What is the best kind of SKS? A russian or a chinese stamped gun.
Also what caliber is a SKS classified as?

Russian guns are generally considered better quality than Chinese but you can find lemons in both brands. The SKS fires the 7.62 x 39 cartridge.....just a little less powerful than the 30-30. In a bolt gun the 7.62 can be loaded to near 30-30 power.

Of all sks's, the russian is the top of the line,but sks are also made by chins,yuguslovia,romania, and more. Although the russian models are the best,remember, sks are usually not of OUTSTANDING quality.But,there are some decent ones out there.They are almost all chambered in 7.62x39,which you can get tons of military surplus for and very,very cheap.got me thinking about buying one now!you can also get lots of cool-looking aftermarket stocks and accesories for em. Hope this helped.

The Russian is considered to be the better quality rifle. They are .310 as opposed to .308 for the thirty cal guns .

Edited by - halcon on 02/18/2002 02:20:41

i own both russian and chinese. With my russian, i noticed that many after market stocks do not fit as well as they do on the chinese model.

I was told that if you look down the barrel of an UNLOADED sks, on the front of the front sight post, you will see a number between 1-5. Suppossedly if it's stamped with a 1, that was considered a better quality made russian sks. A 5 was the bottom of the barrel, hastily made. Now, you really scored if you have an sks stamped with a star. That i've heard is better than a "1" stamp.

Don't know how true that is, but its what i've been told by several independent ameatur collectors. When shopping for used sks's, i've noticed that most guns i've seen either have a 1, or a 2 stamped on the front sight post.

Good luck.

russian and romanian are the better ones. some aftermarket parts need some minor work to make fit. they are a blast to shoot, but don't expect to be laying down any impressive groups on paper.