Where did it all start?

[Draq]

Ok, let's hear it people. What was your first SKS, and why did you want it?

[Loose}{Cannon]

59/66 circa 2001.... Because it was $89.

[Draq]

Mine is a 1966 factory /26\. Now I'm trying to put it back in wood with a stock magazine. I wanted an sks because, as a history and military surplus buff, I always felt the SKS got overshadowed by the ak. They're both good rifles but made with different purposes in mind. I've always felt the SKS was an excellent general purpose rifle, hunting, defense, fun. Plus a fascinating history, spanning numerous nations.

[Draq]

59/66 circa 2001.... Because it was $89.

$89 for a yugo? Nice

[padams8888]

SKS-M...because I couldn't afford a Chinese AK.......$399 I believe....

[newchi]

Because i was tire kicking in the sporting goods store and some guy at the counter was buying one and i was all 'what the heck is that thing?'  The wood was beautiful.
Went back the next day and got one.

[Draq]

Because i was tire kicking in the sporting goods store and some guy at the counter was buying one and i was all 'what the heck is that thing?'  The wood was beautiful.
Went back the next day and got one.

Some of them do have beautiful stocks, simple and utilitarian, but somehow elegant

[Draq]

Mine was $599... But when I saw /26\ I knew it was the one I wanted... The other one was a paratrooper and it was kind rough.

[Power Surge]

I started shooting doing benchrest .22 target shooting. I was at the range one day, and there was a guy shooting what sounded like a cannon next to me (it was a Mosin Nagant). I asked him what it was, and he asked if I wanted to shoot it. After that experience, I knew I wanted something centerfire. I started looking for inexpensive centerfire rifles and a buddy suggest I look for an SKS. I found one at a local pawn/gun shop, and made a deal for it.

Since then, I've had almost 20 SKSs, lol.

[spongemonkey]

About 4 or 5 yrs ago.  I bought the first /26\ with an extra stock and a few goodies with it for about $300.  1 eventually turned into about 21 of different "ghosts" 5 digits, 6 digits, letters, Russians, Romainians, Yugos, and a couple other factory stampings.     "Weeded out" the ones I was willing to part with and now down to 6. 1-Russian, 1-Chinese letter, 2-"ghosts", 1-6 digit, and 1-2 mil series.

[Phosphorus32]

December 2013, a Type 56 from the Classic Firearms luck of the draw for $250. Turned out to be a mixmaster ghost with a Russian receiver cover that passed through the hands of "I. Ferko" at some point during its long residency in Hoxha's Albania. Won't likely ever relinquish it. It was my fourth milsurp, second acquired with my new FFL-03, and first semi-auto milsurp. I just wanted a piece of Cold War history and it hooked me on SKSs 

[martin08]

Yugo 59/66 in 2008.  I was recovering from a collar bone injury and needed a milsurp with gentler recoil than my 30-06 or similar rifles.   All downhill from there...

[echo1]

2001 - It was a single shot Egyptian/Arab/Israeli contract/capture laminate for $70 bucks. Perfect & matching other than a stuck gas piston, which was a free fix. The learning curve/gateway SKS it was. One day it started to self replicate, and almost immediately there were 5, AND those morphed into all manner of SKS, from many countries, including Bubbaslovia, each time doubling the previous number. Often, there were hatchlings of extra parts and furniture that would appear too. PAX

[Justin Hell]

My first was a /206\ in a Combat Exchange folder purchased with wedding money around September of 1997.  I think it was around $120, and came with a wood stock for a completely different gun, a pinned barrel....then came the /26\ 10m, then the /906\......within an hour of the second tower falling, I bought 1000 rounds of Wolf and cleaned out the last of the USA 30 rounders I would ever see new in package and that was that for a very long time.

Fast forward about thirteen years, and I got the bug again....then came the 9m /26\ spiker along with a T53....I guess that was about when it went all downhill for me.
None of my other guns hold a candle to my least favorite SKS...whichever one that might be....I can't even decide that....the reasons that make them be a least favorite is part of the charm.

I can say that I have never sold an SKS....I think the separation anxiety would have me trying to buy it back to my detriment.  I am kind of proud to say I have not purchased/acquired any in 2017...barely. The 11th arrived on 12/31/16.... 

That is unless someone takes RM's Mosin off my hands....I have kept one squirreled away for him....I recently took the bayonet off, so my house doesn't require two zip codes anymore.  There is this M59 I have been chomping at the bit for for a little over a year now....and heck, it is my 20th anniversary this year...for having a wife too, coincidentally. 

[Greasemonkey]

September 10 1999, according to the faded receipt.. I bought a Yugoslavian M59/66 for 109.98 and a 120 round battle pack of Brown Bear for 11.99.

Still have that clunker, that gun shop has been out of business for ages now, and I have been broke ever since. Well technically, I got even more broker in 2005 after a certain fricken piece of paper that says Collector of Curio and Relics came.

And sadly.... I'm a collector who can honestly ask... Wanna see my Johnson    

[martin08]

I have been broke ever since.

Warning:  Do not read while sipping coffee.   

[GuitarmanNick]

I was asked to remove the cosmoline, make a few repairs, do a trigger job, and refinish a Chinese SKS for a friend. As I became intimately familiar with it's simplicity and toughness, I decided I had to buy one.

I mentioned to my dad that I was going to buy one, and he told me I could have the one he had and never shot. It turned out to have the Chinese National Security Forces markings and was like brand new except that he had it in an ATI folding stock with a crappy bipod and a 30 round duckbill mag. Luckily, he had the original stock and mag. I refinished the stock and found the correct bayonet, cleaning rod and cleaning kit. I also added a 1" extension butt pad to get a better feel when shooting.

I am pleased to say that I will soon have the proper rivet type bayonet pin to complete my restoration. I now have a very nice looking SKS with all matching numbers and only about $60 in materials and parts invested. I admit that I have spent a little on additional ammunition and good stripper clips. Dad also had a very strange looking canvas rifle case and a Chinese chest rig filled with steel core ammo on stripper clips that he included.

I think I will always have my eye out for another one! Like potato chips, you can't have just one!