Keep These SKS Accessories and Parts on Hand for Repair and Replacement

The SKS, or Samozaryadny Karabin sistemy Simonova, may be nearly 80 years old, but it just won’t die. In fact, it’s in pretty good health.

It’s a surprisingly popular civilian arm, due to fairly high availability, low cost, and availability of ammo. No doubt some people like to keep one simply because it’s a memento of “Red Russia,” as well.

All the same, historical curio or functioning rifle, from time to time all tools need some TLC. The SKS is no different.

Keep these SKS accessories and parts on care to render the proper services to your firearm.

1.Spare gas valve and spare piston
Every time you pull the trigger, you blast the gas valve with hot gas and fouling. That’s going to accumulate pretty quickly if you don’t keep your gun clean. Before you blame springs on weak cycling, check the gas valve and piston and make sure they’re operating as they should be.

2.Trigger group
The trigger group has multiple components and springs that can fatigue or fail. Rather than picking it apart for minutiae, keep a trigger assembly on hand and drop it in your rifle if some component of your current TA fails.

3.Barrel
Is accuracy failing? Before you blame your Russian ammunition, take out your bolt carrier and shine a bore light through the chamber. Is your rifling there or is it a shadow of what it used to be?

Old guns have old barrels. Rifling wears away, and accuracy suffers. Keep a spare barrel on hand for a quick replacement when the time comes.

4.Magazine followers
Imagine a tiny, innocuous part like a magazine follower hobbling the action of an autoloader. It happens, and when it does, the rifle won’t feed properly. If your mag follower is missing, cracked, or doesn’t seat properly, replace it right away.

5.Magazine spring
Another issue is the magazine spring. You might notice that feeding is unpredictable or that the bolt seems to jam on cartridges that aren’t aligning properly. The issue might lie with the magazine’s internal spring and not the follower: replace it.

6.Magazines
While we’re on the subject, why not just replace the whole magazine instead of taking the whole thing apart for a spring? Or better yet, repair the original and get a second, so you can spend more time shooting and less time loading. We also carry drum mags for SKS rifles among our SKS parts and accessories here at SARCO!

7.Stock

It’s not exciting to replace a stock, unless you’re replacing an old wood stock with a modern, tactical SKS stock. Either way, 50 years of dry rot will do the trick. If you need a new stock you need one, end of story.

8.Buttplate
A buttplate is not just cosmetic. It protects the end grain of the rifle’s butt from splitting when in contact with or striking against hard surfaces. It protects the stock and makes the rifle more durable.

9.Firing pin and retaining pin
If your firing pin has broken (which will eventually happen) your rifle won’t fire. However, the retaining pin is also a vital component of the bolt assembly that helps to “catch” the firing pin, preventing slam fires when the action shuts.

10.Complete bolt and bolt carrier
Of course, you could also just cut out the extra steps and just keep an entire bolt and bolt carrier on hand. If one of the parts of the action fails, just replace the whole thing. If the rifle’s that old and hasn’t been well maintained, you never know which parts going to go next. Just pull a bolt from our collection of SKS accessories and parts and keep it at the ready.

11.Spare extractor and springs
It’s also valuable to keep a spare extractor and extractor springs on hand because when these fail there’s no reason to replace the entire bolt assembly. Nonetheless, without a functioning extractor, your rifle will not function or eject properly.

12.Recoil spring and operating rod
Earlier in this post, we pointed to the gas valve and piston as culprits in cycling issues. You might get all the pressure you need from the gas system, but if your recoil spring has fatigued, the bolt may not travel forward with sufficient force to strip and chamber a new round.Keep a spare recoil spring and op rod on hand for quick repairs as needed.

13.Sight adjustment tools
Sight adjustment tools are also vital SKS accessories. For better or worse, special tools are needed to accurately adjust SKS sights; luckily, we carry these in our collection.

14.Stripper clips
Another highly valuable, if unexciting, SKS accessory is a stripper clip or a set of them. Loading mags at the range is a waste of time since you’re paying to use your time there to shoot. Spend less time loading by bringing along several charged stripper clips and take some of the heavy lifting off your plate.

15.Cleaning kit
The SKS is infamous for many things, and one of them is for how dirty the gas system, action, and barrel will get after a day at the range. Autoloaders like these sling fouling like there’s no tomorrow. Keep yours clean with the appropriate tools, carefully curated here in our collection of SKS accessories.

16.The randoms: trigger guards, sights, sling mounts, and more
There are a number of other sundry SKS accessories and parts that you might need at any given time. While they might not categorically affect the action of the rifle, they will affect the shooting experience. If you’re missing a trigger guard, magazine, sight, slight mount, or some other hardware, get it here!

Looking for advice for how to make a repair, upgrade, or replacement to your SKS with our collection of SKS accessories and parts? Get in touch with our customer service team at 610-250-3960 and we’ll be happy to point you in the right direction.

Just give us a call and we’ll help you find the parts you need to make those vital repairs, as well as how to make them.