SKS accuracy

[Gen.]

The SKS has been brought up a lot, however I haven't been able to track down any good data regarding accuracy. Would it be worth getting a scope for a 150 yard shot? Or is an sks better kept as it is. Some of them have a better reputation than others, or is that myth? Russian, Chinese, the Russian/Chinese, Yugo, a little wisdom please.

[kyle]

I've only fired a Yugo SKS so I can't give you any details on the differences between the different models. I did pick up a Chinese SKS once and fiddled with the action. It seriously felt like a toy compared to the Yugo. I don't know if that's good or bad.

The Yugo with iron sights (on a good day for me) can get 6 inch groups at 100 yards. I'm very sure it can shoot better than that. I've read that it can hit targets with decent groups around 300 yards but I find it hard to believe.

Sorry, I'm not much help but I'm planning on slapping a scope on mine in the near future to solve this mystery so I'll let you know when I find out.

[thecheeto]

I have had exprience with the goor chinese SKS... not the norincos, and a russian one... both were as accurate as I could shoot, not that thas saying too much asI have never been anywhre to test longer ranges than about 200 feet. Unless you plan no not shooting any short ranges I would skip the scope, cause its a serious pain in the arse to go to the iron sights under scope.

[Mugwug]

I've owned several SKSs, and my best shoot with an SKS was a 5 shot string grouping 3" at 100 with a Russian made SKS. The Yugo was about the same accuracy, and the Chinese slightly less (could be me, but my M14S groups 1 1/2" at 100 with standard sights, no problem).

The sights are fine for 100-150 yards, althought if you're going to mount a scope have a proper mount installed on the side of the receiver, the aftermarket dust cover replacment mounts have a reputation for shifting a bit, and losing their zero when the rifle is broken down for cleaning.

For what it's worth here are the Remington ballistics charts for 7.62x39mm

[RealityDeviant]

Honestly, I've never had the opportunity to fire one of these guns. The information is useful, though. Maybe I'll get a chance to try one out soon. As cheap as they are, I think dad may be getting one.

[Gen.]

Thanks for the info

[Iron]

Typically the SKS seems to have anywhere from 3 to 5 inch groups at 100 to 150 yards. Some are better than others. From what I've heard Russian is the best. Chinese is ok especially if you can get one that was manufactured to be used by their military instead of straight to export. The ones manufactured just for export seem to have lower QC standards. As far as the soviet block weapondry goes a rule of thumb for quality from best to worst is Russian/East German, other Soviet Bloc nations, Chinese. Though this isn't always true, the czech makarov I have is more accurate than my east german one.

The big thing I 've noticed with the SKS and scopes is if you're using an aftermarket scope and not the tiny thing that was designed to be used with it, you end up beating the holy hell out of the scope with extracted brass. This may not be an issue for every SKS as the one I have tends to throw brass up and right, but for a buddy who scoped his, it was a major issue because that rifle threw brass straight up. He ended up pulling the scope then finally selling the rifle because he got tired of having hot brass rain down his head.

Funny thing was a year or two later another pal of mine showed me his new toy, and I recognized it as having belonged to friend A. He'd picked it up at a completely different shop only by now it had a brass shield added under the scope to direct the brass out to the right. Now it throws brass up in to the shield and it bounces down and out the right.

I kinda wonder how many hands it's been through.

[Mugwug]

Ah, scoping the SKS....

The reason I picked up my "D" model originally was because I was considering mounting a scope to the side of the receiver, besides the ejection issues (and yeah, a shell deflector is pretty much a must) the length of the scope prevents the use of stripper clips to load a standard SKS.

Of course, now that I'm putting the scout mount on the damn thing I'm regretting not using a standard SKS, as I'm spending way too much money on mags for the damn rifle.

(as I've moaned about before, mags are pricey up here... the going rate for AK mags is about $35-50 for 20 or 30 round mags, and $25 for the little 10 round ones).