Got bitten by the SKS bug--Again!

[Major Pita]

Back in the 1990's, about the time the Assault Weapons Ban went into effect, I had basically traded off all my AK's for SKS's. I had several Russian SKS's and at least one Chinese.

In the following years, I traded all of them off. The Russian SKS's were well made, but some of the arsenal refurbs were missing parts, especially the safety spring, and I noticed a couple of mine had some bad rusting to the fire control parts. So I let them all go.

Today, a couple of buddies and I traveled to a gun store in the next town. One of my buddies bought a pistol for his wife, and a lever action carbine for himself.

Well, to make a long story short, the gun store had several Yugo SKS's on display, new and unissued with cosmoline and all. I looked one over.

"Hmmm, I thought, this is one of the nicest SKS's I've ever seen."

I looked it over some more. The rifle looked brand new. I tried the trigger and fell in love. I had been keeping my eye out for a 7.62x39 Rashid for some time. When I fired a friend's Rashid, I was impressed by the crisp, light trigger. Most of the SKS triggers I've used go "CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH--FIRE!"

The triggers on these Yugo SKS's had just a hint of creep, but broke as nice as that Rashid I had fired. Since the Rashid is a $600 gun, I decided that two Yugos could easily go home with me. They did, at $200 each.

I literally just got these home and put to bed. I haven't even field-stripped one to inspect it yet. I'd expect a surplus rifle to have a few specs of rust in spots, but maybe not if it's been in cosmoline. That funky gas cutoff for the grenade launcher looks a little fragile, but I don't expect to be charging at enemy troops, either.

What are your impressions of this rifle? Anybody gotten a bad one? I plan to shoot one and leave the other in mint condition. It seems to be a quality rifle. Anybody want to share their experiences with this rifle?

Also, I'm looking for any information I can get. Mine has the grenade launcher, grenade launcher sight, and folding bayonet. Which model is it? The bores looked kind of dark; is this one's bore not chrome-lined?

Also, I'm looking for the PVC woodland camo chest rig once offered by Cheaper-Than-Dirt.com. They appear to have sold all of theirs. Is there another source?

[Texas Patriot]

Yugos do not have chrome lined bore like most other SKSs do, (But you should be able to clean it good and see that it is quite shiney). However, they are very good in quality and I've never heard of anyone who got one, especially a new one, that didn't like it. My Yugo had a crunch trigger, unlike yours. But I had a trigger job done on it and it is now very smooth.

The model you have is the Yugo 59/66. The Yugos without a grenade launcher are the model 59. If you look close, you should see a flip up night sight on both front and rear sights.

My Yugo is VERY accurate and very reliable. Yugos are heavier than most, primarily due to more stuff hanging on them like grenade launcher, grenade sight, bayo, etc. But they re ver reliable and very accurate.

Hope this helps. And Congrats on your Yugo. You will grow to like it more and more.

[Kris]

I bought mine back in may of this year and I have already put about 1500 rounds through it. And I had it jam only once ! and that was due to the HP ammo I was using.

As for the trigger going crunch, mine was not in great condition and it was as smooth as a babys butt ! The only addition i have put on it is a 6x24 scope. Which I have switched over to a 3-9x40 scope which I will be zeroing in tomarrow.

Next on my list will be a new dragunov style fiber force stock, a folding bi-pod and eventually I am going to remove the bayo

as for the grenade gas selector port its not that fragile, I use the "grenade launcher selection" as a single shot when I want to shoot as a bolt action rifle (yes even though i know it is a self feeding semi auto )

[uzitiger]

The Yugo is a very well made heavy duty version of the SKS. Just make SURE you clean the cosmoline out of the barrel and gas cylinder before you shoot it. The gas selector will stay put as it does in mine. Go to Surplus Rifle for instructions on how to take the SKS apart and reassemble it.

http://www.surplusrifle.com/sks/index.asp

After cleaning the rifle and oiling it, you'll have a great and very reliable shooter. The only hangup I had was my failure to reassemble the magazine properly into the receiver. Once I did that the rifle shot flawlessly.

Also take a rag with you to get any cosmoline which will seep out of any spots you didn't get when cleaning the rifle. You'll see the cosmoline melt out of the rifle and the wood stock.

[withergyld]

The gas cut off seems to be the biggest source of trouble in the lesser condition Yugo SKS rifles. If you bought a "NEW" condition rifle you should not have any problems. It seems that corrosive ammo and poor cleaning practices has led to pitting/corrosion of the gas valve in the "shooter" grade rifles causing malfunctions.

The early Yugo M59/66 rifles had the grenade launcher but no night sights.