Ever since the first AK mud test video, we've had requests for the SKS. Well, here it is. The InRangeTV SKS mud test. Please consider supporting us on Patreon: / inrangetv InRange T-shirts are now available! shop.bbtv.com/...
You know, I've watched a whole bunch of these mud test videos now and I kinda feel like the biggest takeaway is that you should probably keep your damn rifle out of the mud.
We would not mud test something with specific historical provenance, that makes no sense, and we're also not going to do revolvers for safety reasons. ~Karl
Same here. I have a Yugo M59, I love it, and, was hoping this would do better, but, I still don't understand why people get so salty about it. Now I know, I shouldn't drop mine in a bog!
After watching a bunch of these things, there's a really clear pattern emerging where weapons built to tight tolerances do better because there just aren't as many ways for mud to get into the vital parts. But most of the guns with reputations for ruggedness and reliability are built to loose tolerances that let mud get in very easily. As with a lot of engineering, it comes down to starting from the right set of requirements. When setting tolerances, you're making a trade-off between ease of manufacture and maintenance on the one hand and accuracy and mud-proofing on the other. Neither one is objectively better, and each approach has its place depending on what you're asking the rifle to do.
good comment. But I'm really here to congratulate you, dear sir. You just won the global nick-picking competition. And I'm sure Tobasco da Gama is sold overseas :P
Tobasco da Gama precisely. the sks will do better in loose dry sand and in water than a rifle with tight tolerances such as the ar-15. that's why is it hard to say which is objectively more reliable because it all depends on what your set of needs and philosophy of use for the rifle is being Canadian I prefer a rifle with tight tolerances because of the abundance of snow, mud and slush where I live. if I lived in the middle east I would prefer an ak
Mercanary artist might actually do well the most likely issue with a 1911 sig or berreta is the hammer hit mud not firing pin but a glock might work great
Certainly not better than an AK or AR for military use but damn I do love my SKSs. Cheap, reliable, well made, easy to field strip. At a price point of CAD $250 and non-restricted, can't complain.
By it being nonrestricted there do you mean you can use 30round magazines on them? Either way I think the sks is a great rifle for anti gun places like California too, they don't need a "bullet button" and can still be reloaded fast while 7.62x39 makes the most out of 10 rounds in a magazine.
That'd be great... if the vast majority of SKS rifles weren't Yugo rifles. Let me break down the level of stupidity here. The Yugo SKS rifles have provisions to attach something that would allow you to fire rifle grenades. That attachment is illegal in California. The grenades they would fire are illegal in California. I cannot for the life of me recall a drive-by rifle-grenading happening in the states. And yet, that provision makes Yugo SKS rifles illegal in California.
+Forge North Yeah Canadian gun laws are wierd. That loophole you heard about has to do with modern Australian .308 Lee Enfield magazines or something like that if I remember right. Any magazine that was made "specifically for" a manual action firearm (bolt, pump, lever, etc.) doesn't have any real maximum capacity, note the reason why our shotguns can still have 8 round tubes. Even if that same mag is compatible for another firearm that happens to be semi-auto, it's 100% legal to use. Same goes for "pistol" and rifle magazines. Pistols are capped at 10 rounds, so LAR (AR-15 pistol) mags are 10 round yet are allowed in AR-15 rifles. On a side note, different caliber compatible magazines fall under the same loophole, so .50 Beowulf AR-15 mags are pinned for 5 .50BW rounds, but can fit 14 5.56 and are legal in any 5.56 AR, and .40 Sig P226 mags fit 10 .40's, yet 13 ( i think) 9mm's are legal. There is very little in terms of logical gun laws here in Canada.
suggestion: on guns that are declared a fail during the mud test you could add a "water canteen" segment, pooring the whole canteen into the receiver/action/mag/whatever and try to clear the rifle to get it running. But only one full canteen full of water to keep it somewhat realistic
Another in a long line of test that brilliantly show the trade offs one should expect with op rod style auto-loaders. I have seed many of these videos. In this test with their mortar consistency mud, open designs and those with more exposed moving parts that are not pressurized by gas in the carrier area have trouble. All designs have trade offs. knowing where your weapons limits are is important. Thanks Ian and Karl.
