By Jeff Johnston, FE Hunting & Shooting Editor
I don’t really love SKSs, never have. While I give them due credit for killing more commies than anything ever and for the reliability thanks to the rivet-and-sheet-metal build, it’s like shooting a shotgun with the groups they turn out. Basically, when the task calls for a rifle I expect to be able to hit a cantaloupe at 100 yards, or else I might as well just carry a pistol.
Despite having easy access to much higher-quality rifles, I own an SKS because it serves a purpose. One stays strapped to the front rack of my ATV because I don’t give a damn if it gets covered in mud, beaten to hell, lost, blown up, run-over by a tank, or taken hostage and tortured. It’s basically a poor North Korean infantryman sent to Russia to die. But here’s the deal, at least with mine: Loaded with the cheapest, 40-cents-per-round Wolf 7.62×39 ammo, it averages 3.25–inch groups at 50 yards. (Why 50 yards? Because any scope is too good for an SKS, and my old-ass eyes can barely see a target at 100 yards, much less shoot iron sights for groups at that distance.) But a glorious thing happens when I load it with Fiocchi’s new 7.62×39 FMJ stuff: It averages 1.25-inch groups. Sure, this 124-grain, 2375 fps load is still the same anemic, Geneva-approved, great-for-wounding caliber, but with decent ammo (we’re not talking ultra-premium here, just decent) at least I can sometimes hit what the hell I’m aiming at.
That’s right: For twice the measly price, I get nearly three times the accuracy without doing anything else.
Come to find out, there’s a huge subcult of American dudes who are infatuated with Eastern Bloc history and who are smitten with AKs and SKSs. I don’t really get it, but hey, to each his own. All I’m trying to say is that there’s an easy way to make them shoot more like an actual rifle and less like a javelin. Just don’t tell the neocons in our government, or else they’ll likely send all the Fiocchi stuff to Ukraine leaving us with the bill and whatever steel-case Wolf shit we have stashed.
Cost: $38 per box of 50
Pros: will turn your SKS into a rifle meant for shooting, not just bayonetting
Cons: will not magically turn your POS SKS into a real rifle like a .308 Win.
