I wish I’d picked up one of these Norinco’s back in the early 90s when they were only about $80. I didn’t realze the value at the time, and I was a broke teenager.
Tell me about it. The first pawn & gun I worked at in the mid 80s had those come in by the crate, with the ‘pick’ type bayonet, and a few pallets of that twin sardine-can ammo in that heavy wood crate.
But no, I was a dumbass (even more than I am today, if you can believe that), and didn’t spend the $75 they were asking for them…
*sob*
I picked up a stock Chinese SKS 4 yrs ago for around $300, and 1000 rds of 7 x 39 for $200. The wood stock was pretty rough, but it operates without a hiccup. And it’s a gas at the range! Yeh, I looked at all the cookie-cutter AKs and ARs, but just couldn’t find a semi-auto rifle with the same kick and quality for the price.
It looks cool!
A buddy of mine has a Yugoslavian SKS and I was wondering if there is a way to determine the date based off of the serial numbers? Anyone know how to tell the age of a SKS?
Awesome Ralph, thanks! We are thinking now that it is a 1982.
i got a 70’s i think chinese sks earlier this year its in rough shape i plan to get it cerakoted and cleaned up, only paid $250 from a friend of mine here in tn
I have one of these. Prob the most reliable rifle I’ve ever had. I kept mine 100% stock as it works fantastic as built.
I’ve always thought if they would use the same action 10-20 shot fixed mag and chamber it for .223/5.56 and call it the “American Defender” or “Minuteman” it would sell millions. Keeping the price point down to make it affordable and having a hundred mall ninja options would be ok.
Your ideas are intriguing to me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Seriously, a 5.56 SKS action with a 20-round magazine, polymer furniture, and a 16″-18″ barrel would be cool as hell. Shortening the barrel, losing the bayonet, and using a plastic stock would help get the weight down into the 7-8 lb range. That would be a heck of a nifty rifle.
Street price of $400 to$500 max too!
I’m in.
Nice to see that no one is trashing this gun.
Nothing to trash, really. Unlike a Mosin Nagant, the SKS benefits from the upgrades, such as the detachable magazine.
However, whenever I get around to buying one, I’ll probably leave it bone stock, as I think it’s a beautiful gun and have a piston AR for tactical purposes
I find the SKS is one of the least trashed rifles.
Even less than the AR and AK, oddly enough. Not really sure why.
Oh, and I don’t like the Mosin.
“N” –
Check out these steel Red Bird “cheese grater” handguards; they’re getting pretty hard to find, and work quite well.
I put one on my Norinco, which wears an Archangel stock, because the black plastic one that came with the set was an absolute PITA to mount. I didn’t weigh them out, but it felt like the steel one was lighter as well.
Install was basically a snap, and they look cool with standard SKS wood furniture too.
I also highly recommend the Williams Firesight rear peep aperture and front fiber-optic sight set. They are affordable, unobtrusive, don’t require permanent modifications, easy to install, and well-made (from MI).
I was considering some sort of expensive red-dot/rail setup on Sariel (yes, I name them), but swapping out the standard irons for the peep sight totally changed my mind.
SKSman is also an excellent source of parts, I’ve bought a lot of stuff from him.
Be careful posting pics of your guns on the internet. Technically this is an “illegal” configuration, high cap feeding device, bayo lug still intact. Unless the trigger has been replaced this does not meet 922r compliance.
On an SKS, the bayonet mount doesn’t count as a “lug”. Once removed, you can’t just snap it back on. Besides, the ’94 AWB lapsed quite a while ago. So sorry that you live in a place which doesn’t allow “hi cap” detachable magazines and bayonet lugs. But when I stepped outside this morning I was still in a free State.
And there are plenty enough US-made parts on my rifle to make it 922-compliant. Be careful making assumptions about firearms you see in pictures on the internet; we’re not all ignorant of the law, Ofc. Friendly.
The bayo lug counts unless it is cut off. Good luck explaining to the ATF that since the AWB expired the 922r import points system no longer applies LOL. Funny stuff. Funny people here.
The stock and magazine alone contain enough US parts to ensure 922r compliance…I am aware of the law and would never intentionally break it.
And yes, I live in a Free State without any weapon bans or requirements (other than the Federal ones). I can have a bayonet and mag capacity limited only by practical considerations (I don’t think a 500-rd drum would be usable or reliable haha).
Is that you, Bubba?
Just picked up a mdl 59? bayonet today (flea mkt $12 🙂 and installed it on my Norinco SKS. Some fiddling with the hardware and it’s on like Red Dawn!
Now when a hurricane comes I can stand outside the house bayo deployed and passer by’s will say “oh $hit, look at that nut, keep driving!” It looks like a damm sword on the end of my SKS. 🙂
So this is mine; thanks everyone who complimented it. Since this was taken I have replaced the scope mount with a much lower one (still see-through, I like the idea of still being able to use the irons without having to remove the optic) and a different scope (currently a Barska 4×32 IR, but waiting on delivery of a Primary Arms 1-4×24 IR).
I was originally looking at AKs (I am not a big AR fan, it’s an aesthetic thing :-p), but the SKS was cheaper and in my opinion looks and feels better (I am also not partial to pistol-grips on my long guns) while being just as reliable and cheap to run.
I wish I’d picked up one of these Norinco’s back in the early 90s when they were only about $80. I didn’t realze the value at the time, and I was a broke teenager.
