...Chinese SKS...$911...

[Filo McShoe]

At that price it must have been his personal gun :

 

[samnev]

For $911 that SKS must have has 5 $100 bills in the butt trap. INSANE!!!

 

[Old Arkansawyer]

Was there some kind of unusual feature about it that made it sell for that much? There are 3 just like it in the rack at a pawn shop near me for like $350 a piece. Two fools must have gotten into a bidding war.

The MAK-90's are popular now since with the right parts and with a hydraulic press and drill press you can turn one into a pre-ban Chinese Type 56 AK-47 clone. Doubtful that any of them were sold in the early 80's, since they were only imported from 1990 - 1994 to circumvent the "sporting clause" of the George HW Bush 1989 import ban. Bill Clinton finished off any further imports of Chinese pistols, rifles, and ammo in 1994 after Polytech and Norinco reps in the US got caught up in fed sting operations trying to sell RPG rocket launchers and full-auto North Korean AK's to LA street gangs. Both of those companies were fronts for the PLA and were likely all staffed by members of the Chinese equivalent of the KGB.

Maybe they were "unregistered foreign agents" trying to "meddle in our elections"? Or maybe Bubba Bill was just dropping off military tech trade secrets right at their front door? Who knows?

Anyway, after Clinton put the kibosh on any further importation of Chinese guns, they have been steadily increasing in value - particularly the pre-ban AK's and post-ban neutered MAK-90's with the thumb hole stocks. One of the reason AK collectors seem to like them is because they were manufactured in a legitimate foreign state-run arsenal that was used to produce military weaponry.

At any rate, adjusted for inflation, $180 in 1990 would be about $350 in today's money. I paid $600 for mine out the door at a local pawn shop about 2 years ago, then acquired the parts needed for the conversion. Probably got about a grand in it by now, but even that much is a lot less than you would pay for a Type 56 Sporter pre-ban rifle.

No, those a good looking Russian redheads, handling AR's.

 

[rockquarry]

I bought two new Norincos around 1991 along with a 550 round sealed tin of ammo. Shot these guns a lot and found that cast bullet handloads were considerably more accurate than surplus ammo. Perhaps the Norincos were junk and SKSs made by other manufacturers were much better guns. I don't know.

These guns will occasionally slam fire and/or go full automatic with handloads. Hard primers designed for military guns will serve to lessen these dangerous tendencies to a point, but the guns should be fixed. A spring kit from Brownells will take care of any potential problem.

I never could see much point in these incredibly crude guns and eventually lost interest in mine. I sold both after my gunsmith installed the spring kits.

Looking back, low price ( I paid more than many of you; I think mine were more than $100 each) was really the only attractive point to owning such an unrefined firearm. Hard to imagine a use for an SKS where a good gun wouldn't work much better.

 

[LVSteve]

I bought two new Norincos around 1991 along with a 550 round sealed tin of ammo. Shot these guns a lot and found that cast bullet handloads were considerably more accurate than surplus ammo. Perhaps the Norincos were junk and SKSs made by other manufacturers were much better guns. I don't know.

These guns will occasionally slam fire and/or go full automatic with handloads. Hard primers designed for military guns will serve to lessen these dangerous tendencies to a point, but the guns should be fixed. A spring kit from Brownells will take care of any potential problem.

I never could see much point in these incredibly crude guns and eventually lost interest in mine. I sold both after my gunsmith installed the spring kits.

Looking back, low price ( I paid more than many of you; I think mine were more than $100 each) was really the only attractive point to owning such an unrefined firearm. Hard to imagine a use for an SKS where a good gun wouldn't work much better.

Most wonderful example of a "Not invented here" rant I've read in a long time.

 

[DWalt]

I had the opportunity to buy a Vietnam bringback SKS for $200 back in the late 1980s but thought it was way too expensive. I don't believe the cheap ones had arrived here at that time, and they weren't seen at gun shows. I'd buy one today for $200.

 

[ExRanger714]

But for a relatively low priced behind-the-seat truck gun they are hard to beat.

The fact a vehicle, except for the engine block, is concealment, not cover, from them is another plus.

 

[Bill Raby]

I bought one for about $80 or so back in the 90s. All the young guys that were always broke had one. Ammo was dirt cheap also. Had a lot of fun with it. And of course there was always a few guys that seemed to be trying to fit the entire Tapco catalog on it.

 

[C J]

I never could see much point in these incredibly crude guns and eventually lost interest in mine. I sold both after my gunsmith installed the spring kits.

Crude but incredibly effective. I've had one since 1992. It has never had a single malfunction that was not related to me tinkering with it or bad ammo. I proved that to be the case by quickly undoing the tinkering I did and switching ammo. Both times it returned to firing every time again. And BTW I switched to the hated duckbill mags the first day I bought mine. They have never failed even once. You had to buy the USA brand mags. Nothing else worked. The USA brand mags worked perfectly. I should know. I put so many thousands of rounds through that rifle it looked like my yard was paved with steel for a long time. I still see steel casings left to lay where they fell all those years ago.

Not only are they incredibly reliable (but yes do the fixes - there are two actually - that prevent problems but I never had those and never saw those on any model). Any rifle that will fire as many thousands of rounds as my SKS with almost no maintenance at all except an occasional cleaning - I think I've cleaned it twice in 26 years - will continue to fire until kingdom come apparently. It still works perfectly though I don't shoot it much these days.

They are fairly accurate too for a commie combat rifle. They will do minute of man all day at 300 yards without need of any support or steadying device. I can shoot mine off hand into maybe a 12" group at that distance all day from a standing position. Well at least until the hand guard starts smoking anyway. That's happened several times on mine. Again I've shot it a lot.

I've seen them gunked up so bad the bolt wouldn't operate. But I figured that was someone that thought WD-40 was a good idea after every 10 rounds. Works great for collecting residue.

And I have seen the results of what they can do also. A guy I know shot up his uncle's trailer killing him in the process. He stood outside and riddled the house with rounds until he found his target. The bullets probably went through both sides of the trailer. Those mil-surp bullets are some penetrating fools. I've shot through large trees that would stop a .223 dead and the round apparently didn't even slow down as it passed through.

So knock them if you wish but apparently I can make a big profit on mine if I choose to sell it. It's actually fairly clean now. The action has always stayed clean enough without any cleaning at all. I figured it wasn't worth cleaning for a long time then I learned it would work anyway whether I cleaned it or not.

I bought it because it was dirt cheap and the ammo was even cheaper. I kept it because it is a very effective weapon. Job one with any defensive weapon is that it actually goes boom when you pull that little lever. And mine still does that every time. I have thousands and thousands of rounds of ammo around in crates to this day. I shot so much of it I got tired of shooting it and moved on to other guns. But it's still good for a giggle to go out and rip off 30 rounds in a few seconds then do it again and watch the smoke start to roll and the barrel start to glow. It's crude but I wouldn't want someone shooting it in my direction. The VC used them pretty darn effectively against us. To be honest that's the biggest problem I have with them.