Ammo for SKS

[itgoesboom]

I am hoping to pick up my new SKS sometime in the next week or two, so i need to start thinking about what to feed it. I know that the easy answer is cheap Wolf ammo....but what variety?

I looked online, and Wolf has 122gr SP, 122gr HP (well, psuedo HP anyway), 154 gr SP and 154 gr HP.

Any idea what would be preferable for my new "homeland defense" rifle?

I.G.B.

 

[radom]

The 154 grain stuff is probably 7.62x54 stuff I bet.

 

[cheygriz]

Any 7.62X39 military ammo will work through yopur SKS with never a burp. I prefer Barnaul FMJ, but wolf works fine as well.

Actually, I MUCH prefer Norinco, but it is no longer available.

 

[CWL]

I go to www.ammoman.com and buy the Barnaul JHP. Good stuff for commie manufacture.

 

[itgoesboom]

Radom,

Nope, i double and triple checked it. There is 7.62x39 that is 154grn. The 7.62x54 is 148gr.

The only thing i can think of is that it is for hunting, but i am not sure. Would a heavier bullet be more accurate?

I.G.B.

 

[desert maus]

Yes, Wolf does make 154gr. SP's in 7.62x39. I don't know if it's necessarily more accurate, but it is definitely harder-hitting (out to a certain range, at least) than the other two 7.62 rounds they offer. It's definitely geared more towards hunting, but I would venture to say that it's probably not very effective or humane past 200-250 yards, max. I love Wolf, it's great for plinking, but it's not terribly accurate. It's not like it's Hour of Angle or anything, but it's just not as accurate as some of the domestic ammo, or even Sellier and Bellot (also cheap and good, plus they use brass cases instead of laquered steel if that matters to you.) For plinking, Wolf is fine and the majority of the problems it has is in American weapons, which are not designed to work with laquered ammo (pretty much all Russian and "commie" guns are designed with laquered ammo in mind, and eat it without question.)
I know a lot of people that have used SKS's for hunting and they work great for it. However, there's two things to keep in mind: SKS's are battle rifles and as such, were meant with relatively close combat in mind, so their effective range isn't as good as a bolt action. Second, many states do not allow hunting with a semi-auto rifle, so it's wise to check beforehand. But they make great truck guns, and they're pretty indestructable as most Soviet guns tend to be.
I'd be careful about using the rifle for home defense, mainly because they can be a bit powerful. The 154gr may be a good choice because it's going to have a much lower velocity than the FMJ or HP 122gr. rounds. If you live in an apartment, be especially aware of the adjoining units and how to potentially avoid firing in their direction if possible. I've shot through several layers of 2x4 with an SKS from quite a distance, and it went through all of them without a problem. The 7.62 round is pretty mean, and I like it a lot more than .223 for antipersonnel..er, umm "homeland defense" uses.
The SKS is a fun rifle, especially for the money. Just watch out for flying brass, they were designed to shoot brass 30 feet straight up, and firing from the hip can cause all manner of head trauma if you're not careful.

 

[MikeTx]

That 154 gr sp is more than accurate enough out to 100 yards. Cheap too. I don't have an sks but in my Ak it groups about 7 to 8 inches at 100 yards, not great, but passable. Of course if I could see better it might do better.

 

[Snowdog]

Ok, that's it!

What in the world is meant by a "homeland defense" gun? I've seen this terminology used several times as of late.

Has there been a change in nomenclature to a previous prospect of civil-disorder, or has a whole new perceived threat cropped up?

I certainly hope folks aren't expecting marauding bands of arabs to sweep over the land like avars, dragging our women away by the hair.

I am hoping it's all just facetious play on the government's Homeland Defense project.

 

[hksigwalther]

Whatever you get, if it is surplus be sure to clean the gun right after shooting it. Do not wait. I let my Chinese SKS sit for about a week after shooting some old surplus ammo (came in a sealed can) and got some surface rust.

 

[desert maus]

I am hoping it's all just facetious play on the government's Homeland Defense project.

It is...

Do not wait. I let my Chinese SKS sit for about a week after shooting some old surplus ammo (came in a sealed can) and got some surface rust

Yeah, you gotta watch that corrosive ammo (although it does tend to sound a little worse than it is.) Corrosive ammo won't eat through your metal instantly, but it's a good idea to clean your gun within a couple days of shooting the stuff so you don't end up with rust. If you let it sit for a long time, then you can end up with pitting.

