Yugo SKS

[StarMetal]

Well I know alot of you fellows shoot SKS's. Alot of you know I've been working with a Yugo SKS. Well today was finally payday...I got it shooting...and probably rival alot of the bolt CZ's and Rugers out there. I've litereally put hundreds of rounds through it. It was basically an unissued Yugo with the grenade launcher and bayonet. I removed the bayonet, the grenade launder, the grenade launcher sight, I glass bedded part of the action, I worked the trigger, I scoped it, and I recrowned the muzzle after taking off the grenade launcher threads. Sorry I didn't want all that junk on it and now it's a much lighter, smoother looking, and good shooting rifle. I've tried numerous bullets and about as many powders. The bullet I finally got shooting is the Lee 312 155 made for the SKS. The powder was surplus 4895. I had another scope on it that was a compact mini 3x9 and I suspected that it was not holding zero and was right. I swapped it out with a scope that I had laying around that is basically a shotgun/blackpowder scope. It's a 2.5x5 and has the very thick horizontal crosshair with an equally as thick bottom vertical crosshair, which doesn't make for real good accurate target type shooting at 100 yards. I consider this a handicap. Ok ok I know you want to hear what size group did it shoot. I had 4 bullet going into an oblong 1/2 inch hole and I pulled the 5th shot for a sum of 1 inch. I can only imagine with a quality 3x9 scope and weigh my bullets what this baby will do. I'd have to say right now it rivals the bolt guns I mentioned above. Oh...you want the grains of powder in the load...Ok....remember they may not work for your rifle. I started initially with 23 grs of the surplus 4895 and worked up till I got the one that shot really good today and that's 26.5 grs. Buckshot has said to just fill the case up with 4895, then stated 28 grs. Well in my Winchester cases that comes to 1/8th inch of the case mouth without drop tubing it. I haven't shot that load...yet. The 26.5 load is moving along quite snappy in my rifle. I put quite a few loads through the rifle in the past few days and some of them were pretty hot....not leading. The bore was a slight greasy dark black with no signs of leading at all. My own lube.

Sorry, no pictures of the group because I will use a target for multiple grouping until it becomes necessary to change it out...and I'm not going to put up with the ******** I've gotten from certain forum member...plus is a previous post I said I wouldn't post anymore target pictures because what was must mention...sorry.

Joe

[MT Gianni]

Joe, how about some info on removing the grenade launcher, Did you have to use heat, 24" pipe wrenches, 3 day soak in Kroil? Mine seems to be stuck on harder than I want to press it. Gianni.

[StarMetal]

Mt Gianni

Being I didn't want mine and didn't care if I boogered it up I chucked the barrel in my lead lined vise jaws and went after the launcher with a pipewrench. I used alittle heat on the launcher itself. Any of you that have these and want to remove , remember there is a pin through it, so knock the pin out first. I will admit they are very tight, but they ARE threaded. You may have read some other forums where they say they are silver soldered, etc.. Well they're not. I know you fellows here like Kroil, but really there is something that's alot better then it as a penetrating oil and that's Gibbs penetrating oil. It comes in a spray can is slightly foamy. It will shoot a stream pretty far too for hard to access nuts and bolts that you want to soak for later removeable. I saw a demonstration of it on the Trucks show on TV. He sprayed alittle bit on the bottom of a bolt he had chucked in a vise and the oil actually climbed the thread vertically.

Anyways give what I said about removing the grenade laucher a try.

Joe

[rbstern]

Sorry, no pictures of the group

Forget the group! I wanna see the rifle. :)

Nice work. Goes to show that the SKS is more accurate than the Internet urban legend allows.

[Junior1942]

Joe, where'd you get it and how much did it cost?

[StarMetal]

Junior,

I got the rifle from Aimsurplus.com for a tad over $100 and as I said lucked out that it was unissued and not sold at the unissued price. Inter Ordnance has them too.

