Thread: Hunting with an SKS

Just want hear about peoples experience with using these cheap rifles in the field.

I'm particularly interested in using them with the standard open sights rather than with optics.

Any thoughts or stories to share?

Anything is possible. I hunt with my ar. Better range with the 223 and easier to mount optics on.

ive shot quite a bit with an sks both scoped and open sights. good for 150m on goat, pig and the smaller deer.

@stretch 's last goat with an SKS (that I know of) before he moved onto an AR.

I've taken 50+ goats with various SKSs in the last few years. At up to 100m, but mostly within 20m. Initially with iron sights, then with a red dot.

Best day was when I ambushed 7 chilling in a clearing around midday. I dropped 6 of them before getting a misfeed on the last round.

Another time, I shot two, then several more jump up out of the long grass. It became a reaction shoot. Good times.

Good soft point hunting ammo would be a great place to start.

Several years ago went up gizzy with some guys to cull goats. All used ARs, but one bought an sks along as well and we all had a turn till the ammo ran out. At the end the sks was voted the winner, more 1 shot kills better knockdown, more reliable! It was admittedly in a ati stock, and had a red dot on it. All the ammo was barnaul, soft point for the sks, and 55 gr hp for the ARs. Bought one soon after.

They work great

I like my SKS a great deal more than I thought I would. I got it as a curiosity and because it was cheap, and now I find I have a soft spot for it. It is a very friendly rifle. Easy to shoot well off hand, which is a big plus, something not many people have mentioned and important to me.
I have found mine as accurate as it needs to be with its open sights, about 3-4 inch groups depending on ammo, and since no one I know can get better than that with the scope mounts they have on them, I cant see the point in putting a scope on it. Would wreck a perfectly handy carbine. It only weighs 7.4 pounds as well, which is a full pound less that what they say on the interweb.

I have not shot a deer with it yet, but I have been seriously thinking of taking it for the roar, simply because I have often felt the lack of a quick follow up shot in the bush. I have wanted one sometimes but the bolt was too slow, but a semi with not much recoil would do the trick.
I had two occassions last year when a semi would have proved itself worthwhile, once when I shot a deer and wanted to shoot it again, but I was too slow on the bolt, and another time when I shot and missed one but didnt even try a follow up shot because I knew I couldtn do it in time. Both times I would have probably done what I wanted if I had that cheap Soviet designed Chinese communist semi auto with me.
Yes I am sorely tempted to take it for the roar this year even though I have many more expensive rifles to choose from.

As for the cartridge, a 125 grain .310 bullet at 2400fps is going to do as much damage as a 150 grain .30/30 at 2200 fps on a soft deer I would think; and frankly, its got to be an improvement on a .222, and the .222 kills big deer.

I didnt expect to like that classless totalitarian machine gun. I felt that disassembling it would be like peering into the heart of the dead Soviet empire. But it turns out shes just a friendly Russian peasant girl, with a thin blouse, who is crap at cooking anything except potato soup, but you don't really care.

Have you seen what Russian peasant girls can do?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Witches

They can shoot too...

CH grab a box of the hornady sst with the steel case and give them a whirl......they absolutely poleaxe big wallabies , havent tried to recover projectiles but by all accounts they doing the bizo very well. being all pointy like a fmj they should feed well too.

A mate was using one for 10 years or more until he got into bow hunting. He shot hundreds of deer and pigs with it just using open sights. The only bad thing was after spotting a deer when it's time to chamber a round he would have to back track 50m-60m and chamber a round so the deer didn't hear bolt getting slammed forward then stalk onto the deer again.
I had a Ruger mini 30 during thoses years and the Ruger was the better gun being stainless steel and better scope mounting at the time. But he shot more deer than me with that sks and he never cleaned it.

A 16" version as rough bush gun. Perfect!

Keep an eye out for a Russian made one as their the one to own. Nearly bought one for shits and giggles and yet may do.

Cheap, accurate enough, hit hard with soft point ammo...not much you can fault them on really considering the price.



Kj