Tell me about it. The first pawn & gun I worked at in the mid 80s had those come in by the crate, with the ‘pick’ type bayonet, and a few pallets of that twin sardine-can ammo in that heavy wood crate.
But no, I was a dumbass (even more than I am today, if you can believe that), and didn’t spend the $75 they were asking for them…
*sob*
I picked up a stock Chinese SKS 4 yrs ago for around $300, and 1000 rds of 7 x 39 for $200. The wood stock was pretty rough, but it operates without a hiccup. And it’s a gas at the range! Yeh, I looked at all the cookie-cutter AKs and ARs, but just couldn’t find a semi-auto rifle with the same kick and quality for the price.
It looks cool!
A buddy of mine has a Yugoslavian SKS and I was wondering if there is a way to determine the date based off of the serial numbers? Anyone know how to tell the age of a SKS?
This might help.
http://www.sksboards.com/smf/index.php?topic=81.0
Awesome Ralph, thanks! We are thinking now that it is a 1982.
i got a 70’s i think chinese sks earlier this year its in rough shape i plan to get it cerakoted and cleaned up, only paid $250 from a friend of mine here in tn
I have one of these. Prob the most reliable rifle I’ve ever had. I kept mine 100% stock as it works fantastic as built.
I’ve always thought if they would use the same action 10-20 shot fixed mag and chamber it for .223/5.56 and call it the “American Defender” or “Minuteman” it would sell millions. Keeping the price point down to make it affordable and having a hundred mall ninja options would be ok.
Your ideas are intriguing to me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Seriously, a 5.56 SKS action with a 20-round magazine, polymer furniture, and a 16″-18″ barrel would be cool as hell. Shortening the barrel, losing the bayonet, and using a plastic stock would help get the weight down into the 7-8 lb range. That would be a heck of a nifty rifle.
Street price of $400 to$500 max too!
I’m in.
Nice to see that no one is trashing this gun.
Nothing to trash, really. Unlike a Mosin Nagant, the SKS benefits from the upgrades, such as the detachable magazine.
However, whenever I get around to buying one, I’ll probably leave it bone stock, as I think it’s a beautiful gun and have a piston AR for tactical purposes
I find the SKS is one of the least trashed rifles.
Even less than the AR and AK, oddly enough. Not really sure why.
Oh, and I don’t like the Mosin.
“N” –
Check out these steel Red Bird “cheese grater” handguards; they’re getting pretty hard to find, and work quite well.
http://sksman.com/products/sks-ventilated-handguard
I put one on my Norinco, which wears an Archangel stock, because the black plastic one that came with the set was an absolute PITA to mount. I didn’t weigh them out, but it felt like the steel one was lighter as well.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y7/orderodonata/Mosin%20Nagant/20151209_153249.png.jpeg
Install was basically a snap, and they look cool with standard SKS wood furniture too.
I also highly recommend the Williams Firesight rear peep aperture and front fiber-optic sight set. They are affordable, unobtrusive, don’t require permanent modifications, easy to install, and well-made (from MI).
I was considering some sort of expensive red-dot/rail setup on Sariel (yes, I name them), but swapping out the standard irons for the peep sight totally changed my mind.
SKSman is also an excellent source of parts, I’ve bought a lot of stuff from him.
Be careful posting pics of your guns on the internet. Technically this is an “illegal” configuration, high cap feeding device, bayo lug still intact. Unless the trigger has been replaced this does not meet 922r compliance.
On an SKS, the bayonet mount doesn’t count as a “lug”. Once removed, you can’t just snap it back on. Besides, the ’94 AWB lapsed quite a while ago. So sorry that you live in a place which doesn’t allow “hi cap” detachable magazines and bayonet lugs. But when I stepped outside this morning I was still in a free State.
And there are plenty enough US-made parts on my rifle to make it 922-compliant. Be careful making assumptions about firearms you see in pictures on the internet; we’re not all ignorant of the law, Ofc. Friendly.
The bayo lug counts unless it is cut off. Good luck explaining to the ATF that since the AWB expired the 922r import points system no longer applies LOL. Funny stuff. Funny people here.
The stock and magazine alone contain enough US parts to ensure 922r compliance…I am aware of the law and would never intentionally break it.
And yes, I live in a Free State without any weapon bans or requirements (other than the Federal ones). I can have a bayonet and mag capacity limited only by practical considerations (I don’t think a 500-rd drum would be usable or reliable haha).
Is that you, Bubba?
Just picked up a mdl 59? bayonet today (flea mkt $12 🙂 and installed it on my Norinco SKS. Some fiddling with the hardware and it’s on like Red Dawn!
Now when a hurricane comes I can stand outside the house bayo deployed and passer by’s will say “oh $hit, look at that nut, keep driving!” It looks like a damm sword on the end of my SKS. 🙂
So this is mine; thanks everyone who complimented it. Since this was taken I have replaced the scope mount with a much lower one (still see-through, I like the idea of still being able to use the irons without having to remove the optic) and a different scope (currently a Barska 4×32 IR, but waiting on delivery of a Primary Arms 1-4×24 IR).
I was originally looking at AKs (I am not a big AR fan, it’s an aesthetic thing :-p), but the SKS was cheaper and in my opinion looks and feels better (I am also not partial to pistol-grips on my long guns) while being just as reliable and cheap to run.
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