Joe
P.S. I'll see if I can post a pic of the rifle.

[StarMetal]

Here are two pictures of my Yugo SKS

Joe

[Scrounger]

Junior,
http://www.aimsurplus.com/acatalog/Yugoslavian_Model_59_66_7_62x39_SKS_Rifle.html

http://www.aimsurplus.com/

[carpetman]

Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 3,334

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Ammohead,

I appreciate your belief in me, but you won't have to worry about hearing about it anymore. I won't be posting any of my endeavers anymore, like how the results of my scoped Finn 39 turned out, or the scoped Yugo SKS...I'll more or less just hang around...is about all.

Joe
I dont find the part about not posting pictures of targets. Glad you cooled off.

[Dutch4122]

Joe-

Are you shooting your Yugo SKS semi-auto or as a straight pull with the gas valve shut off? I picked one up a couple of months ago and I plan on using it for cast boolits as well.

Just curious if you'd tried it semi-auto and if so what it does to the gas system?

[swheeler]

Joe those SKS's are definately fun guns, we used to sell 10/15 a year, all Chinese tho, Polytech's and Norinco, and 2 I believe unissued Russian's- never any Yugo- they weren't around yet. Scoped the one Russian and it broke the scope, empties kept pounding the bottom of the scope when ejected, didn't take long and the scope was done. I did manage to take a nice buck antelope with one and some chi-com copper washed ammo up at Shelby,MT at about 300 yds out.
Scooter

[StarMetal]

The Yugo has a gasblock on it. Being I don't like chasing my brass or losing it, I pu the block on the off position. I cycle the bolt by hand. I would have never imagined that an SKS could be made to shoot like I got this one shooting. By taking all the grenade launcher junk and bayonet off of it, I got it down to a reasonable weight. Personally I'd rate Yugo near the top of the heap. I would like see tee an east German made SKS, but haven't ever seen them for sale over here. I've had one of the all milled and screwed in barrel Chinese ones and it's was a pretty decent rifle. My friend has a Russian and in all honestly I don't see where they are any much better then a Yugo.

I had a shorter scope on mine that the front lens was even with the mount, but for some reason it wasn't holding zero. It's an el cheapo so that might be it. I may give it another try, as like you said it doesn't get batters by the empties and I can use the stripper clips to charge the magazine.

Joe

[StarMetal]

Joe-

Are you shooting your Yugo SKS semi-auto or as a straight pull with the gas valve shut off? I picked one up a couple of months ago and I plan on using it for cast boolits as well.

Just curious if you'd tried it semi-auto and if so what it does to the gas system?

Dutch,

I explained in the other post that I shoot it with the gasvalve shutoff. Yes I have shot it quite a bit with the valve open and the only difference I found was a MAJOR difference in recoil. Much softer with the gasvalve open and in the semi-auto mode. Remember no that Lee bullet is in the 150 some grain bracket which is alot heavier then the original military bullet, so there is some recoil with it especially when you're pushing it out there pretty fast.

So far I haven't noticed a difference in accuracy with the valve off or on, but I'll sit down someday and do a thorough testing of that.

Joe

[rbstern]

Nice looking SKS. I have one with the same stock color and a similar grain.

They really are great, quality rifles for the money. They get a bad reputation for accuracy because everyone shoots Wolf or generic Russian ammo, and that's the limiting factor.

On the East German SKS, every once in a while one will show up on one of the auction sites, but the prices are ridiculous. Unless you are a die hard SKS collector, best to just stick with the Yugo.

AIM Surplus frequently sends out guns that are better than the advertised rating. They are conservative with their ratingts and I like that.

[StarMetal]

rbstern,

Thanks for the comment. Yes that Yugo was one of my better buys. I'm considering getting another one. I've toyed with the idea of having one rebarreled to a pistol round like one of the mags or 45 Long Colt. Also thought of necking one down to 7mm and having a 7x39.

Joe