 

[cheygriz]

A homeland defense gun is any gun suitable for defending our homeland, from foreign or domestic threats. Examples of a good patriotic homeland defense guns include AR-15, AK-47, AK-74, M1A, G-3, Fal etc.

It is far better, and more patriotic, to own a homeland defense gun than one of those nasty vicious assault weapons, don't you think?

 

[itgoesboom]

Thanks for the help guys. I will probably just pick up a few hundred rounds of the 122gr stuff, probably the psuedo hollow points. I tend to clean my firearms within a few hours of shooting them, so i wont worry too much about whether or not the ammo's corrosive. l'll probably just soak a few patches in windex and run them through the bore.

As for it being a "homeland defense" rifle, i already have a shotgun and a pistol, so that covers all threats inside the house, but i would like to have a decent semi for ranges of 50-200 yards, just incase of TEOTWAWKI.


I.G.B.

 

[pittspilot]

"I certainly hope folks aren't expecting marauding bands of arabs to sweep over the land like avars, dragging our women away by the hair."

I ,for one, do not believe that the vast majority of Arab-Americans in our communities mean any harm.

However, I watched two white men in body armor bring a police force to a standstill in Los Angeles.

The spector of SmallPox and the degeneration of society is very real.

I for one have purchased a rifle for homeland defense. Hopefully all it ever does is punch holes in paper.

 

[JIH]

The spector of SmallPox

The spectre of small pox?

 

[DMK]

What in the world is meant by a "homeland defense" gun?

It's a much better term to replace the media's favorite: "Assault Weapon/Rifle".

We don't buy ARs, AKs, SKS's and etc with intent to go assault somebody do we? We buy them for Homeland/Homestead Security/Defence.

 

[pittspilot]

"The spectre of small pox?"

The only thing that truely alarms me, is that some terrorist gains access to the smallpox vaccine, and initiates a suicide epidemic. I grew up in Africa, and I remember the fear of smallpox that my parents and grandparents had.

 

[Smokey Joe]

SKS fodder

IMHO, the only stuff to feed any gun is hand-rolled. I tried the steel-cased stuff :barf: and the foreign brass. Have had a go with corrosive also :barf: it's not nice.

What I finally ended up doing was buying ordinary U. S. manufactured ammo for the thing, using it (plus of course scrounging brass at the range), then getting the dies and AA 1680 powder and 123-125 gr. bullets that I KNOW will perform inside a deer, and rolling my own. I even bought brass to make up a same-manufacturer lot. Like most military autoloaders, SKS's are "spray and pray" rifles, which is neither a humane nor sportsmanlike thing to do to a wild animal.

With handloads I can keep a dependable 3" group at 100 yards, and that's OK for a deer-sized critter. I just make sure I don't try to exceed the rifle's ability. Have been trying to tweak the rifle and the load to do better, and others have bragged of better, but that's the best I can reliably produce. Some of the Russian stuff I fired could keep to maybe a 6" group, and of course was non-reloadable, so I look down my nose at it.

 

[BudS]

Yogo & S. African

If you can't reload your own, check out the Yugo and South African brass-cased ammo, usually available at better gun shows. I haven't had a chance yet to try mine, but a fellow SKS/AK owner says both are more accurate 100 yards FARTHER than the Wolf/milsurp steel-cased varieties. Dunno if Steel vs. brass has anything to do with it, but the Yugo & S.A. are better qualitiy ammos, from what I'm told.

 

[OneGunCharlie]

I use the term "sport rifle".

Or "multi-purpose rifle". Might use it for target practice. Might use it for hunting. Might use it for home defense. Might use it for militant Islamic extremists, commies or zombies invading my neighborhood. Hopefully the militant Islamic extremists, commies and zombies do not all decide to invade at once when I am on my third glass of wine and watching Heroes.

 

[ThomasT]

SkS's are great rifles. I have two, a Paratrooper and and full sized rifle both from Norinco.

Don't write off the 154gr or 122gr hollow points as ineffective. There was a guy on The High Road that posted pictures of some pigs that had been shot with these rounds and the damage was awsome. I sure didn't expect it to work as well as it did.

About all I shoot in mine are the Wolf ammo. I can hit a cantaloup sized rock at a hundred yards with a field rest just about every shot. That would be the equal of making head shots at that range. Thats good enough for what I want from the gun.