Yugo SKS range report

[Mad Dog 7.62]

Made a trip to the range today, took 4 new build FALS and my Mas 49/56. As kind of a afterthought I grabbed the Yugo SKS from SOG. I haven't had time to tear this rifle down and clean it, but thought I'd pop a few rounds through it. I did. Durn thing wouldn't cycle, I'm sure the gas system needs cleaned up. Sights were close, accuracy seemed a little better than any Chinese SKS I've shot, but I didn't shoot it much. Will get it working right, and report back! Cool gun, though. I'd love to try out the grenade launcher!! :eek: :D :D :D

[realstang]

Hmmmmmm Hey maddog I got a Yugo. from Aim darn thing don't want to cycle eather it seems every other round won't eject but will eject fine when I pull the bolt back myself I've cleaned the gas system and still no good. BEATS ME!! :mad:

[JimB]

A guy on gunboards.com SKS forum said that he had the same problem and found that it was due to too much gas leaking around the gas cutoff valve. He solved it by installing an O-ring on the valve. If you go to gunboards.com and go down the posts under SKS forum, you will find his post. I haven't shot my Yugo M59/66 yet, but I'll let you know if I have any problems.

[realstang]

Sounds good thanks a bunch Jim ;)

[Mad Dog 7.62]

I will check that out too, I was shooting Norinco ammo today, I wonder if Wolf might do any better......?

[eodinert]

I got to bang some grenades down range a while back in Bosnia..

http://www.printroom.com/_vti_bin/ViewImage.dll?userid=eodinert&album_id=29160&image_id=5&courtesy=1

http://www.printroom.com/_vti_bin/ViewImage.dll?userid=eodinert&album_id=29160&image_id=4&courtesy=1

Good fun. Let me tell ya, them things are cool. I think I'd rather carry a bunch of rifle grenades than 40mm grenades and a '203.

Serious recoil, though. Could break a rifle shootin' those, yessir.

-Doug

[Glock 17]

TAKE NOTE FOR THE YUGO

The yugos grenade launcher utilizes a high power blank round to fire the grenade. Because it would damage the bolt theres a small knob that keeps the grenade sight from coming up. In the up postion the Yugo is set to vent remaining pressure, and allows the grenade sight to come up. It is a fail safe to keep the soldier from shottong a live round into a live grenade. Most of the gas pistons need cleaning but in order to fire semi auto the grenade sight should be down and the small knob pushed in and rotated so it is not INLINE with the iron sights but sits offset.


Tetra Gun works great for clearing out the gas tube. I will try to enclose some pictures once I get time as examples

[eodinert]

I don't see how the front sight/gas shutoff could keep you from firing a live round, but I do agree that shooting a grenade without the gas shutoff would damage the weapon. We tested this theory (more or less accidently) on a romanian AK. There are 'bullet trap' grenades that are fired with a live round, but the Yugo's never made any that I'm aware of. They would function fine on a Yugo SKS, though. I did get to fire one of that type off of an M16 (which due to it's 'self regulating' gas system, does not need a gas shutoff).

The Yugo grenades came with two grenade launching blanks in the base; a 7.62x39, and a mauser cartridge (not familiar enough with them to know which one).

Roger on the position of the gas shutoff, Glock 17. Even if the grenade sight is in the down position, the gas shutoff (which functions as a lock to hold it down) may not be off.

..Good shooting
Doug

[ March 30, 2002: Message edited by: eodinert ]

[Mad Dog 7.62]

The gas cutoff is not turned off. However after checking the post on gunboards, I made a copper wire "o-ring" to go between the gas cutoff and the gas tube to try to seal it a little better. Next trip out we'll see if that helps any. This gun had the cruddiest bore of any I've ever seen. Just plain full of crud. Near as I can tell, it will clean up eventually. I'm hoping shooting it will help.

[Brian in MN]

Hey Doug,

Is it possible to actually hit something with a rifle grenade? They look so clumsy compared to a 40mm.

[DC]

Mad Dog

I'd clean th sh@t out of it before I did anything else. One thing I learned from racing a Harley, which broke a lot, is to always start simple and go to the more comlicated from there.

Being this filthy scares me - you might end up with more cycling than you'd like, like full auto. I also read somewhere to pay particular attention to the firing pin becuase if it is all gummed up you will have problems.

[Daniel]

:) Hey guys. Im new to this forum but just had to register so I could talk c&r stuff. Just took the yugo to the range and had real good luck with it. Acuracy was excellent. 2 moa with S&B at 100 yards. Two rds touching the bullseye area and one flyer left about 2 inches. Didnt even have to adjust the sights it was dead on . Fired 43 rds and all functioned flawlessly. Fired the S&B,Barnaul fmj, and wolf hollow point. This rifle was bought about 3 maonths ago when they first hit. It was a little pricey but absolutly mint. Just had a thought for the guys with cycling problems. Did you clean the cosmoline out of the small rear piston inside the rear sight assembly? Mine was caked with the stuff and if it wasnt cleaned Im not sure the gas piston would have been able to shove it enough to cycle. Just a thought.

[Sand Pirate]

Mad Dog, I posted about a week ago with exact same problem. 3 buddies and I all bought Yugo SKS's. I thoroughly cleaned mine, had your exact problem. One other buddy couldn't shoot more than one round, ever.

I gave his a good cleaning, hit the gas port with a pipe cleaner, problem solved. It runs like a champ now.

Mine is clean as a whistle, won't eject about one in four rounds. It's close, the empty case usually extracts all the way out of the chamber, then pinches between the front of the receiver and bolt.

I'm almost positive it's gas blowby, I just can't pin down where exactly. I'm gonna read that link, might be making an o-ring myself.

[withergyld]

Also you may have a worn gas piston. If you have access to another sks, you may try trading the gas piston to trouble shoot it. Over on one of the sks boards this seemed to help. Some tried rubber o-rings and they woked for a bit till they burned up. The copper is better, but if left in over time may cause corrosion due to contact of dissimilar metals. Copper to Iron in direct contact is bad for the Iron.

If you are new to the SKS Simonov.net (http://www.simonov.net) has some good info on cleaning, slamfires (most SKS rifles do NOT have a firing pin return spring) and differences between models.

EDITED to add link

[ March 31, 2002: Message edited by: withergyld ]

[Mad Dog 7.62]

The first thing I checked was for sticking on the gas piston(s)? both the gas piston and the tappet were clean and free. The only thing that's cruddy is the bore. As near as I can tell, the gas port is clear.

[withergyld]

Have you tried to insert anything into the gas port, and then look thru the barrel to see it it went in??

[eodinert]

The problem we had was that we did not know how to use the grenade sight... The back part (flip up) is easy, but what's the front reference point?

Since each style of rifle grenade was a different size/shape/weight, they would fly farther/shorter, and were a different length on the rifle. This led to some confusion as to what to use for a 'front sight' when launching the grenades.

Aside from that, it seemed that if you practiced with the same grenade you could get very accurate. Some of the AT variants had some serious 'bang' in them, as well. On one variation, when fired into the forest, we would get air-bursts in the tops of the trees when they hit the smallest of twigs..raining some hate and discontent of the fragmented variety down on the forest floor below.

I came away from the whole experience thinking what an amazingly effective weapon the rifle grenade is.

Hasta..
Doug