Thread: History of SKS/SKK rifles in NZ?

Originally Posted by systolic

No. He's just being childish and vulgar.

This

I had an early Chinese import which had military markings ie not norinco it was a great little rifle. The Russian ones were very nice, some seemed to have laminated stocks. I have seen some rough looking made on the cheap Chinese ones terrible finish, no idea how they shot...

Russia shipped tooling and engineers to china when the started making them, so the early ones to all intents could be considered russian made.
Ive owned several chinese ones (type 56) named after the year they started mnf. All have shot as well as the open sights have allowed me to.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Russia shipped tooling and engineers to china when the started making them, so the early ones to all intents could be considered russian made.
Ive owned several chinese ones (type 56) named after the year they started mnf. All have shot as well as the open sights have allowed me to.

Yep spot on, I have had an early one as well that was most likely produced while the Russian engineers were in China helping set up.
There are some pretty informative sites out there on date and location of production but it's not all that easy to decipher some of the stampings.

Mine shot well and for what it was it was pretty accurate. I like the engineering, clever, simple, robust and they work.

The only thing collectible thing about the Chinese ones is once you buy one your stuck with it , took me about a year to get rid of it. Shoots ok but the stocks are way short and unless you drill and tap the receiver your not going to get a good scope mount that holds zero. One thing to watch for is if the barrels screwed on (good) or pinned(not so good).
I've still got one in the grease and kept the 2" butt extension but can't see me hauling it out from the back of the safe anytime soon.

Thanks for all the replies. My interest in them is for controlling goats in the bush, and hares out beyond maximum easy 22LR range. Low cost rifle and ammo always helps too.

Are the Russian rifles much different (better) than the Chinese?

So anyone know much about the SKK versions? It seems these are the same things the Americans call SKS-D. How many came into NZ, and how popular were they? Was it only a short introduction period? From what I read it seems the Chinese did not manufacture them for very long, makes me wonder why. I've seen one youtube video of an American guy who could not get one to cycle properly, but any youtube video search always shows the Aussie guys culling feral pigs, I haven't watched much of these but Steve Lee seems to have an SKS (SKK) which functions perfectly.

Originally Posted by Ben Waimata

Thanks for all the replies. My interest in them is for controlling goats in the bush, and hares out beyond maximum easy 22LR range. Low cost rifle and ammo always helps too.

Are the Russian rifles much different (better) than the Chinese?

So anyone know much about the SKK versions? It seems these are the same things the Americans call SKS-D. How many came into NZ, and how popular were they? Was it only a short introduction period? From what I read it seems the Chinese did not manufacture them for very long, makes me wonder why. I've seen one youtube video of an American guy who could not get one to cycle properly, but any youtube video search always shows the Aussie guys culling feral pigs, I haven't watched much of these but Steve Lee seems to have an SKS (SKK) which functions perfectly.

The Russian ones I have seen and owned Had laminated wood stocks and the Russian Star on the rear dust cover tooling and Quality was about the same , Oh and I think they had a blade Bayonet rather than the spiked one. The first Chinese SKS rifles that I had anything to do with were Ex Military issue and I ordered one from a guy in Nelson who imported them a few at a time , money up front first. Well made and in quite good condition. Later the Commercial Norinco ones started to turn up along with the SKK & Ak47 copy's. The SKK was made for the U.S.A civilian market though some landed here. Came with spike bayonet and 3 30 round magazines. I remember the local Sport shop having about 10 of them hung in the front window on mono fishing line with no alarm system. Mind you they also had BAR, SLR, M1 Carbines, A Strumweger ( excuse spelling) and a multitude of other E & C cat firearms hanging on the wall`s. This was just before David Grey Stuffed it all up for the rest of us. Simpler times in the 1980`s

isnt there some thing about a flash hider on the skk and bare barrel on the sks????
for goat control they are fine...loads of cullers have given them a whirl over the years.....it still wont do anything a mini 14 or mini 30 wont do as well if not better...... but if you want to chuck it on carryall tray of tractor etc the open sights will be better option......the rugers have open sights too,I just couldnt bring myself to treat one of them with abuse,a sks yip no worries,think of them as the eastern blocks SMLE .

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

isnt there some thing about a flash hider on the skk and bare barrel on the sks????
for goat control they are fine...loads of cullers have given them a whirl over the years.....it still wont do anything a mini 14 or mini 30 wont do as well if not better...... but if you want to chuck it on carryall tray of tractor etc the open sights will be better option......the rugers have open sights too,I just couldnt bring myself to treat one of them with abuse,a sks yip no worries,think of them as the eastern blocks SMLE .

The SKK I had a Norinco one. The front end was exact to the SKS, Only difference was the stock cut out to accept 30 round mags and the bolt bottom was cut away with no hold open after last shot. Wish I had never sold that thing.

The SKS was a very popular rifle in outback Aus in the 80s, for close range culling work. As mentioned anove, they were imported and sold by the crate load along with ammo in 20,000 round lots. My old SES mate in QLD has some fantastic old home movie footage and photos of what they got up to with the SKS. Very reliable, worked smoothly with very high rounds counts.

After Port Arthur of course every thing changed but Ben is right there are still a helluva lot of these rifles stashed away. The SKS is still quite widely used in Aus for pig control by professional Cat D licence holders, but there’s also a fair few station folk way out in the middle nowhere using them on the quiet. Its not the rifles that are valuable now, its the ammo, can be quite hard to come by if you want a lot of it.

https://youtu.be/nTpTIVlC7Ho

Yeah when I lived in QLD back in the early 90's there was a mate who had access to a lot of WW2 American gear, originally stashed for use after the feared Japanese invasion. The story about how it was accessed was always pretty vague, but the weapons were real. He claimed to have a 50cal machine gun hidden away, he surely had a lot of other WW2 stuff that was highly illegal even before the 1996 ban! I think SKS rifles were the least of the worries for Aussie lawmakers if they had only known! Lucky that big station inland from Townsville was so remote...

One thing I meant to follow up on and never got round to. In South Australia a few years ago we were out shooting goats and foxes with aforementioned mate. He had one of his old SKS on the bike. Not being particularly into old military weapons I didn't pay it much attention. But I remembered him clearly telling me it was .223 not 7.62x39. Didn't think anything of it at the time. Defo an SKS not an AK.

Later I learned from a pig culler in the east of QLD that the .223 SKS was bloody rare and highly sought after. There was a shipment of them into Aus in the early 90s (?). So I did some googling and they are real, I didn't imagine it. And they are worth proper money. So I'll ring Laurie later on, see what's what.

So just wondering, did any of those make it to NZ do you think?

Originally Posted by Flyblown

the .223 SKS was bloody rare and highly sought after.

I'm asking myself, how much advantage would .223 have over 7.62x39 in an SKS? Lighter weight perhaps? I think 7.62 would have better close range knock down, and I have never heard anyone talk about super long range accuracy with an SKS. Is it just rarity collector value?

Originally Posted by Ben Waimata

Is it just rarity collector value?

From what I’ve read, yes. Quite a lot of rarity value in the US but then some of those collectors have got more money than sense.

Originally Posted by Ben Waimata

I'm asking myself, how much advantage would .223 have over 7.62x39 in an SKS? Lighter weight perhaps? I think 7.62 would have better close range knock down, and I have never heard anyone talk about super long range accuracy with an SKS. Is it just rarity collector value?

I'd have one