Boys I'm not going to sort through the comments to see if someone has said this already... I've seen accounts of failure to fire like you had here, and when they manually cycled the action and dropped it on another round coming up from the magazine, that bullet acted like a firing pin for the round already in the chamber. I read that a guy died from a case going through his stomach like that. Keep being safe! Love the channel!
That was a fun one. I was kind of expecting this. The action is similar to the VZ-58 and that did not fair too well. A suggestion, you and Ian should do a 2 Gun match using the SKS. That would be awesome! Thanks for the video.
Caution: Mud test your beliefs and perspective before watching these mud test videos on firearms you may or may not have an existing attachment or preference to/for.
As a fan of the SKS I am not surprised by the outcome. I guess it held up better Than the M1 Garand but alot like the VZ 58. Thank you for doing these vids. I don't ever think I will. coat my guns in brick morter like this but at least I know how they will fail if I do.
As someone who loves both the AK and SKS, I'm actually not surprised that the SKS failed this mud test. Tilting bolt actions have always seemed a bit vulnerable to getting the locking recess crammed full of mud and other gunk. I am a bit surprised that it didn't happen here, getting mud under the extractor is something I never would have predicted, but I can understand how it happened. I'm almost curious if this would happen frequently under this kind of test or if it was a chance occurrence, either way it is clear that it can happen, I'm just curious how often it would under these circumstances. It also makes me wonder how an FN 49 would handle this test, as it is remarkably similar to an SKS, just in bigger calibers.
I have a theory here as to why this happened I once had a Norinco sks that would not go into battery from time to time I cleaned the chamber,the bolt and bolt carrier l, polished any and all contact surfaces, changed the extractor.One day I was cleaning the carbine again and noticed a little dried cosmoline in the bolt locking channel I mean like a drop in the corner of the locking surface cleaned it out never had it go out of battery or have any failers to eject again so I assume mud got down in that locking surface at the bottom of the bolt and locked the sks up.dont know how to fix this from happening just thought I'd share my experience with a red headed step rifle.
That poor paratrooper. I miss the days of new Norinco rifles--and cases of 7.62x39 for $60. I'll make sure to avoid dropping any of my rifles into mortar/mud. Awesome video though!
hey, it occurs to me that maybe the results would change depending on the type of dirt and mud used. Though as it stands though, the stuff you guys are using is darn good for testing given its brutal nature
You know Ian and Karl you've done auto loaders and bolt guns, but how about some pump and semi shotguns? Thriller of the summer 2017! Remington 870 vs. Mossberg 500 mud test? I feel like that would really rustle some feathers. Or as crazy as throwing a 2 grand semi auto 12 gage in the mud i.e. that werid gas system in the Benelli m4?
I got my first SKS after watching your mud test videos on other guns and one mf my first thoughts was "I'd better hope this gun never gets muddy". I love my Norinco, but dang is it an open action.
So what I'm getting from this, the M1, and the M14 is that overall, rifles which open up a lot have a higher chance of fucking up in the mud. Duly noted.
It is almost like any mud in any action will cause issues and we as soldiers should respect and keep our rifles protected best we can. As well as clean it regularly while in the field....who knew?
In the time it took to watch this video, Tapco's value on the NYSE took a nosedive :P And did you hear that high pitched whine during the video? That was the sound of SKS fanboys the world over screaming "NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Although I find these mud test entertaining to watch, I believe battle hardened soldiers will shrug off these tests with a hefty dose of sarcasm. Keeping your weapon going.....and I said going, not clean....is the paramount priority of any good soldier. This is a one in a million scenario in everyday battlefield use that is simply not realistic.
Just as a thought since shadows are a big potential issue for your shooting locations, you may want to consider still employing a light on your camera for those times when a shadow is inevitable. The added light probably will not overly brighten the general scene, especially if you get a narrow beam.
I know on at least one of these mud-test videos you did an after-action on what happened to the gun (Tavor X95) and what seemed to fail in it. I liked how the video explained what went wrong mechanically within the rifle. Would it be possible to do more videos like that or add a clip onto the end of videos explaining what went wrong/right?
