What is the best SKS out there?

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The recent used CHicom SKSs coming in from Albania are quite beat up. I saw one at a gunshow that was in VG + condition but all original . It was priced at $400 and the guy selling wont badge.

If you havent one of these SKSs, get the Russian in its original configuration. Prepare to spend $450-550 to get an excellent condition. They are worth it considering the rarity and low supply. Plus theyre built like tanks to last a lifetime. And they are semi auto rifles and very fun to shoot. They have gained a reputation in the American gun market after 24 yrs being imported.
 
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sks

i have two Russian's and a norenco and i like the Russian's better .my dad has a Chinese he brought back from across the crick in Vietnam the guy did not need it any more
 
im not sure if anyone is interested in this.. but i found this online recently.. its a download from grabcad in which one of the members apparently backwards engineered the entire yugo 59/66 rifle.. if you have solidworks, autodesk inventor, or one of the free e-viewers you can open the file and get all the technical data you want off it.. would be kind of cool to design a .223 SKS that uses AR-15 mags.. or one that fires 6.5 grendel

https://grabcad.com/library/yugo-sks-59-66
 
Originally posted by bmwguy
The Russian SKS is the best. This is especially true if you have an early made one like 1950r. They have a free floating firing pin.
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Actually the very early Russian production SKS's are the only ones that DON'T have a free floating firing pin.

I have several SKS's and like them, but I honestly don't think they're worth the prices that they're bringing today. For what you'd pay for a Russian SKS, you could darn near buy a CMP Garand with much higher build quality, better accuracy, vastly superior sights and a much more powerful, versatile and effective cartridge.
 
I went with the Russian SKS since it just looked so much better than the Chinese version. Milled vs stamped. Took forever to get all the cosmoline type stuff off of it though.
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Um.....no. I don't know of ANY "stamped" SKS rifles. Whether Chinese, Russian, Romanian, Albanian, Yugo, etc....every single sks I have ever touched has had a milled, not stamped reciever, and there's been a number of them in my hands over the last 25 years or so....Any "stamped" SKS would be a rare collector's piece, not a run of the mill shooter.
 
Davek1977 said:
Um.....no. I don't know of ANY "stamped" SKS rifles. Whether Chinese, Russian, Romanian, Albanian, Yugo, etc....every single sks I have ever touched has had a milled, not stamped reciever, and there's been a number of them in my hands over the last 25 years or so....Any "stamped" SKS would be a rare collector's piece, not a run of the mill shooter.
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Most people don't know about the few stamped ones that were made for a while. They are very rare but do pop up most don't know what they have.
 
No, I realize a few were made, but in 25 years of being around SKS's of various sorts, I've ye to have seen one, and sort of doubt NavyVet actually has a "stamped" Chinese SKS, considering how rare they are compared to the milled variants.
 
Chinese SKs type rifles with stamped receivers were imported into the US by Navy Arms.
They featured detachable 5 shot AKM type magazines and a 16.5" barrel and were called "Cowboy Companions" and were based from the Chinese Type 68 selective fire SKS rifle.
Navy Arms also imported some fixed magazine pinned barrel short barrelled carbines under the same name.

Stamped SKS receivers are easy to spot.
There are rivits on either side of the rear receiver just below the top cover.
 
gpurp said:
About when did Norinco stop threading their barrels?
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My guess is the mid 90s. I recall when the things began to pour into the US from China and as I recall the early guns were all original Chinese Communist military surplus. My fascination was memories of the things from Vietnam. We were buying crates of 10 at about $49 per gun as I recall. The early guns were well packed with cosmoline too.

They were immediately a hot commodity. Soon the Chinese were sending all sorts of new production flavors over and those had the pinned barrels. The "Paratrooper" was funny because as far as I knew the Chinese never had actual paratroopers. Anyway life was grand and a 1200 round of ammunition was around $100.

The Clinton administration banned the further import of the rifles and ammunition from China. Then the Russian guns began to pour into the US followed soon by other Soviet block countries with their ammunition.

While I never considered myself an SKS Guru I likely sold a thousand of the things. I don't think any of the pinned barrel guns from China were actual military surplus but rather after market stuff produced in China to fill the demand. Not sure about any of that. Pure speculation on my part so anyone who is really into these things correct me where I am wrong.

Ron
 
You right.
Pinned barrel guns are commercial production for civilian consumption.
They are junk compared to the actual Mil-spec Chinese SKS rifles.
 
My Yugo is still in cosmoline, looks great but I shoot my Russian one often. Great rifle, easy to clean, fun to shoot, and damn near unstoppable. Makes me want to shoot it tomorrow!
 
I killed my first 10 lb hog with my Russian SKS. It was like 7 yrds away with the hog looking away from me. I sneaked behind it and dump 3 rds in succession . It was the coolest thing especially the rapid fire from the adrenarine rush . WIth the surplus hollow point , it was a blast indeed .


SKS is my love since i can't afford a M1 Carbine for that matter.
 
Personally, I really like the looks of a Russian and the options of a Model M Norinco but there is no "best". Some are better than others in different areas. Choose what matters to you then pick accordingly.
 
I bought my first Norinco SKS in 1988 from Roses for $69. I've. Owned many others, but still have the Norinco. It has the best trigger of any SKS I've ever seen.
 
The very first Russian SKS rifles did Not have free-floating firing pins.

As to why all later types were manufactured with the free-floating types, there is not a clear answer.
For a wealth of SKS info: "SKSboards" and "YooperJohn's SKS" website. Yooper has serial number ranges, certain features of various countries etc.

On a very practical note: to help avoid popped primers, using ammo other than Tula can be a major advantage.
Murray's Gunsmithing in Bowie TX charges $30 for professional work which prevents any more popped primers.
 
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Onmilo said:
You right.
Pinned barrel guns are commercial production for civilian consumption.
They are junk compared to the actual Mil-spec Chinese SKS rifles.
Click to expand...
You may not have enough time or money to wear out a junk pinned barrel SKS
 
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