What are the best mags to get?  I would imagine the USA SKS mags are as bad as the AR15 ones.  What's a good price?  Any good sources?

And what about a good source for stripper clips?

I would stick with the original fixed ten rounder, the after market mags are almost universally nightmares to get to work properly.  As for stripper clips, they are fast, reliable, cheap and reuseable.  www.tapco.com or to save shipping just go to your local funshow.  I think I last got 10 for $3 or $4 .  I can load an sks from strippers faster than I can mag change an AK.  It takes some practice and a strong thumb, but its the best bet all around for a great historic rifle.

Don't get Zytel mags, they are a POS IMO. Go with the steel. And tapco is great for SKS stuff.

The only hi-cap mag I've found that works in my SKS is the fixed Chinese 20rd mag.

Looks like this:

pic taken from: http://www.simonov.net/magazines.htm

The USA ones are garbage, out of 8 USA type "detachable" mags, I've had one that worked. The problem with those type mags is that you almost need 3 hands to load them. One to hold your bolt back, One to load the mag, & one to hold the rifle. Real PITA!

I've tried everything else, and it all sucks! I've come to this conclusion, if Simonov wanted the SKS to have 30rd mags he would have designed it that way.

Edit:
Go take a look at:
www.simonov.net/magazines.htm
Lots of good sks mag info over there!

FWIW, I've used a USA 20 rounder...functions perfectly.  I've used 2 "generic" 30 rounders.  1 worked perfectly, one feeds fine but doesn't lock the bolt back on the last shot.

The factory fixed mag as always worked just fine.

--Otter

When I bought my SKS I did my research on this. I didn't buy any mags. I wanted to go with strippers myself. The cheapest I found was on GunBroker.com. I bought from this guy: jmonarch. He had lots of 100. If you did the buy now for $24 he threw in 20 more. That's 120 strippers for $24. I bought 360. That's 3,600 rounds ready to go! This was the best price I found 3 or 4 months ago.

Several friends have bought mags and they have all been junk. My suggestion was to them if they found a mag that fed well, keep it in gun and load strippers from top. All the mags I've seen are a pain to put in or get out.

Loading the SKS is a lot faster user stripper clips.

from "MY" experience, the sks was not designed to feed from anything but its original fixed mag.
I have tried many of the aftermarket mags, and some feed reasonably well.  I bought a Norinco sporter that was made to take AK mags, and it has the same problem.  The bullet really gets touqued when it feeds and sometimes will even "bend" it in the case mouth.  My sporter will feed pretty well from selected mags, but is in no way as dependable as any of my ak types.  I tried it at a couple plate shoots and have retired it to be used as a plinker as the dependability is just not there.  Still a fun rifle that functions properly "most" of the time, but I sure would not let my life depend on it.  My other SKSs function great with their fixed mags.

I don't know what USA mags you have Drobs and your personal experience but I've had no problems wth the USA steel SKS 30rd steel mags! In fact-I use the ten rd standard clips to load them from the top. You're screwing something up!
BTW- that last USA mag was fitted to a 59/66 Yugo.

adding a detachable USA mag to the Yugo would negate its c&R status and violate the AWB.  It would have too many evil features.