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Jamie Mangrum |
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Adobe PDF
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I have written two prior
articles about scoping the SKS carbine. The
first article covered installing a
receiver cover scope mount and
documented my eventual disgust and unhappiness
in its overall performance. The
second article covered my opinion of all of the
available scope mounts at the time that I wrote the
article. I finally
settled on the conclusion that if you were dead
set on scoping the SKS carbine, you should opt for
a drill and tap scope mount. I made this
statement because in my opinion, all of the other designs I had encountered were
poor in their functionality and basic design. |
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The Scoutscopes.com scope
mounts come in either silver as shown or black. |
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There is always the
question to ask: Is it really worth while to
scope an SKS?
The answer is: If you install a scope
and are
looking for sniper like accuracy and performance
from the venerable little carbine, then I am
sorry to tell you that this will be a prize that
eludes you till your end of days. But if you
are looking to improve upon the original open sights on the carbine then
there is potential in using optics. Now
keep in mind that your SKS must be capable of
some feat of reasonable accuracy prior to
mounting a scope if you are looking to make
things better. |
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There are a lot of other
factors that can effect and determine accuracy
besides just your sights.
Personally, I don't want a sniper SKS,
because this is really an oxymoron anyways. I
just want an SKS that I can shoot more
accurately.
Then, when I am all finished shooting
and need to disassemble my SKS for cleaning I
don't want to have some contraption that is in
my way and makes it impossible to accomplish.
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Up until recently I felt that the design of the
SKS would not allow for a simple (no-gunsmith)
scope mount that was rugged, simple to install,
and just plain worked.
In walks
Scoutscopes.com.
Scoutscopes.com makes scout style scope
mounts for the SKS and the AK style rifles. The
mount replaces the rear sight and allows for the
installation of either a Long Eye Relief scope
or a red dot scope. |
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The two parts of the scope
mount separated. |
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The Scoutscopes.com mount
with a long eye relief scope installed. |
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For the sake of my project I chose
to go with an inexpensive BSA red dot scope
($39 in 2005...probably higher when you read
this). I
like this scope because it does not magnify the
sight picture. It
just supplies a clean, crisp sight picture with
a red dot superimposed directly over the target. Like any
scope you can adjust for both windage and
elevation by the turning of two knobs. This
model (most are the same) takes a standard CR 2032 watch battery
that is one of the most common watch batteries
available. I always take an extra battery with me to
the range because the one draw back to this type
of a scope is that if you leave it |
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The BSA red dot scope and
Scoutscopes.com mount installed on my Chinese
SKS. |
turned on
when you put it away there will be no
power |
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the next time you want to play (the
rhyme is a little saying I say to my self over
and over again when I use my red dot scope).
I hate to be bested by a small electronic
device. But I have to admit I screw up about
half the time and leave it on.
Another great thing about the
Scoutscopes.com mount is if you remove the scope
and rail from the lower half of the mount you
are left with a fairly accurate fixed rear sight
(as shown to the left). Now that was some
impressive common sense thinking on the
designer's part. I wonder if he was like me and
kept going through batteries as well. I really
like it when I see something that someone
actually designed for human beings! |
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Rear sight view when you
remove the scope and rail portion of the mount.
Note traditional fixed SKS sight picture. |
Another feature of being able
to remove the sight rail is that
Scoutscopes.com sells additional rails at a
reasonable price. |
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This way if you really wanted to you could have
multiple types of optics readily mounted on
separate rails that you could quickly
interchange. The tolerances (gap) between
the posts on the bottom of the rails and the
holes they fit into are very tight. They kind of
snap in place and then each of the two posts are
held in place by two allen screws. I do
recommend placing a small amount of
non-permanent screw lock solution (loc-tite)
as I found the screws can come loose after
firing off several hundred rounds. Keep in mind
that this is pretty much the case with most
scope mounts. Gun goes bang, gun vibrates, and
the screws come loose. Loc-tite or a suitable
substitute is the mil-surp tinker's
best friend. |
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The Project Begins |
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Project
Components and Where to Buy the Parts |
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Scout Scopes, Inc.
1420 Cypress Creek Rd.
Ste. 200-201
Cedar Park, Texas 78613Email Form:
http://www.scoutscopes.com/contact.html
Web Page:
Scoutscopes.com
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SKS Sight
Base And Scope Rail - Price: Check Scoutscopes.com
for current pricing |
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Manufacturer Supplied
Marketing Information |
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The Scoutscopes.com SKS Sight Base and Scope Rail Combo
offers everything you need to transform
your SKS into a serious hunting rifle.
The rugged and light weight Sight Base
provides a solid platform for scout
style scopes or red dot sights. Computer
milled from a solid block of aluminum
this mount will provide years of
service. The scope and weaver style rail
can be removed for cleaning, allowing
access to the gas tube and block. When
remounted the scope will retain zero. In
the event your scope is damaged the SKS
Sight base can be used as a traditional
rear sight. |
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SAFETY! Make sure the rifle is
unloaded and pointed in a safe direction before
continuing with the project.
If your SKS has a pin in the rear sight punch
it out and remove it.
Out of all the SKS that I own
the only one that has a pin is the Chinese.
