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How do I make my SKS more accurate? ALWAYS BE SURE YOUR WEAPON IS UNLOADED BEFORE WORK BEGINS. How accurate should an SKS be? Well, I've run poll in Oct 2000 asking that very question. Here's the result: POLL - Question: Generally speaking, what size groups can you expect with your SKS at 100 yards? Out of 198 votes, here's the breakdown: 20% 1-2 inches, 36% 2-3 inches, 33% 3-4 inches, 8% 4-5 inches, and 3% more than 5 inches. Now, 1-2 inches at 100 yards for ANY rifle is real good news. 56% of you are 3 inches or less which again is not bad at all. 3-4 inches can be improved on and 89% of us fall into that category. 11% of us either have worn out, defective, or SKS's in need accurizing. (Or maybe more PRACTICE! He he he!) Looking at these figures, HOW can someone call the most reliable rifle I've ever fired inaccurate?!?! There are probably 100 little tweaks you can do to improve your rifle's performance. I don't think I'm capable of listing them all, but here are a few good places to start in no particular order: 1) AMMUNITION: What are you feeding your rifle? If the answer is cheap ammo such as Russian surplus or Wolf hollow points, then my answer to you is no wonder your groups look so bad. Do yourself a favor and go buy some American Eagle by Federal. There are many fine ammunition choices, but American Eagle is moderately priced and extremely consistent. This step alone should make your groups shrink immensely. Since every rifle is different, one ammunition type work better in one rifle than in another, and different munitions will strike a target in different areas while the aim point is consistent. Have some fun and buy several different types of ammunition and consistency test them. Fire five to ten shots at a fresh target with different ammo types while aiming at the bull every time. For this test, hitting the bull isn't as important as tight groups, so keep your aim point consistent and line up with the bull every time. A load that groups nicely is revealed, then adjust the sights or scope to zero the rifle with your favorite ammunition type. 2) FOULING: Every time a bullet travels down the barrel, all kinds of junk is left behind. Over time, copper deposits from the jackets of the bullets will build up and decimate accuracy. I've seen people pull out their hair over a rifle because of this problem which is easily prevented and corrected. This is a good thing to check even if your rifle is shooting well. So we think we know how to clean a barrel, huh? Well, maybe we do, but lets test ourselves. I failed this test the first time I tried it. First, we need a rifle who's barrel has been allegedly cleaned since last fired. Now get a barrel mop or put a few patches on your cleaning rod and douse it with the copper solvent commonly found at firearm retailers. I mean get it soaking. Now lay the barrel on it's side and run the patch down the barrel one time leaving plenty of solvent behind. Wait five to ten minutes, then take a solvent laden barrel brush and run it down a few times. Now run a clean patch down the barrel and see what comes out. If the patch is simply the same color as the chemicals we left in the barrel, you have a very clean barrel. If the patch comes out blue or green, my friend, your barrel is copper fouled. Repeat this process until the patches come out clean. The soak and wait method works beautifully with regular powder solvent cleaning as well. Before my friend showed me this trick, I thought I knew how to clean a barrel. My ex-Marine brother informs me that in USMC basic training, the rifle is cleaned on three different occasions through out a day before it is truly considered clean. 3) STOCK: Are you using the original wooden surplus stock? If so, adding pretty much any replacement synthetic stock should improve accuracy. Many of the wooden stocks are either worn out or misshapen from years of moisture, abuse, or the victim of wood compression from improper storage techniques. The synthetics have many other side benefits, such as the added length, that may in and of themselves lend to a more steady firing position. A more extreme approach would be to bed the stock. Bedding is simply a way of adding epoxy or resin to the inside of a wooden stock so the barrel and receiver rest in a perfect mold of itself. If done right, this provides the absolute best rock solid foundation for a rifle to rest in, but the time, trouble, and risk of this process is prohibitive. If done improperly, the rifle will still be rock solid in the stock due to the fact that it is now one piece. The epoxy can bind to the rifle in effect ruining everything. 4) TRIGGER: A few things can be done with a trigger to help improve accuracy. A) Your trigger must seat solidly in the stock or else whenever the weapon is fired minute changes in it's position will occur. Be sure the spring that resides in the stock directly behind the trigger guard latch is in place if the trigger group wiggles while in the wooden stock. Switching to a synthetic stock will more than likely cure a loose trigger assembly and possibly facilitate a more comfortable firing position. B) Another technique for improving trigger performance is to polish the internal contact points as in the article written by Informer. This article is regarding a trigger assembly tune up that will without a doubt improve the way your rifle fires. C) Next, one could try replacing the trigger springs. Wolff Gunsprings makes SKS trigger assembly springs that allegedly improve the pull. Since the primers used in Russian military ammunition are made much harder than the primers used in domestic production, it's recommended that the 27.5 lb springs be ordered. However, if you're shooting the domestic ordinance recommended in step #1, the 22 lb. springs should not be an issue. D) Lastly, your entire trigger group can be shipped to any number of establishments that re-machine your assembly. Trigger inconsistencies and trigger creep will negatively affect performance. When one draws back the trigger, one will encounter resistance at the final stage of the pull. Most people pull to this point, finalize their aim, then squeeze. Trigger creep is when a trigger travels a great distance in this area of resistance. A good trigger will "break" and fire the rifle when the appropriate amount of pressure is applied to it while in this area of resistance, not creep back slowly