SKS - How fast are they to load?

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Dave3006

New member
I have been looking into SKS rifles. I am curious how fast they are to load with the stripper clips? Anyone who has a Garand, AR15, AK - can you compare between them. My experience has been the AR is faster than the AK because of the way the magazine has to be rocked into the mag well. The Garand is very fast. As fast as the AR in my experience.

However, I have never used stripper clips. Do rounds tend to bind going into the fixed mag, slowing you down?

Thanks.
 
The Garand is very fast. As fast as the AR in my experience.
Click to expand...

Wow - You're either really fast with that Garand or you need to practice with your AR! ;)

The SKS stripper clips work pretty well for me, but I wouldn't consider them in the same leage as any detachable magazine loaded weapon. And I'm slow with Garands but consider them faster than the SKS too. But my SKS is deffinately faster than any single round loading gun I've seen, a step up speedwise.
 
If you are fast reloading a Garand then you must have gone though a learning curve to get there. Yes, I now they can be quite fast to reload...after you get used to it.

Pretty much to same story with the SKS. Practice!

One thing I found is that if you load up a lot of stripper clips and leave them loaded and ready, in time they tend to get somewhat "attached" to the rounds they hold. They will still strip, but only slowy.
I expect it has to do with both the stripper and the cases being steel.

I took them outside and sprayed just a little WD 40 down each side where they hold the cases and twisted each round then slid them lengthwise a little. Now they strip freely again.

That said they still aren't as fast as the Garand.
BTW 5 round strippers for Mausers etc are faster due to less drag.
 
I took my Garand to a tactical urban rifle class about a year ago. Everyone had AR15s, except me. I was actually surprized at how comparable in performance my 50 year old rifle was to the black space rifles. When I shot my gun dry, I access a new clip and pop it in. The bolt closes for me. With the AR - you eject the empty on the ground, access the new mag, insert, pull down to assure a good engagement, hit the bolt release. You actually have more steps. I was as fast or faster than the ARs. You should have seen the faces when it was my turn to shoot steel at 100 yards. Ping, ping, ping (ARs), Thud (Garand).

It sounds like the SKS can be somewhat fast. However, it can be finicky the way it accepts the stripper clips.
 
Oh, just to give credit to the ARs where it is due. When we did night shooting, all the red dot scopes mounted on the ARs proved superior to my iron sighted rifle. Way better.
 
Dave,

You leave out one small item. Number of rounds loaded. You have to reload a Grand 4 times to get 32 rounds. With a 16 one loading gives you 30 rounds.

The Grand is one of my favorite rifles but in combat I'll take a box fed rifle any day.

Turk
 
Turk, I know you have actually experienced real war and you have a high opinion of the M16. To the best of my knowledge, detactable box magazines went into widespread use with the rise of the assault rifle. If you had a semi-only rifle, would you be as concerned with only an 8 round clip fed rifle that you had to reload more often but had a little more power than your M16? What I am trying to say, if you had to do what you did in Vietnam with an M1 Garand, would you have less effective?

I am asking this because I wonder how much the role of a particular rifle influences whether you come back alive in a war. My uninformed guess is that it is probably low on the scale of things. Pure luck, tactics, and a host of other things probably weigh heavier. What do you think?
 
Dave,

Your post.
>>>>>>>> If you had a semi-only rifle, would you be as concerned with only an 8 round clip fed rifle that you had to reload more often but had a little more power than your M16?>>>>>>

From my experience the M-16 could be semi-auto only and still be an efficient weapon. The option of full auto or 3RB is helpful if you are trying to gain fire superiority so you can use your maneuver element to break up the ambush.

If you are in a dug in position at an NDP or at a firebase and it gets attacked your M-60’s (and now the SAW) will play a major part. After the initial contact quad leaders have to be sure everyone is on semi-auto anyway and this is critical if you’ve out in the bush where re-supply is a long way off.

Concerning the 30 cal round over the 5.56 round I don’t think it makes any difference. Being in the bush I’d much whether have more ammo due to its weight than the larger bullet. Vietnam was very close in fighting and the M-193 ball was very effective. Even today my thoughts fighting in open areas I’d let the M-60’s engage at the greater distance

Could the US of fought in Vietnam with the Grand? I’m quite sure we could of but I believe a box fed rifle is superior and using a Grand I believe our casualties would have been greater. I’d take an M-14 over the Grand. Lets face the facts reload is a lot quicker even if you are using 20-rd magazine like I did.

