Thumbs Up / Damn Good Guns
I have two Yugos I bought from J+G Sales a few years ago. I bought one in "Excellent, Like New Condition" for $140 and one in "Very Good Condition" for around $100. Both are great guns. I did not modify them in any way and both are tack drivers at 50 yards. I can hit the 10 ring at 100 yards about 9 out of 10 shots all day long.
When I got them, I stripped them both down and gave them both a good cleaning. The one in excellent condition required little cleaning other than washing off a thin coat of cosmoline. I've put a few thousand rounds through it and it still shoots great. I just clean the bore after I go to the range most of the time and give it a good tear down and cleaning every 500 rounds or so.
The one that was in "Very Good Condition" had a bad gas valve and a bent front sight. It was also a little more beatup and looked like it had been dropped into a vat of cosmoline when I got it. It took a little more time to clean and I had to replace the gas valve and front sight but it is just as good a gun now as the "Excellent, Like New Condition" one. It doesn't look as nice but it shoots just as good.
I don't like all that bullcrap modification that many people do to surplus guns. I like to use a gun like it was made. The only thing I added to mine were a sling to each one.
I buy old C&R guns because I like what they are and the history behind them. Why put a plastic stock, a silly ass pistol grip, a scope and a bipod on such a nice old gun? If you want an AR-15 buy one. Don't ruin a great old C&R gun. You lose any collectors value when you Bubbafy these guns. They are apparently a good investment since I see they have doubled in price in the past 3 years.
I think you will see the one's in original condition continue to go up in price. The ones that have been Bubbafied will never be worth much. You actually lose value when you do all that crap to an old gun. I see the Bubbafied ones all the time at gun shows and you rarely see anyone except gang bangers and such even look at them. The table that has the original ones always has a line at it of good old gun collectors that love original guns.
It kills me to see people ruin a good old gun. Another one that burns my ass is when some idiot takes a beautiful old Cowboy gun like the Winchester Lever guns and put a sling and scope on it. They are too stupid to know that they just reduced the value of the gun by 60% or more.
If a person needs a scope on a cowboy gun or any gun with the ballistics of something such as the 7.62x39 then I think that person is a damn poor shot and maybe needs to practice more or take a few shooting lessons from an old timer that knows how to shoot. If you can't hit it with iron sights at 100 yards, chances are you can't hit it anyway and a scope, bipod and all that other tricked out junk ain't going to help.
End of rant. Back to the subject. Yes, the SKS is a great gun. Parts are easy to get. Ammo is cheap enough that reloading is not really worth it. If I were you I'd buy a couple. If you must, go ahead and Bubbafy one so you can see what a piece of junk it becomes first hand. It won't be worth what you paid for it in a year. Keep one of them original so you will have at least one left that is worth a damn a few years from now. The value on the original gun will double every 3 to 5 years.
Joe
