongy as hell, lots of creep. I can shoot 'em, but I do pull a shot now and then with one of those spongy triggers. I was buying a lot of 'em at the time and just kept one that had a good trigger. I do know what you mean about the triggers on the things, though.
 
2 MOA is plenty for hunting.

3 MOA is good too.

4 MOA? Yeah, sure. It'll work just fine.

5 and up? It's not the gun, it's the shooter.

Honestly, in Texas, most of your shots are close. I've never made a shot past 120ish yards. I hunt almost primarily open-sight, with the exception of my Saiga.

The SKS works.
 
Shooting off-hand, a woods hunter firing a 1 MOA rifle is often doing well to shoot a 6" group at 100yds.

A guy with a cheap milsurp rifle capable of 3 MOA who can afford to practice can develop the skill to shoot a 6" group off hand at 100yds.

Marksmenship is a skill you develop, not a thing you buy.
 
I shot a deer at about 45 yard with the SKS using JHP. Dropped in one shot. After field dressing it looked like a golf ball went through the deer. I guess some guys figure if you don't shoot a deer from 350 yards with a Weatherby bolt action and a $1000 Leupold scope that you're not really hunting. Whatever gets you out in the woods is what you should go with. Just make sure you shoot alot and know your gun.
 
May I ask a question here folks?

I love the SKS, and agree that raw numbers are similar to the 30-30. There's also a bunch of steel jacket commie HP/SP ammo out there labeled "suitable for hunting".

Here's the catch-
I spent a whole day shooting different things from stacked wet newsprint, to water jugs, to some meat that had freezer burned, to damp dirt in boxes with both a 30-30 using 150 FP sierra slugs, and a bunch of different "hunting" commie loads in the SKS. Most times the copper jacketed 30-30 round preformed as expected, and most times, regardless of brand, the steel jacket stuff failed miserably to expand. It either blew up or acted like FMJ. There was a HUGE difference in how the water jugs reacted. The commie stuff split 'em good and tore them into 2 or three pieces, but the 30-30 just exploded them.

So what do you guys that have used them successfully on live game use for ammo?
 
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The one deer I shot, my bullet worked fantastic. huge fist size exit hole. I was using my own handload and a Sierra 135 grain Pro Hunter "pistol bullet" designed for the .30-30 Contenders. That bullet is no longer available, but 154 Wolf soft point is and everyone who's shot anything with it lauds its performance. The stuff is cheap, so I got some and will get more.

No, I do not trust the 123 grain hollow point "hunting" ammo. But, that 154 wolf is a standard soft point spitzer with a good amount of exposed lead at the tip. So, I started loading with it for the field. Besides, the stuff has more accuracy, 2.5 MOA from my rifle, about a half MOA to 1 MOA better than the FMJ stuff. My handload was only 3 MOA.
 
Ben, the 123-gr steel-jacketed hollow points you used were probably not intended for hunting, but accuracy. For example, the Wolf steel-jacketed 123-gr HP is far too small to expand much...it is quite similar to the 123-gr FMJ except for that tiny little hollow point. For range use, my SKS does slightly better with the HP than the FMJ. On the other hand, the Wolf steel-jacketed154-gr soft points are designed for hunting...and perform very well indeed!
 
O.K. for deer (considering there are FAR better rounds if your serious about hunting..), but for black bear or anything bigger, you would be seriously comprising your ethics....
 
O.K. for deer (considering there are FAR better rounds if your serious about hunting..), but for black bear or anything bigger, you would be seriously comprising your ethics....
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Many a black bear has been felled to the .30-30....and a lot less. It's plenty. The SKS is similar to many .30-30 factory loads. Bear are usually shot over bait at close range, to boot. I can tell you for sure, the SKS will put a big hog down and they can weigh close to 400 lbs. Just put the proper bullet in the right place.
 
game results with 7.62x39

I've shot four deer with my CZ 527 in 7.62x39.

1st deer. Doe dressing around 75 pounds (what can I say, our deer are TINY here). Quartering slighlty towards me at 50 yards. Win 123 SP hit front shoulder, penetrated behind offside shoulder. Deer ran 40 yards and dropped.

2nd deer. Doe dressing around 60 ponds. Broadside. 60 yards. Federal 123 SP tore through both shoulders and exited. Deer dropped to shot.

3rd deer. Doe dressign around 65 pounds. Exact same shot as 2nd deer. Deer dropped to shot. I shot these two deer about 15 minutes apart. Also used Federal 123 SP.

4th deer. Spike dressing around 70 pounds. 25 yards. Quartering toward me at somewhat steep angle. Put bullet in front of nearside shoulder. Federal 123 SP penetrated through boiler room and was lodged around the 4th rib from the rear. Total penetration was around 16" or so. Deer ran 20 yards and fell. I recovered the bullet under the skin on the offside and I'd guess it retained 40% of its weight. I was hunting at my handgun stand and was going to shoot this deer with my 357, but the deer just wouldn't turn and it was getting late so I used the 7.62 instead.

Overall - I have no qualms about using any of these loads on small central Texas deer. I would NOT try to put either of these loads (Winchester or Federal) through the shoulders of a deer dressing over 100 pounds. I'd probably lung shoot these deer and would feel very confidant doing so. In the mountains of testing I've looked at, I would not use the chicom ball or hollow point ammo on deer.

The 154 SP shoots accurately in my gun, but POI is about 4" low at 25 yards compared with the 123 grain loads. The POI with the Federal and Winchester loads is identical to the cheap ball and HP ammo. I practice a LOT with the cheap stuff and shoot deer with the expensive stuff. I feel the deer are worth it, and I can stretch a box of the good ammo at least two seasons.

Lastly, I LOVE this CZ carbine. I really wish someone would loads a lighter barnes X bullet (110 grain or so) in this to bump up the speed and range, but I'm perfectly satisfied with the Winchester and Federal loads. I plan on using the Remington 125 PSP this season. Hopefully, I'll have results to report.
 
Lastly, I LOVE this CZ carbine. I really wish someone would loads a lighter barnes X bullet (110 grain or so) in this to bump up the speed and range, but I'm perfectly satisfied with the Winchester and Federal loads. I plan on using the Remington 125 PSP this season. Hopefully, I'll have results to report.
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Is your CZ a 0.308" or a 0.310-312" bore? Barnes makes both a 110 and 130 grain .308" bullet, which in an standard .308" barrel would be bad medicine for deer to 150-200 yards, but you'd have to roll your own to shoot them.

Mike
 
It's a .310 as far as I know, through I've heard reports of people shooting .308 bullet through it quite accurately. I'm not a reloader (yet!) so I'd need someone to offer the load I'm looking for.

Thanks for the heads up, though. I'm guessing that 130 grain would open up at anything over 2,000 fps and would be quite deadly. Corbon was offering an X bullet load but it was $$$$.
 
I guess you'd have to have your bore slugged to find out for sure. I know that the Ruger Mini-30 is chambered in 7.62x39mm Soviet, but they have .308" bores. Maybe you could send Barnes an email requesting that they offer the 110 grain TSX in .310. I imagine that if they had enough interest they'd do it.

And yes, the TSX will open at 2000 fps for sure. Barnes has a video on their website showing a 180gr fired from a .308 Win hitting a block of 10% ballistics gel at 2000fps (to simulate a 300 yard shot). The bullet completely opened into a perfect 4-petal mushroom within 2" of travel through the block. Pretty impressive. I'd imagine that the little 7.62x39 could get a 110 grainer going at least 2400fps, so it'd for sure expand out to 100 yards, and probably do just fine to 150.

Mike
 
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