Les Jones

Guns > Gun Links #32 - SKS Edition

It's another link-eriffic week, with some new faces and a section for SKS fans.

• GlockTalk - Which corrosion fighter is best? See the test results.
• Jeff Soyer - Weekly check on the bias.
• Gunblast - Review of the Baby Desert Eagle.
• Jeff Cooper - January Commentaries are up.
• Ruger (.pdf catalog) - Lots of new guns for 2005, including an slightly improved Mini-14 with new sights and recoil pad.
• National Review - "High Caliber Advocacy: How the NRA won the fight over gun rights." A little premature, maybe, but I think gun control advocates are fighting a losing battle. UPDATE: Countertop points to evidence that gun control's cause will be severely hurt if Howard Dean becomes chair on the Democratic National Convention.
• Long Mountain - Guns used in the movies, with serial numbers, even. Via James Rummel. The Blade 2 guns are extremely cool. The Beretta with the sword and the cord-wrapped grips is especially imaginative, and fits in with the aesthetic of the Blade movies. They also have pictures of a Winchester 10 gauge lever action from Judge Roy Bean. I never knew leverguns were made in a gauge that big. Today you only see .410 bore.

Site of the Week: Varmint Al's page

Al's site is dedicated to varmint hunting, and there is a lot of information about that, from reloading information to shooting and calling tips. His bi-fur-pod (a versatile set of shooting sticks) is mighty interesting.

There's lots more besides the gun stuff, though. The best page on the site is his tribute to his dad. Al recounts all of the things they built in his dad's various farming and metal-working endeavors, and has pictures of the machinery and their creations. Those guys would have cleaned up on Junkyard Wars.

New to the Blogroll

Here are those new faces. All of these folks blog about guns, either occasionally or pretty much full time.

• Freedom Sight
• Head's Bunker
• mASS BACKWARDS
• Texican Tattler
• Wadcutter

Want more? Cowboy Blob is putting together a list of pro-2A blogs.

SKS Links and Gun Pic of the Week

• Simonov.net - Reviews, history, and more. This site has a ton of info, and after a long hiatus it's being updated once again.
• SKS Boards - Best SKS discussion board on the Web.
• SKSBoards SKS FAQ - Must-read for SKS tinkerers. Explains the various Federal laws regarding modification of stocks, muzzle, magazines, etc.
• Surplusrifle.com - Excellent resource for SKS and other rifles. Among other things, they have video guides showing cleaning and assembly/reassembly. The message board isn't quite as good as SKSBoards for SKS info, but it's pretty darned good, and covers many other rifles.
• The OG - Information about slamfires in SKSes. When the bolt goes forward, the inertia sometimes keeps the firing pin going and the primer gets dented, and occasionally this leads to a slam-fire, which may manifest itself as a double-fire or full-auto fire. Rare, and supposedly preventable by disassembling the bolt and cleaning out all of the cosmoline before shooting the gun for the first time, but important to know. If your SKS is denting primers, Murray Guns sells a spring-loaded firing pin. It's also worth noting that mil-spec ammo uses harder primers than sporting ammo, and is less likely to slamfire.

If you want an intro to the SKS, Head's article, What's this 'SKS' I keep hearing about? is just what you're looking for. Head also has the best original photographs of any gun blogger out there.