Target Shooting the SKS

[TooTaxed]

Finally moved to a place with a handy outdoor rifle range...Fort Benning Rifle and Pistol Club...and, picked up an SKS for fun target punching. Why the SKS? I wanted an inexpensive semi-auto with readily available inexpensive ammo. (My CAR-15 is still in storage in Indiana...a long distance away!) Chose the SKS both for price and the longer barrel over the AK-47, though I had a lot of experience with the AK in Vietnam...owned two there, a finely finished Czech folding stock model I used in vehicles and a roughly finished Chinese full stock model.

Results: I had a ball! Got 4" groups at 100-yd, compared to the 1 to 1-1/2" groups I get with my .30-06 Springfield or my 6.5-mm Swede bolt guns. The larger group is an acceptable tradeoff for the semi-automatic action. My SKS came with a 30-round aftermarket magazine, which turns out to be a real handicap for target shooting, as I load 5 rounds as SOP, so I always know what is in the rifle. Suggest staying with the original SKS internal magazine for target shooting.

My SKS has a very creepy trigger, which I'll try to smoth with careful stoning. Are there any better aftermarket triggers available?

I tried out three different makes of ammo to see what the rifle likes best...BarnaulHP, Silver Bear 124=gr Match and Wolf 122-gr FMJ. Tightest groups were with the Wolf, but I also got two stovepipe live round jams I didn't get with the others.

Anybody else want to share their shooting experience?

 

[mattd]

try wolf sp

 

[OneShot]

My Yugo SKS isn't all that accurate but I love shooting it anyhow. I also get occasional stovepipes with the Wolf stuff.

The guns cheap, the ammo's cheap and I love to shoot it, so what the heck!--Oneshot

 

[standingbear]

mines accurate.paid something like 70 bucks for the russian one i have.still looks like new after being shot some 4000 times.filed the front sight pin to a point and colored it orange on the tip.i like my sks more than any ak copy.milled steel receiver,milled everything.no stampings or pressed in parts.solid.

 

[MonkeyMan]

SKS's are a bunch of fun and can be fairly accurate. The group size on my Norinco shrank a bunch just by cleaning up the trigger pull and putting an .005" shim between the rear of the action and the stock. You could actually shift the action in the stock. It's still no tack driver but at least it shoots groups instead of patterns.

 

[capbuster]

MonkeyMan,how did you clean up your trigger on your Norinco SKS.I own one and use it for a 50 yard postal match.It is plenty accurate at that range with russian ammo.I dont know if it is common to all models of SKS but when I take up the slack in the trigger, I hear a click and the remaining pull is decent.