what to avoid when buying sks?

[30-30man]

I've got all the sks' I need.  I have two yugos, chinese, and a albanian.  That is a total of four.  The Albanian is in the safe and the Yugo/Chinese are behind the seat of each of my farm trucks. The last one I bought was a Yugo from a dealer in Norcross,  Ga.  I paid $200 and I felt like I was getting a deal....Guess I was wrong.

[NONYA]

There was an outlet here selling them for $90,$175 for 2,everyone got 2,I think my Dad bought 6.My uncle has one he brought back from Nam as a war trophy with the Russian stamps on it,its beat to crap but its a neat wallhanger,Id like to have one that actually saw battle,he picked his up after a firefight,they went out the next morning to look for bodies and he found it stuck in the ground by the bayonet with a flare taped to the stock,no idea what they were using that for.

[cybin]

Back in the mid 90's I lived in NC and in the course of a year I helped some of my friends clean the cosmo off of at least 9 SKS's, and try them out in my back yard. All of them were Chinese except for one (Russian) . They all shot real good right out of the box except for one--had to adjust the front sight. The only difference I could tell between the chinese and the russian--was sitting the butt stock on the ground (a russian and a chinese side by side) and release the bolt and let it slide home. The russian sounded more solid than the chinese. Different metal or different heat treat on the metal I guess.

 They are as good-if not better than a .30-30 on deer. Mine killed 3 deer during the 97 deerseason in South Carolina, and all of them were one shot kills. It did a beautiful job.

Only thing I don't care for about them is mounting a scope on a SKS. The rear receiver is removeable, and mounting a scope to it just doesn't seem to work well for me. A side mounts with removable rails/ rings to me would be the way to go, but I don't know where to pick any up at this time--may have to make my own after I retire.

Cybin

[WILDCATT]

my local gun shop has russian nagants,$69 guns for $250.most places I have seen here are way higher than up north.I have a friend who is a gun dealer so I know what the prices are.

[RevJoel]

I have a Sino-Soviet SKS that I bought is 1990.  It was made in China by Norinco using Soviet parts; screwed in barrel, milled receiver, forged parts.  The only change I have made in it was to add a Ghost Ring rear sight.  At best, it will group 1.75 MOA out 3.5 MOA depending on ammunition.  I am still wondering why  Sabertip recommended against not buying one?

Pax Christi
Rev. Joel+

[greyling]

"what to avoid...."         how bout a grenade launcher?

[1911crazy]

With the yugo sks its the bore and chamber because there is no chrome lined bore or chamber and they used corrosive ammo.

I purchased 3 of the yugo m59's that i thought had bad bores they looked really bad.  Then i found out it was residue from shooting rubber or plastic bullets.  A good soaking of the orginal G.I. rifle bore cleaner would melt it out and i had a great looking bore.

One more thing on any yugo sks make sure the gas port is clean my 59's were like cement too. I had to really put pressure on the gas port tool.

I can't believe that so many still don't own an sks...what a great rifle it really is.