Hello all,
Wondering if any members own or can give some guidance into the SKS. What country or manufacturer to look for and other insights. Pretty sure as far as NJ goes , fixed magazine and no bayonet . Not looking for a collectable, unless a good price, just a good shooter .
Thanks
As long as the SKS has a fixed magazine, it can absolutely have a bayonet. The “feature test” issued by the Attorney General has two important qualifiers: #1 The firearm must be semi-automatic, and #2 It must be capable of accepting a detachable magazine. If said firearm isn’t BOTH of those things, then you can have as many features as you want, including a bayonet lug (and bayonet).
Generally is considered to be in order of SKS quality - East German Karabiner-S (somewhat rare, definitely collectable), Russian, Yugoslavian, Chinese.
Although my Chinese is an absolute tack driver and has never had a hiccup.
Great info thanks. I saw a few Yugos for around 500 and up.
I kinda worry about the bore condition when buying online. I bought my Mosin for a little over 100 years ago.
As far as bore condition… the yugos did not have chrome lined barrels, the Chinese do. I have an absolutely ugly Chinese that came out of a cave in Albania and the bore is immaculate. The 2 yugos I owned did not have nice bores. Sight unseen, I’d probably feel better taking the gamble of the Chinese chrome lined.
Great info. Something to keep in mind
Wait… what ? Chromed barrel ??
I need to go check My Chinese SKS, I don’t remember that.
Mine was one of the very earliest brought in. $99 at Casos Gun-O-Rama in Jersey City, very early 1990’s
Yup only sks’ not chrome lined were very early Russian and all Yugos. I always heard Yugoslavia did not have chromium deposits.
I believe all versions are legal in their standard configuration. You cannot modify it to take the detachable magazine.
Chinese are the cheapest price you will find….
Should be able to find one for around 450-550.
Yugos and Russians are in the 700-1000 range. Some Tula’s are even more…
All great information, thank you.
I’ll post my purchase in the near future. 
Pulled my Chinese out of the safe last night. Here it is, came out of the batch from Albania. Probably was laying on the bottom of a pile of them in some cave. I’ve owned minty Chinese sks’ before and always let them go eventually. This one is a keeper, I love its character. Has a mirror shiny bore and shoots pretty well.
1962 ( I think) Chinese Arsenal 26 all matching numbers. Not really sure if the stock is original but also not sure if they had serials on the stocks for that year. Still researching. The action and bore are exceptional. Paid a little over $400 on GB. Appreciate the guidance.
I have Chinese, Russian and Yugo in my collection.
Nice, I really like the darker wood on the Russian SKS.
I probably had one of the largest sks collections in NJ at one point up until around 2017, I was addicted to the SKS. I had over 40. Some real gems in that collection. I loved hunting down the different variants, had some real nice albanians with trench art carvings from battles that stood out. Bunch of all matching Russians, chinese etc… Unfortunately sold all my collection and guy from the old NJGF forum who bought most most of them lost them in a fire. I regret selling them every day.
Welcome back, @Ogfarmer !!!
OG, good to see ya!
I wonder if I know the person who had the fire…I just might…
Yes! Good to see your name!
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