The typical SKS is a very capable general purpose long gun.
Only ones I’m aware of are the Norinco ones. And all those stopped coming in in the 90’s (THANKS CLINTON!!!) Around here the Norinco-D bring in about $300 more than a standard Yugo 59/66 A1 Nothing wrong with the SKS design, keeping in mind it was designed as a battle rifle and not a carbine. Only problem I’ve seen with the design is the free-floating firing pin and what seems like the only close tolerance on the weapon. If the bolt is not clean, the firing pin can wedge itself forward(Tapered FP and tapered bore it rides in…) and lock there. Not fun releasing the bolt after loading a new stripper and getting slamfires.
I kinda regret selling the 3 Yugo 59/66A1’s I had…
I’m going to bring this one back from the dead. I just in inherited my brothers Russian SKS. Pictures to follow. Need less to say my Chinese SKS may be up for sale soon.
Just remember. Two is one, and one is none…
I consider the Chinese export SKS to count as exactly “zero”.
Really??? Any particular reason?
I think the sks is a great little rifle. Its accuracy is plenty good enough. I have never had a hiccup with any sks. Chinese, russian, yugo, or egyptian. I did find that tthe chinese rifles prefer russian ammo and the russian rifles prefer chinese ammo 
I am not sure if you can still buy the chinese ammo. I don’t think I would want to lug one around a carbine course all weekend but they are an excellent ranch gun. The worse part I have found with these is the damn cosmoline. You can chase that stuff for days when you first get one. Diesel or shop solvent work wonders for that.
The Chinese didn’t properly harden a whole bunch of sears.
Because the safety only blocks the trigger the rifle can fire while you are carrying it loaded on safe, mine did. My brother has one that doubled and I checked the sear, FUBAR. I’ve pulled two more apart that have not malfunctioned yet and they also have excess wear on the sears.
From Navy Arms:
“Some of these rifles may have a manufacturing defect of the engaging surfaces in the trigger-hammer-sear assembly, which can cause intermittent failure of the sear to hold the hammer in a cocked position. This condition can result in the unexpected firing as a round is chambered, without pulling the trigger, or if the weapon is jarred or dropped. This condition may also result in sudden and unexpected automatic fire and loss of control of the firing weapon.”
http://firearmsid.com/Recalls/FA_Recalls%202.htm
My granddad has a norinco SKS, anything I should consider getting for it to make it up to snuff for him? Also, who would then be the best bet for quality SKS’s?
They discussed this on Mythbusters. The “expert” attributed the problem to the free float firing pin. I thought that was bogus. This same expert sold a spring kit for the firing pin.
Deemonbane, I think overall the russian gun is tthe standard to which the others are judged by. Its been a while since I was into sks’s on that level but back in the day the russians were king shit.
I am not sure if my Chinese SKS is a commercial export or one of the earlier surplus ones but mine has always functioned fully correctly. I don’t think all Chinese ones are crap, just (some) of the ones put together from surplus parts and exported commercially (versus complete surplus ones)
I believe the FP can get stuck but it will only fire when chambered or double when firing. Mine went off while I was carrying it and the sear was trashed when I took it apart.
If I ever decide to fix mine I will probably just replace the trigger group with a surplus unit or make my own sear.
Obviously not all the Chinese SKS’s have this issue but I won’t trust them…
I actually like them myself. Always thought of them as reliable beater type arms. Bought one from a fella @ the funshop one day after the dealer wasn’t interested in buying and I cleared it with the dealer himself (didn’t want to step on any toes).
I asked the fella how it ran and he said just fine. Got it to the house for a teardown and check. The thing was still full of cosmoline (the bore was punched clear but not clean) but you could clearly see where the grease had been moved/blown around during the firing process.
I guess that could be deemed reliable. Cleaned & lubed it and no problems ever.
Keith
I’ve got a 1951 Soviet SKS I bought in 1995 for $90, with 120 rds of Norinco ammo, out the door. I’ll never part with it.
It’s unfortunate that current SKS pricing is so close to low end AK pricing. They were excellent sub $150 rifles.
I’ve recently seen a number of Yugo SKS’s that frankly seem worn out. My theory on that is that many of the Yugo SKS’s were actually used heavily with corrosive ammunition before they were ever imported, while the majority of other commonly encountered SKS’s from other countries were fairly pristine by comparison.
It can be fairly difficult to locate some replacement small parts now.
I bought a Norinco in 2000 for just under $300, it is the paratrooper model. It has a shorter barrel and it takes actual AK mags. I still have it and it works very well.
A man’s got to know his limitations. -Clint Eastwood
I had one that did the same thing, usually at the range. Man did that piss me off. :nono:
But it was an older, pretty well used Chinese model (I believe) when I bought it for about $150 back in the 90’s. Sold it to someone who knew how to fix it up, that was that. Would buy one again due to the overall reliability, price and legality (I do live in NJ), but a better and also lesser used model this time would be mandatory.
All that ethnic cleansing will wear out your rifle if you don’t clean it…
And I’m only partly joking, not much at all in fact. During the civil wars there, the various militias didn’t have small arms maintenance very high on the list of things to do. Combine that with non chrome lined bores and corrosive ammo, and yes, you get torn up barrels.
Yes, exactly.
Then, they were imported here and sold for $89, and some continued to be used heavily with even more questionable maintenance.
I’ve seen two or three in the last year that are quite literally worn out from simple use. I’d caution anyone buying one to look at any Yugo quite closely, as many of the more worn looking models that actually saw service are now shot out.
I have two Yugo 59/66’s, one is absolutely mint (1980 mfr) with logbook and accessories. Another was bought in the summer of 2003 for $79, with heavy finish wear and a carved up stock. The trigger is very nice, and it is a tack driver (for an SKS). Someone took care of it, because the bore and gas system were/are in great shape.
All of this SKS talk is making me nostalgic, and I need to take em to the range more often! 
Great rifle, horrible ergonomics.
The military stock is like holding a 2x4 which is why I really don’t shoot mine very often.