then fire. When the trigger is creeping when the rifle should be firing, more than likely the point of aim has wandered by the time the round goes off. If trigger creep is getting you down, your only real solution is to pay someone to rework the assembly. The Machine Shop out of Putney, VT. charges $34.95 plus $4.95 shipping with a 7-10 day turn around. Their main priority with the trigger group is producing the crisp trigger pull found in quality firearms. Typically, they can reduce the trigger's travel by about %50 and the pull weight will be between 4 - 5lbs. The end result should be a crisp pull every time with a shorter length of engagement before the round is fired. Although this is yet another added expense, I highly recommend the process as it will enhance the every day shooting experience as well as improve accuracy. I hear of night and day results and never a complaint. E) If you have a collector's piece, and do not want anyone to grind the trigger group but want the advantage of an improved trigger group, buy one from D.C. Engineering, plop it into your rifle, and enjoy. Note: this in NOT a cheap solution, but the part can follow whatever SKS one feels like shooting that day. 5) SUPPRESSORS: Although manufacturers and retailers alike will sing the praises of such devices, I sincerely doubt they have any real affect on first shot accuracy. If one is firing semi-automatically, then sure, a recoil suppressor will without a doubt steady the rifle and allow more control for accurate follow up shots. Suppressors can actually RUIN accuracy. If a suppressor is not attached to the end of a barrel firmly, then it's position will change with every shot, applying inconsistent amounts of force to an exiting bullet. Pin on's can be the worst. I've actually heard of these flying downrange after a few shots because it couldn't handle the explosive forces applied to it. If you can move yours with your bare hand, most likely it is adversely affecting your accuracy. If you find one that you want on your rifle permanently and sincerely feel it doesn't adversely affect accuracy, then have a gunsmith weld it to your barrel. My future intention is to gather approximately five different types of these and field test them. But for now, I'm of the opinion that these are a waste of money for target shooters if one doesn't commit to welding a quality one to the barrel. 6) EXPECTATIONS: Perhaps lowering ones expectations is the most cost and time effective approach to accurizing an SKS. Are you trying to build a sniper rifle? If so, sell the SKS. Sniper rifles are accurate for hundreds of yards and 7.62 x 39 just doesn't have to propellant to push a round over 350 yards. At 250 yards, one has to question the lethality of the round. If your intention is to shoot at 100 yards, maybe getting ambitious at 200, then perhaps a little refinement is worthwhile. A SKS can expect less than 4 inch groups of 4-5 shots at 100 yards. Two to three inch groups should be a decent goal, everything else is gravy. I've seen many a 1-2 inch 100 yard group from a SKS's that have never been modified in any way. 7) PRACTICE: Maybe, juuuuust maybe it's not 100% the rifle's fault. Try a consistency test. Have three other people of varying skill levels buy the same ammunition and have all three fire your already warmed up rifle. Compare groups. The results should be either obvious or inconclusive. If you shot the best group and it was too big, or everyone shot crumby groups, it's probably the rifle. If everyone shot better groups than you, it's time to schedule weekly trips to the range for 50 round practice sessions... 8) SCOPE: This is more geared toward accurizing the shooter than the rifle. Some people are just better at using iron sights than others. And some of us are just plain getting old. Perhaps it time to look into mounting a scope. Although it's nice to have a 50X magnification, it's not necessary for 100 yards. Russian snipers in WWII only had 4X scopes and they were the deadly terrors of the "East Front". Besides, bigger heavier scopes make a rifle harder to handle and are more prone to banging into things. 9) CROWN: The very end of the muzzle on the barrel is called the crown. This should be smooth, rounded, and free of dings and burrs. This is the very last piece of metal the bullet contacts before it's free of the barrel. If there is anything present to snag the bullet or any metal missing to unevenly vent gasses then the rifle should be re-crowned by a qualified gunsmith. They are asking approx $35.00 for the service at a local gun shop here. If a barrel has been shortened, then re-crowning is necessary as well. Someone may be talented enough with a hack saw to cut the barrel at a perfect 90 degree angle, but odds are it's a few degrees shy of 90 or not as smooth as it should be. 10) HOT-COLD: There's really nothing that can be done about this short of replacing the barrel or rifle. There's really no way of testing this as far as I know either, but here goes. I've recently seen an SKS that hit the target in one place cold, another place hot. It was very frustrating for the owner to watch his hits walk up the paper when he was aiming at the bull every time. He later decided to shorten the barrel. It wasn't as if doing that was going to worsen the accuracy on that rifle anyway. Turns out that a cross section of the barrel revealed that the bullet channel in the barrel was straight, but off center. This left more metal on the bottom half of the barrel than on the top. Then the barrel got hot, the bottom expanded farther than the top. This inperceivably warped the barrel when heated and threw off his accuracy by close to six inches at 100 yards! Interesting, huh? From what I've been told, every barrel warps slightly when heated, some worse than others. Try it some time. Shoot 5 shots cold at one target aiming for one consistent point, heat the barrel by shooting quickly at a second target, then repeat the first step on a third target. You may notice a subtle to drastic change in hit locations. A bipod clamped directly to a barrel may cause shots to climb up the paper for similar reasons. Oh, since the owner mentioned earlier shortened his barrel, the problem hasn't been as pronounced. Well, that's it off the top of my head. If you have anything to add, please write. Check back every once in a while, this list is sure to grow. |
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