What's wrong with the SKS?

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Cactus Jack Arizona

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Is there something wrong with the SKS? I ask because I've noticed an influx of SKS rifles at the gun shows I've attended, not to mention the 6 pages of SKS rifles listed at gunbroker.com as of this posting. Also as of this posting, there are 117 listings of SKS rifles at gunsamerica.com.

The SKS is not going along with the rules of supply and demand. If there were only a few of them, one would think their price would be high. However, they seem to be a dime a dozen, yet their prices are as high as if people couldn't get enough of them. I don't really get it. What say you?
 
Literally millions of them have been imported over the years from various places. But the supply is running out worldwide.

And a lot of folks rushed right out and bought them at inflated prices during the hysteria & gun buying frenzy after the last election.

Now, they are out of work and want all their money back out of them to pay the rent.

rc
 
rcmodel said:
Literally millions of them have been imported over the years from various places.
And a lot of folks rushed right out and bought them all during the hysteria & gun buying frenzy after the last election.

Now, they are out of work and want their money back out of them to pay the rent.

rc
Click to expand...

Over in the first reply. I've noticed the same thing with AR's. People are trying to sell them at inflated prices and recoup their loss, but there's too many of them out there right now.
 
Pages and pages of listings (at inflated prices) or pages of sold rifles?

Those 2 things are not synonymous.

BSW
 
It may just take some time for prices to settle down a bit. They already have a little. At one point we were seeing Soviet specimens in the $600's, I don't think that's happening anymore.

If you're looking for a cheap, semi-auto milsurp carbine they're pretty much the only game in town. I don't know what the global supply looks like. They're not making any more, obviously. But did they make a billion of them like they did with Mosins?
 
It may just take some time for prices to settle down a bit.
Click to expand...

I agree. I think many people (myself included) owned old sks's they bought back in the 90's, still unfired sitting in cosmoline in the back of our safes or back at mom and pop's house. My father and I bought a few for $75 apiece, with ammo and assorted Chinese paraphernalia. $300? What! I can sell 1 or 2 and still keep one or two for myself and the kids to enjoy. Voila...market flooded. But who knows?

I actually just cleaned one up that my cousin bubba'd with a 30 round mag and folding stock. I put the wood stock back on it and gave it a once over. I'll actually fire my first ever sks this weekend...yeah, for the first time...and I own 3. :scrutiny: If I like it, I'll designate this one as a shooter since it's a little rough on the outside and throw some of those tech sights on it.
 
I bought a bubba's Cowboy Companion SKS about 3 months before the election for 250.00. I paid another 20.00 for a wood stock that I modified to fit the receiver's scope mount. Next thing I know BAM SKS's were going for almost 500.00 with 30rd magazines. ***?? I know they're fun to shoot but they're still a dime a dozen.
 
Availabilty of these weapons show that people bought at inflated prices and now need the cash. Back in the early
90's, I purchased a Norinco SKS NIB for $125. It probably doesn't have 200 rounds through it. I've aquired several other weapons including a Norinco MAK 90 a Norinco 9mm Tokarev, Remingtong 870 Law Enforcement, a vintage Winchester Model 72 .22, along with 2,000 rounds of 7.62 and 1500 rnds. of 9mm. Need to stock up on various shot gun rnds and 2,000 rnds. of .22 shells. I'll hang on to all of these, these pretty much cover all my bases.
 
At the end of the day the SKS is an outmoded, limited fixed capacity, crudely sighted,poorly platformed for modern optics, albeit reliable, fighting carbine: with limited usefulness in the game fields. Unless one is a collector and wants a particular specimen for his collection, the demand for them is just not that great. Today people want tricked out ARs in the fighting rifle space, and I don't blame them. It is very hard to beat a sold M-4 platform with modern optics for an offensive/defensive weapon.
 
I had three and gave two of them away to my sons. I'll probably give the last one away too. I personally don't like the cheap POCs.
 
There's a lot of them out there, but most of the good ones are already gone. You see tons of Yugos and Norincos, but the good ones, the Russian and Romanian ones, are hard to find and you normally pay a premium for them. I got a steal on my Romanian at $275 a few months ago. It has a chrome-plated bore and beautiful wood. Romanian craftsmanship at its best. It looks 10 times better than any Norinco or Yugo I've seen.

th_SKS2.gif
 
2075 RAMI:
Nothing.
Bought mine in March '08 and have never considered selling it.
For blasting objects at 50-100 feet, the ammo/rifle expenses of an AR, FAL, PTR-91, M-1A would be overkill.

As for prices, most Norincos on "GB" seemed to list at about $270 in spring '08, long before the election.
Do you read "SKSboards"?
 
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the Simonov action evolved into Kalashnikov action...
Click to expand...

Not really. Kalishnikov stole from lots of earlier designs* for the AK, but the SKS was not one of them. The only thing those two rifles have in common is the caliber. BSW

*Safety from the Remington 8, bolt and trigger from the Garand, gas system from any number of earlier weapons.
 
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