SKS and M44 Nagant

[Niner Alpha]

Although we saw the AK47 a lot there were still a number of semiautomatic SKS rifles around. They fired the same 7.62x39 round that the Ak fired. Here is a picture showing how the SKS looked next to a M44. The M44 fired the much more powerful 7.62x54r round. The SKS in the picture is Russian with the blade bayonet. If you found a Chinese one, all but the early models had cruciform bayonets like the M44 has. Either of these could have been taken home as war prizes. Neither of these were war prizes from the Vietnam war anyway.


Just to give you an idea of the different size rounds these two rifles shot. Here is a picture of the rounds for each rifle.

[Charlie Salisbury]

Man, did not know you had those pictures, have one on my wall, from the cat who tried to stick me!

[Niner Alpha]

I happen to have three SKS rifles in my collection. An Albanian with a slightly longer stock and hand grip and a cruciform bayonet, The Russian as shown before, and a Yugo with a night sight and granade launcher.

Vietnam supposedly had their own version made in small numbers. They are really rare and I've not ever seen a picture of one. I think most of the bring home ones were communist block, Russian, or Chinese.

The closest I ever came to having a bring home SKS was in Cambodia. I was with a squad that found a large number of them as a supply cache. But the rules were that all captures, even the otherwise allowed captures back in Vietnam, had to be turned in during the Cambodian incursion. There would have been at least one for each of us had it been allowed.

All my SKS rifles shoot fine with little recoil. They aren't target rifles though....if you are looking for minute of angle. But if you are looking for minute of pizza at 100 or 200 yards they are just fine and made great close combat arms. The only things that made the AK better was the difference between full auto and semi auto and the detachable magazines instead of stripper clips..


In the photo is a M1 Carbine at the top.