How To Install Original Sks Magazine

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When looking at an SKS with an extended mag installed is there anything you should look for to determine if its installed properly or if the gun will be reliable?
Or is it better to buy one with the original 10 round magazine?
Stick with the original 10 rounder and learn to use/love stripper clips. There was a Norinco version that came from the factory using AK mags, but I can't recall what model it was. Unless you have one of those stick with 10 rounders.
Unless it's a true paratrooper setup for AK mags stick with the 10 round.
SKS's actually load pretty darn fast in this configuration with stripper clips.
I converted an SKS to high capacity magazines once but it was not worth it. Better left stock IMHO.
If it were me? I would be looking for one with the original 10rnd mag. If you want to add a extended one later you can, but keep your OG one as they are getting tough to find and expensive.
WB
While my Norinco works fine with a 20 round removable Tapco, I'd still want one with the original 10 round mag, preferably a numbers matching one. I still have the original.
Laws change, and one possibility is a ban on semi-auto rifles with removable mags. The SKS has no evil "assault rifle" features, and would pass with an original mag.

While in NY I had an email from the Dept. of Environmental Conservation, the game wardens, telling me it was OK to hunt with an SKS with original mag as long as there was a wooden block in there preventing loading of more than 5 rounds. So there's that, too.

To answer your original question, not sure if you mean a removable Tapco, or one of the 20 round fixed Chinese star mags. If the removable mag locks solidly in position, as mine does, it should be OK, but all guns are different and only a range session will tell for sure. The 20 round fixed mags, don't know how they work, but again, only a range session will tell.

I have one of the star mags, but have never tried it.

Good luck in your search!
- Contributing Member
Coyote3855 Contributing Member
I have been bitten by the SKS bug, have a Russian, Yugoslavian, and a Norinco. All work extremely well in the original 10-round configuration. I have no experience with the detachable magazines, but have read that they cause problems. If I want a 30 round mag dump, I take one of my AK47s.
i have a SKS that uses the Tapco 20/30 rounds mags for it, the only thing is that it needs to be loaded, reloaded with the bolt back. just like with stripper clips
ETA: not my video but this is how they work
I recently won a bid on a Norinco SKS Model 59, in fact it has a dog from every town as far as serial numbers go, but it appeared very clean. It has the integral 10 round magazine. I've got about 6 stripper clips, so I do believe I'll leave it as it is. A good buddy of mine has a Romanian SKS with the extended mags, and just recently had some problems with it jamming up on him. I tried his mags in my AK-47 with no problems. My buddy tried my mags designed for the AK-47 with no problems, so go figure. I'm a bit anxious to get my hands on that SKS.
Like a lot of the Commie guns SKSs are fitted together at the factory, which is why they stamp everything with the serial number.
The only real way to prove that a non-orginal mag is going to work is to test fire it. The feed geometry can be so subtly off that you can't really see that it won't work until you shoot it.

If it won't feed while manually cycling shells that's a good indicator that the rifle won't feed.

BSW
Incidentally the mags that my buddy's SKS had were identical to the AK-47 mags that mine took, it didn't have that doohickey on the front.