SKS question (sort of)

[Guest]

I finally got a chance today to take my new SKS to the range, and everything went great except for some loading issues. I went to the Livermore range, which was excellent. Very nice folks there. At first I had some problems with the gas valve not being opened all the way, but once I finally got that and the elevation set I managed to shoot about a 1.5" hole in the 25 yard target. It took me about 100 rounds to get it centered on the paper at 100 yards! I was sort of unprepared and only had 1.5" dots and used up all my shoot-n-see targets at 25 yards. Not to mention the front sight post seems to take up 20 percent of the target. Once I finally got everything working, I was getting about 5-6" groups at 100 yards. After I cleaned the gun, I got a nice surprise: firing it got rid of what had looked like rust in the grooves about 2/3 of the way to the muzzle. I couldn't even get this stuff out with over 100 patches. Now the bore is perfect.

Now I am confident that it works, doesn't jam, and shoots better than I can aim, but I couldn't load it with the stripper clips! I ended up loading almost all of the 185 rounds I fired manually, so my hand hurts pretty bad. When I put a clip in the guide and try and push the cartridges in, it would jam up after 2 or 3 go into the magazine. The tip of the bullet would overlap the front of the magazine and cause the other rounds to jam up behind it. I noticed that the stripper clip can move around a little bit when you put it in there also. I've never even seen someone load one of these, so I'm sure that I'm doing something wrong.


How the heck are supposed to load rounds in to the magazine with the stripper clip? It shouldn't be this hard!

[imported_dadoody]

I remember reading, that clips go down easy. Just push forward and press down.

I saw that either here, sksboards.com or at surplusrifles.com @ the board in the SKS section.

[Guest]

Yeah, it's supposed to be simple. That's what bothers me. I tried several different angles. The most I managed to get at one time was 9, but I don't remember what I was doing at that particular moment.

[jlmurphy]

It helps to pre lube the stripper clips, and once they have been used, they are smoother. When loading, I used my thumb only on the base of the cartridge next to the clip, any farther forward and the rim will bind in the clip. Try to push in one motion, stopping makes it harder.

[foogoo]

Push the rounds in at their base (the side where the primer sits against the stripper clip). And make it a firm continuous motion.

[icormba]

Stripper Clips:
If they say "made in china" on the back... they SUCK!! I have the same problem with those.

Rust: that's cosmoline "crust" that probably heated up and melted away a bit. That's how I got my yugo bore to look real nice after I had spent hours getting nowhere.