The Norinco SKS 7.62x39 - Not just a Crappy Chinese gun.

For once, I have found a firearm made in China that I am quite impressed with from a value standpoint, for what it can deliver based on what it was designed for.
Ok, its technically not a Chinese gun, its Russian, so that helps, but lets give this one to the Chinese for a change.

The crappy $300 cheapo SKS is not the best gun, well its the $300 price tag that makes it very impressive.


The good:

- Shooting open sight it was brilliant. With open sights, shooting in sitting position off a table, using rubbish steel barnaul ammo, from 100 metres away, I grouped in under 3 inches!

- The recoil is very manageable, the jump is not bad, the cheek didnt go soar, & the shoulder was fine

- The gun didnt get too hot after a few continuous shots, or make excessive noise.

- The trigger is better than a Ruger 10/22! It has obvious stage 1 travel, & slight creep, but the break is not bad. The spring tension is uniform all the way through, so there is not much anticipation or excessive finger yanking that happens on other shitty triggers.

- IT IS FUN!! Come on, a nice not too powerful easy to shoot semi automatic centre fire rifle with a built in 7 round clip magazine, cant complain, its a whole lot of fun because the recoil is so manageable.


The Bad:

- The length of pull is not ideal for most average sized people, the stock is too short.
Its like they decided to copy the yanky doodle Ruger 10/22 hoping to get it all right. Well a $30 screw on 1" butt pad upgrade is really easy & very worth it as it provides a bit more non slip grip compared to the plastic, & adds even more softness to the recoil, so its worth it.

- Shit loads of Accessories are available to tempt you into buying them, but most of them are a waste of time, effort & $$!!

- If you ever put a standard full length scope on it, the ejected brass shells will hit the tube on the way out really really hard & dent it really really badly! It dented my $120 Sightron 3-9x40!! >:( Argh, dam u cheap chinese product, dam u hahahaha !!

- Putting a scope or any optical sight on it is a freakin nightmare.

- You cant just drop rings on & go with it. First you'll need to decide what kind of after market scope rail mount youd like to buy & then install it.

- Installing any of the after market mount options is a swearing frenzy. youll be dropping colourful f-words trying to scope the little bast*rd.

My post on SKS mounts is coming soon.

- Youll need to either get a short scope or buy a shell deflector. The shell deflector is of 2 main variants. The SKK & UTG style mount compatible version screws on the side of the mount rail you originally bought. The other more common option is to buy a cover that clamps into the rear sight.

- The rear sight clamp mount is absolutely finnicky, youll need to grind it precisely for a tight fit so that it doesnt keep shaking & start hitting on the scope tube, otherwise its pointless. And the UTG style version requires you buying a UTG style tactical mount that weighs a ton & is too high.

- All this optics & all those extra useless bits of metal increase the weight & screw up what was a nicely balanced rifle.

Decision:

Got a spare $300 for a bit of fun that wont completely disappoint you in the accuracy & usability mark? Get this little toy.

Want something better, go buy a REAL gun, if its accuracy & nice triggers & the best balancing, get a nice light little Sako, or a Tikka if youre on a budget.

If you want identical performance as a Sako with a few small corners cut, get a Tikka bolt action.
Its hard to beat for the price. Tikka guns have impressed me in almost every way.
More on that later.

If a good semi auto centre fire is what you want, perhaps look into a mini 14 or a Browning BAR, never used either but they seem like the standard.

Happy propelling lead & copper down your barrel at high speeds. Well, its a toy, cant call that real shooting now can I ;)

Have you got an SKS? How do you find it? Has it been customised? Was it easy? Please share your experience.