New Member In Missouri formerly from Montana

[Root83]

Hi All,

Yeah... in the past I would have been labeled as a FNG .. lol.
Lets see,,, where to start. I was born in the midwest on a farm, enlisted in the Marine Corps the spring of my senior year in high school, much to the chagrin of my family who had all but my dad and one uncle, had been Navy. Daily TV when I was growing up was all in black and white til about 74.. when my one Air Force uncle was shot down over North Viet Nam and his wife and two kids moved in with us... we were all glued to the TV set to watch for possible prisoner pictures of him and sent red cross packages to him when it was learned that he had punched out and was in the infamous Hanoi Hilton.. and we all went to the airport to greet him when he came home in 73... he was in horrible shape.
I had two Navy uncles who were in WW2 for the duration. One was on the Arizona from 37 to October of 1941, went home, got married and got recalled the day after Dec 7. He spent the next 4 years on the Indianapolis and got off with the rest of the old crew who's enlistments were over at Guam after she delivered the "bomb" to Tinian Island. She set sail that night for the Philippean Sea and was sunk by a jap sub that had til that point never torpedoed a US warship. Uncle Jake served on the USS Hornet and was one of the last survivors off as she burned from one end to the other after Kamakaze attacks.
I as mentioned served in the Marine Corps.. from 1979 to 1987, after a short stint as FDC in 200mm heavy artillery, because mostly near perfect rifle scores at the range, it was requested that I transfer to Fleet Marine Force Security Detachment... where I spent the end of my first and all my second tour in rotational duty, behind an M40A1 rifle on the decks of CV67 ( USS John F Kennedy )...primary duty being overwatch in and near ports. As my user ID suggests, I was with 2nd MARDIV, 22nd MAU mission in Lebanon in 1983... several of my close friends came home in boxes after 23 October 1983.
I only have one SKS...have probably had loaded ones pointed at me in the Middle East when I was with the Arty company.. I dont love AR's or AK's and I inherited my SKS and it's not even a wartime relic.. it's a M model imported by Norinco... my favorite rifle is the M14 and variants of it.. I went to Camp Perry in 84 and 86 with an M14 courtesy of the USMC Match Teams.. there are better shooters, I didnt get the trophy but my scores let me go try.
After getting out of the service, as there wasn't much call in civilian life for my MOS, I returned to my first love... working on farm equipment and got a job with a Case IH dealership, stayed for 12 years, went to John Deere for near 7 more and ended up on a 1.5 million acre ranch on the Wyoming / Montana line as their repair and overhaul shop supervisor for ten years before saying to heck with winters there and moving back to Missouri where I own/operate an ag equipment repair and welding shop.
Now that I've wrote a book... on to my initial purpose for joining this site... to learn a little more about the SKS and possibly find an original wood Monte Carlo Stock to bring mine back to "as shipped" condition... currently it has an ( I think Ugly ) Dragunov synthetic on it... I would have never done that to a "rare" M  model..

[Justin Hell]

Heck of an intro!  Welcome from someone still in Montana!

Best of luck finding that Monte stock....they do pop up on eBay once in awhile....but they will cost you....usually. Once in awhile a seller won't know what they have....you just have to put some elbow grease into the keyboard and be ready to pounce.

As far as learning more about the SKS you came to the right place....although it might cost you some pics of your M to get folks salivating here....we love gun porn. What kind of Drag stock do you have? The Choate ones are nice but the ATI/Combat Exchange ones make a cheap gun look cheaper....I did a hack job on mine and still don't like it very much.

[pcke2000]

Welcome!!

[Loose}{Cannon]

Welcome...  Thanks for the intro.  We dont chastise folks for not posting in this section first as its not a rule.  Have fun!   

[Phosphorus32]

Incredible introduction!    Sounds like your family has a long history of close calls in military service.

Thanks for your service  ...and welcome aboard!

[running-man]

Greetings from NM.  Hope you enjoy it here.

[Dannyboy53]

Dang it, Root never a dull moment in your life or the history of your family! Welcome to the SKS Files, you have come to the right place.

[Root83]

LOL.. Loose Cannon must have read some of my posts I placed on another SKS site... where I made the "gawd awful" mistake of getting right to the point and posting a question about my M model without posting in the Introduction section first... I got shot down in flames for doing so... then I reposted my question again.. re worded slightly.. put it in the Chinese section, where it was supposed to be... then got blasted again for supposedly some errant disregard of a rule I wasn't aware of. Then another person told my that I did not have a Norinco SKS. To which I replied.. it says exactly this on the receiver .. SKS - M 7.62x39 and under that it says exactly Made in China... By Norinco... LOL I know that Norinco is the importer but for stating that.. and posting a picture of the rifle's receiver to prove it... I got banned permanently.. apparently, I wasn't supposed to put a picture on or something... guess I could say I had a good time over there... albeit.. a short time LOL...  To the guy who welcomed me from Montana... I miss Montana a lot... Missouri Taxes Me on Everything I Own and I pay sales tax on everything here... unlike Montana... I just grew tired of Montana winters.. and my ex wife is still in Montana... I couldn't get enough distance away from her to suit me without leaving Montana LOL

[Root83]

Thanks for the WELCOME everyone.... It's already been a warmer one than "that other " site... I'll do my best not to screw up, or have an opinion or such LOL and to Justin Hell... I'm not sure what Drag stock is on the M... it fits good, is well made it seems and it's not beat up at all... like I said, I inherited it and it spent most of the last 20 years in my cousin's safe...what happened to the original wood, I'll never know.. he died this last spring. His kids didn't want something that was made in China.. and while I'm not a huge fan of AK's SKS's,  and the like... other than they spit out 7.62 lead and are tougher n heck. ( I'm not an AR/M4 fan either).. I knew immediately that it was kinda if not real rare as I had never seen a SKS that used a standard AK mag...so I got it with just mentioning, " sure I'll take it"... if it said Remington, Winchester or Colt on the side..I didn't have a prayer. I know he had a International Harvester built Garand, I would have loved to have... I'll not be getting that one LOL...
The Drag stock is up for grabs when I get wood back on the M... I'll post pics at some point.

