Well, what is someone waiting for?????

As the former owner of a Yugo SKS...I say no. I was underwhelmed.  While it could make steel plates ring at 200 yards with irons, it was neither ergonomic nor endearing. Just cant see a domestic demand for this.

Am considering getting a Yugo SKS, what did you not like?  Have a Chinese one, thought a Yugo would be a good match.

I like the 16" sks, but it would be impossible to make it for the value it could provide.

Don't forget, the real reason we have so many unemployed, is government regulations designed to hurt the American economy.

Txl

Heavy as a battleship anchor, surprising amount of recoil for the weight of it, bapped me in the cheek every trigger pull, quite a few malfunctions.

doubletap

A ten round, stripper clip fed, rifle that weighs a ton.

No.


I like my SKS, it won't be worth a damn when a AR is $450.

That would cost over 1k.  Lolz

Thanks DR for the feedback!

The quality would be poor or the price crazy. Probably like mini 30 or even more.

SKS meh
Ak is best

This was my thought.  $1000 dollar would likely be wholesale cost.

You have the modern version of it already called the saiga

The SKS is a manufacturing intensive rifle. Tons of machined parts.
$$$$$

The US doesn't not have cheap or slave labor like the commie countries did.

good luck with that business plan

nobody will buy them

With  Tech-sight peep sights, 300 yards is doable. (Russian SKS)  

I traded my SKS for a golf cart.  The golf cart has a much longer range.

They'd sell behind communist lines.
Mass
California
NY
New Jersey

Hell, they may be the musket of the next revolution.

Pretty much. When you could buy a Tula for $79 with a case of ammo then they were a deal

While I still like my sks and it a good deer gun up here, I would never buy one for more than $80...if that

I own several Chinese and 1 yugo. I love my SKSs! That said, I think I got raped paying $400 for the one yugo. To me the sks was awesome for a $150 piece of military history that you could hunt big game with. But I would not pay over $250 again and I only like legit mil surp stuff, so a "made in 'merica" sks wouldn't really be of any value to me.
As far as issues, the only thing I notice is that the stock is super short, bump my nose on the receiver when shooting.

So basically what you want is a mini 14

I think you mean mini 30.

Ironically enough I just took my old Norinco Paratrooper out of the safe to start measuring parts to see if it's doable to make new ones. I wouldn't bother trying to compete with the AR or AK market, rather as a big stiff FU to the commie states it would be catered for sale behind their lines. The idea of chambering in 5.56 and 7.62 39 was on my mind, also the possibility of a 7.62 51 version. Again, not mag fed and not a replacement for an AR or AK, rather an anti anti-gunner gun, but still small and handy like my little paratrooper.

Input?

Why 308? Just curious not shooting down the idea. 308 is more expensive. 7.62X39 is cheap and abundant.

Well, if I can get it onto the market I'd like to service a wide variety of folks. Being that there is no way to actually compete with the mag fed market I wanted to offer something that's not available. That and the SKS and the FAL actually operate on a similar principle I thought it was a possibility worth considering. But the 7.62 39 and 5.56 versions would be first, no doubt.

Although I like the idea, I think it would be more expensive than people would want to pay. While the SKS is a relatively simple semiauto rifle, it is a machining intensive rifle for what it is. Of course, the fire control set would need to be redesigned to provied a decent trigger pull, and the finish machining would need to be much better than the originals to interest American buyers.

If it were  to be done, Fulton Armory would do a fantastic job of reworking the old rifles. The biggest problem in appealing to the American buyer would  be the caliber itself. If it could handle something like 6.5 creedmoor, or one of the 270 variants you could get much better long range performance out of the SKS platform. Of course then you would have to deal with the sighting options in a way that overcomes the problems the shortcomings of most of the existing sight solutions out on the market. A cantilever mount for a long eye relief scope - like used on the scout rifle concept - would be the best for optical sighting to maximize accuracy at range. I almost forgot the stock - length of pull is too short for most average people.

Between the tigger group, the sighting problems and the limitations of the caliber, and that short length of pull, that would make the SKS a much better rifle. But then, in the end you would still have an SKS...  just a better looking and better performing SKS and the question would then be; How much are you willing to pay for one?

I wonder if the SKS would be able to handle the chamber pressure of 7.62 NATO??? Personally, I'd want to use a sub-30 caliber to get near te same ballistic results. I don't think the Soviet or Chicom steel would be able to do the job, interesting engineering challenge though.

I'd like to see it sporterized to streamline the design, executed in stainless steel; remove the fugly military sights, make it a box mag action, stretch it out for a larger caliber and put a decent length of pull and trigger on it and you might have a winner. If certain aspects of the design would be improved, take the receiver cover for example, (make it less Browning Auto 5 hump like), and delete the bayonet hinge/trough on the underside of the forend of the stock, and it just might become the swan it could be instead of the plug ugly duckling it is.

Nice idea!

As others have stated, the start up cost vs demand is the reason why no one has done this.  I believe the rifles would be well over $1500 dealer cost on them due to all the research and tooling issues. As to various calibers, yes it's very doable. The Chinese made and still do make a .223 version. Larger calibers, absolutely!  The SKS is a scaled down design that used the 14.5mm. If someone came out with an SKS in 7.62NATO in the M1a price range I'd probably be a buyer. Now for the OP, dude change that gay screen name.