at about 100 yards.

I took mine out to the range today and was getting 6-8" groups on average.  


I am far from a great shot though as I only average about 4-6 inches with my AR.

It's mostly the crappy sights, put a red dot or a scope on it and it'l probably shoot 2" groups.

I did get 4" @ 100yds one time. I think I just got lucky to get that. But I do love my SKS and will never part with it. It didn't break my bank to buy it and that is what I liked about it.  

The ones I have seen were very reliable.
Went bang upon pull of trigger on a loaded chamber.

Accuracy... 2-4" @100 yds. I had one for a few years that I liked.

10 round fixed mag unless you find a carbine.
Feeds through the top with stripper clips.
Tapco has oodles of parts and supplies.
Gobbles up Wolf's very cheap ammo.

FWIW I sold mine to a good friend,

and we're still friends. [:D]

I had one that would shoot 2-21/2".sold it then found out most of them run 5-6" or more

Matt.. if you're getting 4-6" groups with your AR and 6" groups with your SKS, I think you've answered your own question! Your AR is almost certainly capable of much better groups and your SKS probably is too. Just keep on practicing!

My norinco SKS groups 2-3" usually.. with the South African ammo seeming to be most accurate.

Iron sights, right? The SKS is no match rifle, but it should do better than that. I have shot some 2" groups with my SKS, but 3"-4" is more common. The biggest problem I see with guys shooting iron sighted rifles, is that they don't use proper targets. Use large, square or round, solid black targets.Use a 6 O'clock hold."Apple on a fence post." Concentrate on the top of the front sight only. You can't keep everything in focus at the same time, so why try? By the way, I have a williams peep sight on mine. Much better accuracy wise than the open rear leaf.


                            Good luck...
                             [sniper]

Mach1,

Yes on the Iron sights.  Like I said, I do not consider myself a good shot, only fair at best.  Just need to keep practicing.

How easy was it to put on that peep sight.  My SKS is a 1953 Russain Izzy(Izvhesk?? manufacture) that I don't want to modify permanently.  

Very easy. It just replaces the rear sight leaf. No permanent modifications. Peep sights are great.I guarantee you will see an improvement.

Thanks Mach1 and Troy,

Sounds like I have a part to order.

Ammo makes a big difference. I've seen some guys say Chinese ammo is junk, but my SKS shoots better (about 3 inches) with Chinese than with any other I've tried. Of course, in his efforts to punish China for human rights violations, Clinton put a stop to the importation of Chinese ammo. Which was a very humanitarian thing to do, and also made more room on the boats for Chinese stereos, Chinese TV sets, Chinese rubber dog toys, etc.

Er, anyway... Ammunition. Even Russian ammo just from different plants shoots very differently in my rifle. Some I've tried shoots about 6 inch groups, other stuff won't even stay on the paper. Some Wolf hollowpoint I picked up recently shoots to such a radically different point of impact that ALL the shots missed the paper and I haven't gotten around to determining group size yet. You'd think the Russians would know how to make good ammo if they want to; I suppose barrel vibrations of each individual rifle makes much of the difference.

Ideally, a peep sight should be much closer to your eye than the standard SKS rear sight base. You should be looking through it rather than at it. Though WW2 Japanese rifles had forward-mounted peeps and I guess they worked.

And Matt: We seem to have a great concentration of talent here at AR-15.com, but it's my experience locally that folks who can shoot better than 3 inch groups at 100 yards under practical conditions, especially with iron sights, are few and far between. But practice helps us all.

Hey Matt, I got a Romanian SKS in pretty good shape; I have yet to shoot it, but look foward to it. You may want to check out
[url]http://www.simonov.net/[/url]
lots of good info.

Why a six o'clock hold? Does that result in
more consistent groups? Why?

I'm going to take a stab at this, if I'm wrong I'm sure someone else will correct me.

A 6 o'clock hold allows you to contrast the front sight against the white part of the background.  This way you don't lose the sight in the black so to speak.

It also give one good point of aim, the bottom of the circle is just one point.  So it a smaller portion of the target.  "Aim small miss small" type thing.  A center hold, you can still be in the black, but may not be able to tell if your 1/2 to the right or left.  A little easier with 6o'clock.

A 6 o'clock hold means that you put the front sight ( post, bead ,etc.) on the very bottom of the target.For example, if your target is a round spot, your sight picture should look like your balancing that spot on top of your post. Make sense? A pic would be better to illustrate. It is easier, at least for me, than to try to aim directly at the middle of target. With iron sights, it's o.k. for your target to be a little blurry, because you can't keep both the rear, front sight and the target all in focus at the same time. Your eye just can't do that. Impossible. Rembember, line up your target, and then concentrate soley on the very tip of your front sight. It doesn't make sense, but that is how it is done. You can practice this at home, (with an unloaded gun!), right in your living room.

Exactly right. you beat me to the punch while I was typing.

Good point, Troy. This is a little off the topic, but why wouldn't the current Ak-74 come with a rear peep sight? Every modern battle rifle that I can think of has them. Granted these rifles are not meant to be sniper rifles, but why limit yourself to an open leaf with a very short sight radias? Anybody?

Mach1,

Cannnot answer why the 74 has no rear peep other than that it is cheaper to use the old '47 leaf!

I would not want any AK site mounted on the topcover though to improve sight radius. The fit is usually so loosey goosey that mounting a sight on it would be kinda pointless. The Valmet/Galil/R4 variants seems to get away with it becasue the tolerances are held tighter.

There is nothing more variable than an AK topcover. Wander thru a gun show and try some covers out and you will be surprised at the variety.  

Hephaistos