This...
Minus this...
Plus this...
And this...
Becomes this...
So, I was bored today between phone meetings, and I decided to celan up my SKS truck gun project a bit.This gun started life as a rack grade Yugo 59/66, with an acceptable trigger, slightly boogered up cosmetics, the grenade launcher attachment and sights etc...
I bought it with an ATI folder, on sale at J&G along with a sling, various accessories etc... for.. I think it was $200 with the stock and the cheap NC star scope and mount. I put the detachable mag on the thing soon after the folder, and stuck a US gas piston in there just in case, so I was absolutely 100% ok with 922r.
Anyway, I tried the reciever cover mount, decided it was crap and put the original reciever cover back on. I bought the thing to be my truck gun anyway, so I figured a scout scope mount and a tough tube or reflex red dot would be a better choice.
The three things that irritated me though, were the baynet and mount, the damn near useless sights, and the grenade launcher attachment. Oh sure the cool factor is high for those things, jsut to piss off the gun banners if nothing else, but honestly, for my truck gun they jsut get in the way. Now I DO want iron sights on my trunk gun, but these sights are jsut damned useless anyway.
First step, cut off the baynet and lug. I did that months ago. If I need to stick somebody with something sharp and pointy, I'll use one of my many knives or swords thankyouverymuch.
Today I went the rest of the way, and shortened the barrel.
Originally I was puzzling out how I was going to do this without too much time, money, and effort. I had planned on cutting it down with a chop saw, then clamping the whole rifle up into a drill press (I don't have a lathe and it isn't worth going to a gun smith for an SKS) and using a taper bore bit to recut the crown.
Well, I figured, screw it, it's just an SKS (that's one of the reasons why I love the things so much), I'll jsut do it by hand.
Yes folks, the WECSOG strikes again.
I dremeled off the sight and grenade launcher out to 17” (just in case I needed to re-cut it), then I flush ground the barrel end, ground and chamfered the muzzle face by hand with a dremel tool, some files, and some fine stones, flap sanded it, burr sanded it, and then taper reamed the crown.
All told, it took me about 45 minutes; and the crown LOOKS great, though how it’ll shoot is another question entirely.
The damn thing is almost 8” shorter than it was before, and it’s much handier (and a fair bit lighter), with less to snag on. I was surprised at how much better it balanced though, considering how (relatively) little I cut off.
Next step, a trigger job (why not, it'll only take me 30 minutes), and a cheap red dot. I should have a couple lying around, but I can’t seem to find any of them. That, and scoutscopes.com upped their price to $60 so I’m not sure I want to pay that much for their rear sight mount… maybe a gas tube mount, but those dont exactly hold a great zero.
Also I haven't decided what I’m going to do for a front iron sight yet. There are clamp on sights (and muzzle breaks if I feel like bothering with one), or I may just stick one on top of a gas tube rail or summat. Oh and I need to change out the wooden handguard for the plastic complaince part, I just havent bothered because I've got enough compliance parts anyway.
After doing some test shooting; if the crown seems to be effecting the accuracy too badly, I'll re-cut and then lapp the crown with some valve compound and the head of a bolt chucked into a power drill, and then burnish it with the bolt and some oil.
While I'm at it I might as well slick up the nasty action. Polish the bolt rails and grind off the tooling marks etc... stick in an SKS recoil buffer... hell I've got some alumahyde lying around, I may shoot the whole thing with that stuff just to make it all the same color.
I said it before, I can't leave a gun alone, until its just right, even if it's a $150 SKS.
