Chinese SKS 7.62x39

I dunno, I'd rate the MILITARY Chinese SKS above the Yugos.
I wouldn't put it at the bottom of the list, nationality-wise.

Mine's actually quite well done, got it unfired & full of cosmoline back when they first started coming in, so I can judge it based on new condition as opposed to a beat-up relic.
Denis
 
I dunno, I'd rate the MILITARY Chinese SKS above the Yugos.
I wouldn't put it at the bottom of the list, nationality-wise.
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Indeed.
I rate them: Russian, Chinese (military), Norinco (Chinese commercial), and the rest... ...And then later Norinco.
...In that order.

Russians are fantastic.
Chinese military SKSs are decent.
Yugos have issues.
Romanians have issues.
Basically everything other than Russians (and early Chinese) have issues.
And the late, commercial-market-only, Norincos have lots of issues. -Off the shelf, they're generally about as reliable as a Yugo with a rusted gas valve... :rolleyes:
 
My first SKS was a Norinco that I paid $75 for back in 88-89. Damn good shooter for a cheap gun. I could hit beer bottles at 100yrds easily with that rifle. Carried it deer hunting a few times and did kill one deer with it. Ended up selling it cause I needed the money and by the time I could afford to buy guns again the price went way up and I figured they weren't worth it anymore. AK's are cheaper now and in my opinion a better gun. If you aint deer hunting with it.
 
Oldshooter 60--Back in "the day" SKS's were well under $100/each. Gun show this past weekend had 'em at approaching $400. I would theorize that the inflation won't continue, so at this point they're not a good investment if you expect to make $$ on them.
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Why would you theorize that the inflation won't continue? The Federal Reserve is still inventing dollars out of nothing, many millions a day .... the same can not be said of military grade SKS's .... it's not like the law of supply and demand can be suspended......


As for "making money on them" ..... do you really think you can make money faster than the Fed? Every dollar thay create makes the ones you have worth less ..... inflation being defined as "too many dollars chasing too few goods", get the goods..... they have intrinsic value.
 
Prices...

Jimbo 86--Surely I did not mean to comment on the Federal Reserve's activity. (I'm no economist.) I meant that the rise of the price of SKS's has, IMHO, pretty much peaked. They are now approaching the $400 mark in my area, at gun shows, getting up to where the much more popular AK is priced, and within shouting distance of the price of a bottom-line AR. Or a well-used but working, autoloading "civilian" rifle for that matter. IMHO, SKS's will stay below that kind of price competition.

SKS's rose from $75-80 bucks up to the present pricing, in something like 15 years. That, I think, is a lot faster than monetary inflation. But again, I'm no economist.

Any further rise in the price of a common SKS--other than because of general monetary inflation--would as I said, seem unlikely. Units which are "special," and in some way attractive to collectors, are of course a whole different question. Like the difference between an Inland (commonest) and a Postal Meter (rare), in M1 Carbines. But I am a shooter, not a collector.

(Why the AK is more popular is a whole nother question. Can't see it myself.)

I sold a Yugo SKS that I wanted to be rid of, a couple of gun shows ago, to a dealer who I like, for $300. The show's attendees wouldn't touch it at that price; I had a couple of inquiries but not serious ones. I paid considerably less than that for it so I made money. He'll price it higher than that, and will eventually sell it, so he'll make money. SKS's at that show were asking (and not getting) about $350-$400.
 
SKS's rose from $75-80 bucks up to the present pricing, in something like 15 years. That, I think, is a lot faster than monetary inflation. But again, I'm no economist.
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Ask yourself what other useful commodities cost during the days of the "$80 SKS ..... A new Chevy 1500 pickup in 1985 could be had for around $6K in 1985.... milk was a buck and change, and .22lr about a penny apiece ....

The $80 SKS happened because the chinese dumped them on the market, en masse, in the 1980's, IIRC.

It is what it is: a utilitarian carbine firing an intermediate round. It's worth around 3 or 4 hundred today to shooters. The only reason the value has slumped of late is the milsurp ammo has dried up and even the steel cased el cheapo stuff is .....not really costing more, but the inflated paper dollars don't buy as much of it as they used to......
 
Can we stop mentioning SKS's for $79 bucks??? It makes the rest of us that got into that game late very jealous....:p


I own 2 Chinese SKS. One is all matching (including magazine and trigger guard) that I overpaid for $500. The other is a SKS that takes standard AK47 mags that I stole recently for $350 :D
 
my SKS used to be all parts matching that I got for $240 two years ago, but the stock was shrunken, dried out, rotten and completely unserviceable. so I ended up bubbaing it and made a darned good shooter out of it.
 
I got a number of yugo sks rifles from AIM and they were nice, and cheap.
Then I got a number of Albanian rifles from AIM and they were junk and cheap. I took off the stocks with all the soldier carving in them and threw them away. Then SKS guys said that is collectable. If carved up Albanian stocks are collectable, I am going to collect stamps.

I got a Chinese sks and a case of ammo for $100 in the 90s.
In 1997 I got a Russian Tula SKS for $150 off a forum like this.

Like most rifles that shoot useless cartridges, the SKS is fun to shoot. It is fun to watch kids having fun shooting it. But you would not want to go to war with it nor go hunting with it.
 

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I just purchased a Yugo SKS this weekend. I haven't had a chance to shoot it, but so far it looks to be really nice. The trigger is a bit sloppy, but the fit and finish is quite good. Will see how it cycles. I paid $375 for it with 100 rounds of steel cased ammo and the bayonet. Depressing how the same gun went for so much less in recent years.

IMAG1724.jpg


I will give a range report after I have shot it.

Some really good info:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgCoG4eT0p0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T1OHXQl7e8
 
In 2002 got a quantity of bad yugo sks rifles for cheap from AIM
I sold the ones I did not want for a big profit at $135 each.
I put a stick in the barrel with a big sign that said:
"SKS
YUGO
$135"
With letters inches high, that anyone legal to drive should be able to read at 50 yards.
Each time I walked into the gun show, an old man would walk up to me, squint his eyes and at 5 feet away ask, "Is that an SKS?".
I would take the $135, go back in the parking lot, get another rifle and repeat with a new old man.
I did a half dozen sales, all the same.
The take home message for me was, that place is full of guys with eyesight so bad they can't spend their money.
I still have the 3 best Yugos, and all Yugo SKS rifles are nice.
Those old guys are probably dead by now. I hope those rifles are never crime evidence with those serial numbers that trace back to me:(
 
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I have a Chinese SKS that I bought in the 80s for $99, and a nice Russian that I picked up in the 90s for $139. They are reliable, rugged, reasonably accurate shooters. The Russian is my "truck gun". I think the SKS is an ideal back-up or spare to one's primary armament in a survival situation.

But I don't think I would pay the price people are asking nowadays. $300 tops, any higher you need to consider an AK or AR or the like.
 
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