After a lot of careful consideration, I decided to take the plunge into gas operated rifles. In the past, I've traditionally been attracted to bolt action rifles. The only semi-automatic rifles I owned prior to the SKS were Marlin .22 rifles.
Admittedly, my Marlin model 60 is one of my favorite rifles to shoot. But the Marlin model 60 is a completely different beast.
The SKS is a carbine rifle that shoots the 7.62x39 round that has become best known for its use in the AK-47 style of rifles. It has a 10 round internal magazine which can be loaded by stripper clips.
The action works with a gas piston which unlike the AK-47 does not travel the entire way back with the bolt carrier. Instead the gas piston pushes the bolt carrier back and stops allowing inertia and springs to keep the bolt carrier going and return it back into battery.
This also differs from the AR-15 style of direct impingement. This means that the gas pushes the bolt carrier directly without the piston in the system at all. While this has fewer moving parts, it lends itself to fouling its own bolt carrier and bolt with hot gas and burnt powder.
Something about that part of injecting burning gasses and powder residue into the bolt carrier and bolt never appealed to me. I know there are gas piston AR-15 variants on the market.
Anyway, back to the SKS. I opted for a Romanian SKS because they have chromed barrels unlike many of the early Yugo barrels. Supposedly chroming the barrel hurts accuracy, although I doubt it matters much since it is a battle rifle. I'd rather have a rifle that is more resilient to the corrosive ammunition that this rifle is likely to see on the surplus market.
Availability also dictated that I ended up with a Romanian SKS instead of one of the other Com Block country variants.
Most SKS rifles were not fired a whole lot as the AK-47 quickly replaced it as the standard battle rifle. The SKS was relegated to backup status or as a ceremonial weapon.
The gun disassembles pretty easily and also cleans fairly easy once you get the initial load of cosmoline off of the parts. I find the best way to get the cosmoline off is by boiling the parts a few times and dumping the water between boilings.
Water has a relatively low boiling temperature so I doubt the short duration of heating the parts in this manner will cause any change in temperament of the metal.
I literally dropped the entire trigger group right into a boiling pot and then removed it and oiled it.
The stock and barrel will have to be cleaned manually. Expect to go through a lot of rags. I just throw them right into the trash after I removed as much cosmoline as I could with each one. Cleaning up a mess of cosmoline is a right of passage for surplus enthusiasts. All things considered, the SKS was not packed nearly as full as the Romanian TT-33 I had bought (and later sold) years prior.
One thing I noticed about reassembling the rifle was the a lot of people had commented how difficult a time they had getting the trigger group to click back into place. At first I tried a straight downward force and it was extremely difficult. Afterward I tried more of a side to side force while still pushing down slightly. It clicked right into place. So my advice is do not just push straight down. Push down at an angle to force the trigger group to seat easily.
With the weather getting colder here, it could be a while before I get to fire it, but I am really enthusiastic about it despite the poor ballistics of the 7.62x39 round. Is it ever going to be a sniper rifle or ever shoot under 1 MOA? No. But it is an inexpensive rifle with cheap surplus and even cheap factory ammo available. Sounds like the perfect plinking rifle to me.