You guys used the paratrooper model vs the standard model. I doubt it would have made a difference in this case. I think the longer distance between the gas port and muzzle of the standard model provides better function than for the paratrooper model.
i swear their mud kills everything. like on every other video on reliable guns they chuck em in mud and they work fine as soon as a gun touches their mud it dies ahaha they should weaponize that mud
Might not of had a hammer but Karl had a straight kind of sickle :-P I used to like your mud tests but after watching the StG57 mud test it's like watching train wrecks. Even on a SKS I cringe. Probably something to do with the people's republic of Australia not allowing its subjects to easily own such wonderful toys any more... I really need to move over to the US!
Knowing how the SKS has an exposed carrier, especially how its frontal area is a mangled mess, I'm surprised it did this good. I guess I'm starting to appreciate the merits of the DI action. Will you mud test a Ljungman or Ian's MAS collection? (Or had it been done?)
You're supposed to pry out the rounds with a sickle and keep the action well sealed with cosmoline to prevent the mud from getting in in the first place. Fail!
are people really surprised when most guns don't work? they are literally pouring mud ON TOP of the entire action. very few guns would actually survive that kinda testing, i really doubt guns get that messy in actual combat
I own 2 of them myself, and fire both pretty often. One of them I can take apart pretty easily, while the other I have trouble with taking some parts out (stiff or whatever)yet functions just fine. That one i take a decent pressure water hose to then dry it out with an air compressor and some cloth squares. Then pass a little oil on what moving parts I can access Takes about 5 minutes and have never really had a problem with it. Both are Tula and dated 1954.
I notice that the guns that do the best have small ejection ports located on the side of the gun with moderate sized ejection ports. The CETME L and the AR both have ejection ports that are closed and to the side with moving parts inside the gun. The FN Fal, the AKs, the SKS all have big ejection ports with lots of external moving parts that just let the mud get in them. The Tavor 21 has a sealed system but the ejection port is recessed and we see mud stuck to the outside that will not be blown away by the first round or dust cover. In that video we saw several round fail to eject and looked to have gotten caught up on the ejection port that was covered in mud.
I'll be honest I expected the rifle to fail after the first shot, I'm mildly impressed, it sure did a lot better then the M14, M1 and the VZ58 so there's that I guess, interesting stuff though. I also recognize the rounds nosing into the internal magazine base/the almost nonexistent feed ramp and getting jammed, happens to me all the time if I don't load a full 10 rounds in, no idea why.
As much as I would hate to see one get ruined, a SMLE mud test would be good to see if you can find an old sportorized one just to test the action. Not that I expect you to go out and buy one but at least here in Canada I have seen some sportorized ones that aren't exactly in the greatest shape for about 200 CDN
Welp. Just when my internet data runs out. Well - this went different than I anticipated. Didn't expect failiure to extract. This was kinda painful to watch. Still, thank you for doing these tests.
Not saying this to discredit test, rifle obviously cant handle the mud, but in some of your videos you guys rinse the guns with water and i wonder if that would have helped make it any better, since the big problems were mud in tiny open spaces
I'm kinda curious how a Steyr AUG would perform, since in my mind it would be able to more or less be isolated from the muck and also reasonably easy to deal with stoppages.
A decent semi-auto rifle when you could get them for $100-125 back in the day. I love the size/length of the Mini-14 and I expect I'll own anoher one down the road. But it threw brass 70' in a 45-degree arc and it wouldn't shoot 4" at 100 yards. I've have a lifetime attraction to Ruger. but if they can't get their $800 Mini-14 shooting like their $600 AR-556 why would I want a Mini--14?
I have a lovely SKS I purchased from a coworker in the mid 90's for $75. Wish I bought crates of them now... Nut it taught me something and I am buying up decent AR build kits for around the $400 mark. You never know what the future holds but a decent rifle will always hold it's value :)
Every time I watch these, I squirm when the mud comes out, and this voice in my head screams, "You can't _do that_ to art!" Unless it's something more modern, like an AR or an AK. For some reason, I don't get too worked up over those.
You guys should put some more mud on the bottom of these guns. Yes, the action isn't there, but it would get soaked if one would run around with their rifle, trip and splash in the mud. Just saying....
First gun I ever bought was a Chinese sks and on the 3rd round of the first magazine it fired out of battery because of cosmoline I missed in the firing pin channel and blew the rear sight up and rounds out the bottom. Never made that mistake again. Clean your milsurps!
I was waiting for this for a while and now I'm finding it 3 months after it was posted. Not surprised with the results at all. Honestly it did better than I imagined