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Since later you are going to
want to bore sight the scope it is a good idea
to remove the reciever cover, recoil spring,
bolt, bolt carrier, magazine and trigger. For
detailed disassembly and reassembly instructions
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click here. |
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You should really have the
firearm secured in a gun vise so your hands are
free to work.
Take a flat blade screw driver and
press down all the way on the front of the rear
sight blade. |
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While the rear sight is
fully depressed, simultaneously pull the rear sight to
the rear and then remove it. |
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Unscrew the four upper hex screws, on
the mount, that hold in the posts of the rail.
There are two upper screws on each side. |
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Pull the rail straight out. As I stated earlier,
the post and post holes are a pretty tight fit.
You probably cannot, but you should not try to
pull the rail posts out at an angle. |
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Figure 7 shows the
comparison between the original rear sight on
the left and the rear sight the is cut into the
base of the Scoutscopes.com scope mount.
Pretty smart! |
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Next remove the retaining pin
set screw. |
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Slide out the retaining pin.
Note that the flat groove cut into the retaining
pin. When you reinstall the pin you need to make
certain this flat part points upwards towards
the bottom of the set screw or the set screw
will not properly hold the retaining pin in
place. |
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Place the mount into the rear
sight base as shown in figure 10. |
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I found using a quick clamp to
hold the scope mount in place frees up both of
your hands so you can insert the retaining pin
easily. |
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Insert the retaining pin with
the flat side point directly upwards. |
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Insert the set screw and lock
the pin in place. It is a good idea to place a
small drop of non-permanent screw lock (loc-tite)
on the set screw prior to installing it. |
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Insert the posts of the scope rail
straight down into the holes. Make certain the
longer end of the scope rail points forward. |
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Tighten the upper screws to
hold the scope rail posts in place. Stated in the
instructions it says to always tighten the
screws on the right hand side first, followed by
the screws on the left side. I believe this
helps the scope, when reinstalled, return to
zero. |
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Tighten the upper screws on the
left hand side. |
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Install the scope. |
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Next peer down the bore and
sight in (place your focal point so it is
directly aligned in the center of the bore) on a specific spot on a far wall.
Then while being careful to not move the firearm,
adjust the elevation of the scope so it is over
the same exact spot on the wall. Then check
again through the bore and scope to make certain
they are still aligned. |
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Finally the instructions say to
tighten the lower screws to lock in the scope.
Perform the bore sight in again making certain
to align this time both the elevation and the
windage so it is directly over the same exact
spot that you have centered in the bore. This
will give you a somewhat close sight adjustment
and will either get you on the paper or close. |
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Next I reassembled the carbine.
For detailed disassembly and reassembly
instructions -
click here. |
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Figure 21 shows the
finished project! Note: I actually did
this project twice. I first did the
installation portion of the project on a Yugo
59/66 SKS and it installed perfectly per the
instructions that I gave above. When I tried to
extract the photos from the photo shoot I found
all of the photos were useless due to a problem
with the camera. I then decided to shake things
up a bit and redo the project on the Chinese SKS
shown in the article. Both versions of the
project were easy and only took around 30
minutes (each) to finish from start to
finish. That is even with all of the cussing
when I discovered that the first set of photos
were toast. |
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At the Range |
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Another great thing about this
mount is that you can still use the stripper clips to load
the SKS.
I started out with
the target placed out at 25 yards. This makes it
really easy to get on the paper quickly.
Once you are sighted in you can move the target
out to 50 or 100 yards. |
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Figure 23 shows the view
of the target through the red dot scope. Heck of
a lot easier to see than using open sights don't
you think? |
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Once I got the elevation and
windage dialed in I was able to get pretty
respectable targets at 50 yards. as shown in
figure 24. This was accomplished using
Russian manufactured ammo. |
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Next I removed the scope and
rail and set them aside. I found the rear sight
was easy to use but the rear sight notch was a tad bit tighter that the
original and was a little difficult to see after
using the spacious red dot scope. |
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Once I finally was able to get
my eyes to refocus I was able to get pretty good
groups as shown in figure 26. I would
recommend to Scoutscopes.com that they should
possibly look into opening up the rear sight
notch just a hair as it was a little tight. But
it is something in a pinch you can quickly get
used to. Then I placed the rails and scope back
on and tightened everything down. My windage was
pretty much dead on, but my elevation was a tad
high. |
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Update: Since the original release of this
article the manufacturer has increased the size of the rear sight
notch. |
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I was quickly able to walk the
scope back onto target.
Then I felt like an
idiot. I found what I thought were full boxes of
ammo that I had left in my range case were
actually empty. This is where the shooting
stopped.
All in all, I am very pleased with the
results of the project and at under $100 for the
scope and mount I found the project to be a good
investment of both time and money.
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I think the mount is a very well designed product and
the best no-gunsmith mount I have seen so far made for
the SKS. I really like the idea of
having the open sight cut into the the mount
base. As I said before I am always accidentally
leaving my red dot scope on and finding I have a
dead battery. My hat goes off to
Scoutscopes.com.
jlm;) |
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Adobe PDF
Downloadable Version of Article |
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