Chinese SKS

[vintage hunter]

Chinese military produced at Jianshe Arsenal in 1959. All matching except for the Tula dust cover. Import marked so it's not a bring back but it's seen lots of use. First SKS I've owned in probably 25 years.
Really cruddy when I got it. Took awhile to get it cleaned up and presentable. Stock soaked up what seemed like a pint of BLO. LOP was short for me so I added to cheesy slip on recoil pad to make up the difference.
Accuracy was lousy to start off with. Barrelled action was a very loose fit if the stock, it literally rattled around. Couldn't hit a 9''x11'' target at 100yds.
Figured out how these things fit together, similar to a Garand or M-14. I placed a shim between the heel of the trigger plate and stock to improve lock up and another between recoil lug and stock to prevent fore and aft movement of the barreled action. Third photo shows how much this improved accuracy.
The SKS has a ferrule on it's gas block that serves the same purpose as those on the Garand and M-14 so I experimented with barrel tension by peening the ferrule a little at a time until I eventually found the sweet spot. Fourth photo shows how much a little tension on the barrel improves group size. Only fired 3 rounds of each but it seems to like Wolf and Yugo M67 surplus too as the 5th and 6th photo's show. Didn't get around to it today but I also have some Tula and Monarch to try. Maybe next trip.

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