I like the gas shut off on the yugos. Just like the M14 they put a gas shutoff valve for launching stick grenades. This also gives the rifle better ballistics and gives manual control of the action. 7.62x39 also works well suppressed and the gas switch is a plus with that.
My father took a yugo and removed the bayonet rig. Then, he split the knife in two, ground a hinge on one of the splits and turned it into a dirty folding bipod. That was like 20 years ago...... back before the tactical market exploded. He loves the SKSs also.
I had a friend who bought 7.62-39 by the case for $75.00,when he passed away he had a little over 40 cases left. Be nice if you still could.
2,keep one original and make the other into an ideal battle rifle that's closer to modern standards.7.62x39 is a great round too,versatile.
Back in the early nineties I traded a Sega Genisis for an SKS. It was my first one and I immediately "bubba'ed" it with a plastic stock, flush fitting four round mag, and a crappy scope mount top cover. I later gave it to a old family friend, who traded it for a bottle of whiskey and a couple of pack of smokes, but I don't hold it against him as he gave me a marlin model 60 that didn't fire reliably and I traded it for a Sega Genisis.
I sold one. probably should have kept it. I bought it for the kids to deer hunt but it was pretty front heavy. I had some AK's but they weren't accurate at all. Shot deer with them using soft points. Ok at close range. I wouldn't buy one at the prices they are now. For not much more you can get an AR. Better in most ways. If they still sold Saiga's they would be good.
I've got one from back when they were 89.95. It's not as accurate as I'm used to. I fired it once without un folding the bayonet so now it's way back in the rear corner of the closet behind a stripped M14 stock which I would grab first if needed.
It's one of the few rifles I've seen that can be loaded with one hand while wearing mittens. I had to try it myself, and without setting the rifle down I can reload it (easier if only 8 rounds are loaded) using only one arm and while wearing a parka and a mitten. This all started when I watched an old gentleman shooting his SKS. His hands were gnarled and twisted from arthritis and he had little feeling in his fingertips to handle individual rounds. He'd close the bolt on an empty chamber, flip the rifle magazine up, open the magazine, dump 5 rounds in, noting only that they were facing forward, slam the mag shut, right the rifle, cycle the bolt and fire. I found that 5 was a snap, and you could simply dump them in as he had done. Eight will usually work, but ten rounds must be staggered in the magazine box. It works, even with frozen fingers or mittens on, and it will keep the SKS running. For their intended purpose, there's plenty to love about these little rifles, especially when you're in a hasty defensive position that's barely a scratch in the dirt, and you can still get down low to the deck with that ten round magazine. Live tritium night sights on some of the Yugo's are sweet too.
Absolutely, and with a Chinese chest rig full of stripper clipped 7.62x39 the SKS is pretty stout. But when all you have is a pocket full of loose rounds and frozen fingers, you can still keep it running.
How about the SKS-M and D? Possibly the ugliest of any SKS variant, they are very handy and have gone up exponentially in price.
My first SKS was a Yugoslavian M59/66A1 made in 1970 I got to hand pick myself from a full crate of 12, took me 2 days to remove all the cosmoline. The rifle was in excellent condition and either had a new barrel installed during the refurb process or it just hadn't been shot very much. I ended up scoping the rifle using a Choate drill and tap side mount a local gun smith did for me for $20, he even recessed the wood on the stock where the mount went an made it look like a factory job. I gave $149 out the door for that rifle which was maybe around 05 if I remember. A couple year later I ended buying a NIB Chinese Factory /26\ that was made around 1965 from the same gunsmith that did my scope mount. He worked lots of gun shows selling antique rifles and shotguns an bought out whole lots gun and sold off things he didn't want to keep or sell at his booth. I ended up paying $250 for the rifle but around here and at the time you just never saw NIB SKS rifle especially the Chinese versions, mine has all milled parts and everything is nicely finished. The last SKS I purchased a little over a year ago, although I love my two other SKS rifles I had been wanting a decent Russian since I bought my Yugo, but sometime life gets in the way and you have to pass buy good opportunities and it looks as if I would never own one especially at the price range the Russians had gotten up to. But as the old saying goes good things come to those that wait and I ended up getting a 1952 black bolt refurb that was still in the box a friend of mine who had been a FFL at one time has setting back in his gun room for the past 18 years untouched. I haven't even shot it yet but I will at some point when I feel it's the right time. Although at the time steel case ammo was cheap I still set up to reload the cartridge, I just never trust the availability of domestic or imported ammo especially in a non common caliber. That being said I stocked up on good quality steel came ammo mainly Golden Tiger and Brown Bear that my rifles shoot very accurately at the ranges I normally shot at around here and keep it in my rainy day stash. I started out reloading jacketed bullet an developed several loads that shoot excellent in my rifles. I was only casting for handguns but after educating myself I soon started casting an shooting cast lead bullets in my SKS rifle which is the primary ammo they mainly get fed today.
I sold off one of my paratrooper sks's to fund a nicer one that returned to the gunshop recently. So while making room in one of the safes I pulled out the sks's (sks' ?) Yugo on the left, Chinese in the middle, and Russian on the right.
IIRC the parts from different countries don't interchange very well??? liberties were taken in production???
The only sks's I've had to repair were screwed up by the owners. Trigger groups filed down in an attempt to "lighten" the trigger or missing small parts. Those were chinese ones and all the parts I had to replace were drop in (no fitting required).
