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Old Trooper Gunsmiths LLC

SPECIALIZING IN MILITARY FIREARMS.

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The Misunderstood SKS

Posted on April 26, 2018 at 2:17 PM
     As a wiser man than I had once said "I just don't get no respect". 

        That is sort of where this little rifle falls. To many this is a "Cheap assault rifle". Or "poor man's AK". And here in the shop we have seen a lot of abuse heaped on this little carbine.
    Bulpup stocks, a plethora of synthetic stocks, wood in all sorts of levels of butchery. Chinese, Russian, Yugoslavian, Romanian. We have seen all of them. Many people just see a cheap rifle in the AK caliber, 7.62x39. And it is treated in the same way the mosins are now, or mausers and springfeilds in previous generations. 
      The first thing that most people do is replace the magazine. On behalf of the many American gunsmiths that have to fix the "It don't run" problem:STOP THIS! The rifle was meant to run off of a  10 round box mag and to be fed with a stripper clip. There were a few countries that made this rifle. And with anything made in a socialist country, they lack the crucial thing we call STANDARDIZATION! Simply put the parts from one countries make of SKS may (and probably will not) fit another countries rifle. So that being said, what on earth would make you think that they could make a detachable magazine that would fit ALL models? No, it dose not work. So before you throw a fit that your tapco mags run just fine, well you got lucky. Or are running a Chinese rifle.
       Other than the standardization issue, there is the other rather sizable elephant in the room on thins issue. The front magazine locking surface. It quite literally is a 1/8 (I am being charitable here) of a steel wedge. No locking surface, no spring loaded catch, no hardened steel, just a cut in the bottom of the receiver. This little area is hard to find with the "duck bill" of the "conversion" mags. changes. And it will get damaged eventually. Rending  the little carbine a semi automatic single shot. There is a reason the AKM has a hardened shelf to lock the front of the mag in place. The design was not meant to take a detachable mag. The only way to retrofit one to take one is to add a mag well similar to a Kalishnicov. Which the Chinese did to some rifles before the "Evil looking weapons features" ban of 1994.
        And before you go thinking about having this done, it is not an easy process. And would be rather time consuming. For the cost, you would be better off getting one of the many kalishnicopysd out there.

     Synthetic stocks. I know there were some fiberglass stocks made by the Chinese to give/ lend to their NVA allies. I have one. Tried to fit it to a Chinese military SKS. Yeah, well after a few hours of tinkering it still dose not fit....   The aftermarket stocks: See "STANDARDIZATION" above.
  
      Look, they are nice rifles. They were first used in the final months of WW2. Yes WW2! Treat it as a WW2 rifle. Place it in the same "box" as the M1 carbine. And it will do you fine.

 And stock up on those 10 round stripper clips!




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