<<<<<I am asking this because I wonder how much the role of a particular rifle influences whether you come back alive in a war. My uninformed guess is that it is probably low on the scale of things. Pure luck, tactics, and a host of other things probably weigh heavier. What do you think?>>>>>

I really can’t answer this question because there are many veritables in the equation. This is what I do know when fighting NVA with AK-47’s I want the option of putting high rates of fire in the kill zones and reloading every 8 rounds would not be my choice.

I believe the Grand is a great rifle but I believe it is past its time for a issue rifle to our military. Being a hard core M-16 fan that I am I’d take a M-14 or a FAL over the Grand if I had my choice going into ground combat again for the simple fact of faster reload. You must also remember the M-14 was semi-auto in its issue to the troops with the E2AR being the full auto squad weapon.

Have a good day.

Turk

It should also be noted that the Grand was made to use against bolt action rifles which were the norm during this time period.
 
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Hints for dealing with SKS stripper clips.

Some of these critters can be VERY tight.

I've worked over about a dozen.

I take a fired military steel case, dip the head in fine valve grinding compound, and slide, slide, slide away. Polishes the interior of the clip, and lets the cases slide more easily.

After cleaning thoroughly, I coat the insides of the clip with one of the metal adhering wonder lubes to "permanently" lubricate the clip.

Those steps REALLY help when loading the SKS from the clip.

One thing to watch out for with the SKS. It's easy to lose a thumbnail if you don't watch what you're doing when you strip the rounds into the magazine.

I learned that the hard way when I caugh my thumbnail on the off side of the receiver.

Stopped shooting for the day...
 
I don't know what experience others may have had, but believe me, the M1 rifle (which no one in service ever called the "Garand") can be loaded a lot faster than any detachable box magazine rifle going. Of course, in extended timed firing, the greater capacity of the box magazine, especially if 30 rounds or more) will overcome the actual reloading time. With 20 round magazines, things are about even.

The SKS is fairly fast loading if clips are used, but not nearly as fast as the M1 rifle.

BTW, I don't recommend spraying any penetrant or oil on loaded clips - to much chance of deadening the primers.

Jim
 
Well, I am slow in my old age, but I used to be able to throw in an M1 clip and resume firing in 2-3 seconds, a bit more if I have to tap the bolt handle, but a good M1 closes automatically. This was not considered very fast.

With an M16, I have to punch the button to let the mag drop out (if it does), then insert the loaded mag and lock it in place and then either hit the bolt catch or the charging handle. Maybe I need more practice, but I just can't do all that as fast as I can put a clip into the magazine of the M1.

In both cases, I assume the clip or magazine is in the hand or very convenient (no need to manipulate a cartridge belt or bandolier or mag pouch.)

A note: In service the rifle was just called the "M1". If the carbine was meant, "carbine" was used. The only time anyone would say "M1 carbine" would be if there was a need to distinguish it from an M2 carbine. A GI might have said, "Joe has an M1 and Pete has a carbine." No one ever called the rifle a "Garand" or the carbine a "Williams".

Jim
 
When you load an SKS from a stripper clip, make sure that your thumb slides against the clip when pushing the cartridges down (your thumb must be as closed as possible to the stripper clip). If not, you are going to put uneven pressure and the cartridges will "tilt" forward, slowing you down because you will have to stop and re-apply the pressure. Make sre you apply continuous pressure, no "jerkinness".

SKS can be loaded realy fast!

Cheers!

Johannes
 
Here is a trick that I learned by experience:
In addition to putting pressure with thumb at back of stripper, use the index finger on the same hand and lift the tip of the top bullet a little. This will transfer yet more of the force onto the back of the cartridge where it is needed. We engineers call this a "moment". It is a force that causes a rotation. As stated in a post above, if you push too far out on the cartridge, it will cause the cartridges to get into a bind. By lifting the tip of the top bullet, you will "counter-act" the moment of the cartridges rotation.
I learned this by trying to load Mosins and Enfields...they are the dickens to load with a stripper clip compared to the SKS!
 
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