Plinking Fun Chinese SKS

[Terry G]

Of course, my apologies, I will delete my compliment immediately

Look at mine. The bottom two are Chinese, one standard and one "Paratrooper/Cowboy Carbine", Yes, they were marketed as that too.

 

[Terry G]

Doesn't look like an SKS paratrooper to me? It looks like a standard SKS.

That's a Paratrooper. Look at the barrel length for comparison.

 

[MelvinWalker]

In the early 80s you would see dealers at gun shows with crates of them selling for $100 to $110 bucks. At one time I heard jokes about them being so cheap that it was a waste of time cleaning one. Just throw it away and buy another one. At one point I had 4 of them. They had really rough/crude innards. Another member of a club I was in back then tried polishing the fire control parts of one. That one had a new operating mode: burst. Not sure of that members skill level but not long after I disposed of mine.

I never saw any SKS rifles for sale commercially until I ordered mine in 1987...I subscribed to Shotgun News from 1979 to about 1998 and there were zero for sale anywhere....Nobody knew what they even were. In fact, other than a few that were Vietnam bring-backs, they were rare in the US.

I think you may have meant "early 90's"

 

[MelvinWalker]

I bought a pair of what is commonly called Paratrooper quite a few years ago for about $120 each. Fun to shoot, loud AF!
A friend gave me a much larger version with a bayonet and a fixed magazine 20 years later. For that kind of money I may let one of the small ones go!
As you can see in photos one barrel length is 16" the other is 20" Overall length is close at 38.5 & 40.5" look at the difference in length of pull!
I like the marking on the larger, looks like "bullets go this way"

There was a difference in the length of pull on the made-up "paratroopers", because these guns were built specifically for longer armed caucasians in the US and Canada...They were not military issued.

The standard SKS like your Russian version has a much shorter stock length of pull because they were actually military weapons that were issued when most grown men wore a 36-38R jacket and had much shorter arms.

 

[DixieRanger]

Glad to see this thread. First SKS rifle was NIB complete with bayonet, cleaning kit in rear of stock, oil bottle and sling for $65. Got one with factory fiberglass stock. Stocked up on Norinco AP ammo on stripper clips in spam cans long ago.. Some believe this rifle was/is not worth having but they have lotta history as predisessor of the AK47. Remember laughing when saw the 'paratrooper' version. Don't remember hearing of VC & North Vietnamese paratroopers. Overall, think it's a handy little rifle that have increasing value.

 

[gunbarrel]

I was at a gun show years ago a short while after the Vietnam war.
I bought an SKS from a vet for $100.00. He did have the capture papers when he first got it but never did find then for me.

When *most* people bought a new gun, the first thing they did was to throw the cardboard box in the trash.

The same thing applied to documentation ("papers") for war trophy firearms.

A friend and fellow ckub member was shooting at our range aType 54 Chinese Tokarev some time back, and I asked him about it. He said that he brought it from Viet Nam. I've seen pictures of him there; he was a US Army Captain and a Green Beret.

I asked him if he had the pistol's bring back papers and he gave me this puzzled look. Why? No! I threw them in the trash when I came home. I laughed and I asked him if he knew the difference in the value of the gun with and without papers. Deer-in-the-headlights look. When I told him, he could not believe it! But, he shrugged his shoulders saying something to the effect that people are crazy, and started firing away.

 

[Randomgunguy]

I sent out my sks trigger group to a sks trigger specialist (kivaari) i found on the forums like 5 years ago. Hes currently charging $65 for a trigger job and sooo worth it. Butter smooth now and he found a bent part that got replaced

 

[Muley Gil]

The local gun shop had a deal where you bought a hunting rifle or shotgun and received an SKS for free! $79-99 for several years, if bought alone.

I was working at a pawn/gun shop & got a short SKS for $75. It is in the safe and there is a case of ammo in my shop.

 

[LVSteve]

You won't be picking one up for a couple of hundred bucks any longer.View attachment 760378Top 4 are Yugoslavian 59/66, five new in crate for $600.00.Bottom two are Chinese Norinco's Standard SKS and "Paratrooper' . I took the bayonets off. I sold one of the Yugoslavian for $650.00 and a Friend said I could have gotten $800.00 easy.View attachment 760379

What in the Wide World of Sports possessed you to take the bayonets off the Chinese rifles?

 

[Golddollar]

Postscript: When a lot of the Russian rifles were imported years ago, I looked in vain for one made in and stamped with my birth year, 1950.