Thanks Again For The WARM Welcome

[Loose}{Cannon]

Dont get me started on the 'other place'.   Ill have to ban myself!     

[Justin Hell]

I peek in on the other place occasionally just to see what silliness they are up to...I can't believe you got kicked off that quick though....it took most of us years to get them to hate us enough to boot us.  I think you will fit in just proper here!

I got booted for trying to make some semblance of peace between two boards, only to have my board supporter status revoked and my 'prestige' bullets demoted from five to one.  When I asked why my neighbor who donated the same five bucks I did several years before me, why his supporter status hadn't changed I was gone within minutes.  Now I just change my photo uploads to include JustinHell@SKS-Files.com in my old posts to piss them off.  They haven't gone to the point of even saying I have been banned like most of the naughty guys here...but I am trying.  They make it appear as if I just never logged on again after they booted me.  I think they just realized if everyone they kicked off the board was indicated on their posts it would look like there were only half a dozen moderators and a bunch of picked on newbies that likely will never come back after their initial ass chewing for whatever they did 'wrong'.

There is a hidden board there only supporters (whose money is still valid that is) can go to....they often talk about newbies behind their back and plot their expulsion.  If good ol' boys ever had eating disorders and menstrual issues......that place would be a cheerleader summer camp.

What sucks is there are a few good eggs over there that won't make the jump over here....or don't even know about it as the mere mention of this place gets you expelled....and your posts regarding it deleted or edited.

[Root83]

WONDERFUL... wish I had come here... FIRST !!!... yep it took me all of four or five posts to get booted off.. I still don't know what I did wrong other than initially post in the Chinese section before posting in the Intro section... I wonder if their upper rear eschelon politburo is Commie at Heart... I thought maybe I had a bullseye on me for my paragraph on my MIL service  where I stated that I had probably shot weapons that most guys on the board had only had wet dreams about and that it was probably while most of the guys on that board were still in diapers... lol... maybe that did it LOL...Maybe that's were they get the word "survivors" if you last a month... yer a survivor LOL... I died in a large, loud , quick and military fashion over there 

[Greasemonkey]

Dont get me started on the 'other place'.   Ill have to ban myself!     

I'll help you You've banned me what, like 27 times

Oh, yeah...welcome, even Jimmy says HI!!

[Loose}{Cannon]

I have not...  First it was your potty mouth triggering the servers anti spam software, since then you have had off/on issues with your ISP.   

I have sunk atleast 15 hrs of my life keeping you on!

[pcke2000]

There is a hidden board there only supporters (whose money is still valid that is) can go to....they often talk about newbies behind their back and plot their expulsion.

What sucks is there are a few good eggs over there that won't make the jump over here....or don't even know about it as the mere mention of this place gets you expelled....and your posts regarding it deleted or edited.

Interesting, I didn't know this. It seems like I've been lucky so far, my posts got edited before but I didn't get banned over there.

[Loose}{Cannon]

BATTLEFIELD COMMISSION recipient knows what he's talking about.   

[Greasemonkey]

I have not...  First it was your potty mouth triggering the servers anti spam software, since then you have had off/on issues with your ISP.   

I have sunk atleast 15 hrs of my life keeping you on!

It's ok, thank you big fella.   .

I wont say anything bout over there..Jimmy still suffers bouts of PTSD and a tourettes fit from time to time, all because if the place we don't speak of.  The horror....the horror.

[carls sks]

hi Root and welcome. good to have you here and nice intro.   

[Power Surge]

Welcome aboard!

You won't get banned here for questioning information. That's what this board is for! We don't always agree.....but disagreement often leads to new information, and that's what we like.

You've already experienced what happens on the other board. They are so delusional over there, and if you don't conform to their knowledge or question it, you're gone. I am quite sure that they currently think any new member who joins and questions them is one of us trying to start trouble. They are that paranoid.

You've already had damage done by their bad information there..... Norinco most certainly IS a manufacturer. It stands for China's NORth INdustries COrp, which is the state owned company made up of all the different factories and arsenals that manufacture MANY different items, most of them weapons. Norinco was formed in 1980, so any SKS produced after that year most certainly IS made by Norinco. The line blurs a bit with older military SKSs, because they are stamped Norinco since they were imported after 1980. If you want to split hairs, pre-1980 guns aren't made by Norinco since it didn't exist in name yet, however Norinco was just the unification of the existing factories under state ownership, so the other side of the hair splitting is that they were still made at the same places.

Hope this helps

[Loose}{Cannon]

Bingo...    Another BATTLEFIELD COMMISSION recipient knows what he's talking about.