I found one of those Russian SKSs with my birth year on it. The price was right back then and I that was how I decided to buy that rifle out of the big rack of the rifles. Unfortunately it went down the road when I lost my job in 2009.

 

[Jul]

Many years ago a couple of us bought a half dozen of SKS's at a Rose's department store for $79. each. and a couple Mac 90s for $99. each. At the time a 1,200 round case of 762x39 was less the 100 bucks at the gun shows.

 

[Terry G]

What in the Wide World of Sports possessed you to take the bayonets off the Chinese rifles?

Oh, I still have them, I really don't plan on bayoneting anyone. Just extra weight and someone told me it would help accuracy. It doesn't.

 

[moparclan]

Bought my dad one years ago, was $69 at Arizona Sportsman had the ugly orange painted stock. Ammo was $1.99 a box of 20. Had a 1952 Russian imported by KBI, they had painted the metal with a black paint including the bayonet. Non chrome lined barrel, sold it last year for $800. Still have two excellent Norinco's one still in the box both with original slings. Great fun.

 

[uhlawpup]

Interesting - I didn't know that. Bought a "Paratrooper" for $139 back in the 1990's when they were dumped on the market. It had a tendency to double fire and after awhile it went to someone that wanted it worse than me. The current prices are shocking.

Had one that went full auto on me. Once I changed my underwear and inspected it, it turned out there was cosmoline in the trigger group. An overnight soak and clean and it functioned flawlessly after that. I’m sorry I got rid of it.

 

[Glenn R. McMannly]

In the early 80s you would see dealers at gun shows with crates of them selling for $100 to $110 bucks. At one time I heard jokes about them being so cheap that it was a waste of time cleaning one. Just throw it away and buy another one. At one point I had 4 of them. They had really rough/crude innards. Another member of a club I was in back then tried polishing the fire control parts of one. That one had a new operating mode: burst. Not sure of that members skill level but not long after I disposed of mine.

These guns have a pesky habit of going automatic when you least expect it.

Lousy design and with Chicom “quality”, a recipe for all sorts of problems.

 

[Harv 24]

"Quantity has a quality all of its own"

Good shooting OP. Min of Man is what they were designed for.

 

[Faulkner]

Back in the mid-90's one of my buddies with an FFL and I went in halfs and bought a case of Russian SKS's for $59.00 each. When they arrived we each hand picked one for ourselves and then he sold the rest for $99.00 each, so we pretty much got our investment back with a little extra and a free Russian SKS.

I hunt with mine from time to time and have taken a few whitetail deer, feral hogs, and a coyote or two with it. It's every bit as accurate as my Marlin or Winchester .30-30 lever guns.

 

[boykinlp]

Back around 1987 I read where former President Nixon had gone to China and made a trade deal with them. Then I went to the Market Hall gun show later that year and there was an SKS with 1000 rounds of Chinese made steel case ammunition. The price for all of it with a leather sling and a bandolier was $79. The chrome lined barrel made it resistant to even the crappy chemically foul ammunition that came with it. I bought maybe $10 worth of groceries and had a "vegetable hunt" with my new SKS. I was able to easily walk the bullets into the vegetables shooting at around 25 yards.

I looked in my safe recently and saw the SKS sitting there with 500 rounds of the steel case Chinese ammo remaining. I took the rifle, ammo, bandolier and sling to a local gun show. A nice fellow gave me $700 for all of it. I thought that was OK.

I had a similar experience about then. At the local gun show they had very nice chrome lined barrel SKS’s and a wooden crates of 1000 rounds in yellow boxes of Chinese made steel case ammunition that they called “armor piercing” ammo. The “show special” was a SKS and a crate of ammo for $180, and I bought one. I also remembering having to carry both around the show. It definitely cut my show time very short!

In 2010, I had a table at the local gun show. I needed to sell a few things in order to buy something that I wanted more. I decided the SKS and ammo had to go. I sold the SKS for $500, and was selling the boxes of ammo for $20 each. I had sold about 20 boxes of the ammo by the end of the show. As I was packing up, a fellow came up and asked how many boxes I had left. I told him 30. He said he would take them for $400 and I would “have” to carry them home. I didn’t have the gun anymore and didn’t want to tote them home and back to another show, so I sold them. I figured selling the entire package for $1300 was great!

I ended up buying an ANIB 1974 4” Blued Colt Python.
Larry

 

[Kal.38]

When I got mine in the 90s. Woolworth's in Newburgh had them on sale for $99 each with chest rigg and stripper clips.
Too bad NY has become so unconstitutional.