Only budget. I have a collection of Chad gun trophies in a THICC case. It even feels wasteful to me to use a Valday that I've taken from some juicy beast.
SKS is my go-to gun early wipe, and always my fallback gun when rubles and high end ammo is low. Nowadays, I reckon ergo build gives me the most flex with SKS.
SKS is what I use when I want to be honey badger (real slim budget run but never worried about fighting anyone and never “picking my fights” i.e. run away). Don’t even need a vest and extra mags to feel confident with that 35 round mag.
Great video! One thing I'd like to add that you may have overlooked. The SKS can take other suppressors with an adapter that at times may be cheaper on the flea market. Can't remember them off the top of my head but I know there are at least two other suppressors that will mount onto the SKS. Love this gun and use it when I'm sick of losing my meta loadouts.
Thanks for this mate, I'm new to PC gaming (playing on controller) and very new to Tarkov. The way you laid this out was perfect especially for a Noob like me. Appreciate it
top tip...if you have time, change to a different gun/melee, open inventory, drag the 20/35 mag off the gun (if SKS is not in hands = no animation + unload is instant), load in the bullets and put the magazine back...it's quicker and you don't loose the round from chamber.
The SKS was my favorite weapon for a while. I spawned with one as a scav and took down one of my first chads with my last bullet, on Customs by Old Gas. It was super clutch. Then I died to a scav later. Great moment anyway.
"The most forgotten budget weapon in Tarkov" Meanwhile, Geekseh: "So I call this one the Moose Knuckler" lol, all jokes aside, great vid as always. Haven't used one of these in forever and the Tapco stock reminds me of the BF3 / BF4 SKS! Gonna have to run one again soon
I've never grown out of budget guns. I've been here for two wipes, and at the start I had no money, would budget run, then I'd climb to like 60 million in worth and I never stopped using them. I love you, AK-74N and base SKS
I also came from consoles and with Tarkov's high learning curve in general, forcing yourself to use semi auto will be nothing in the middle of all the things a new player is going to be learning at once.
SKS is more nostalgia for me at this point. I’d run the vpo-136 ten times out of 10 over the SKS these days. Love this series though Jesse I’ve ran the mp9 more than ever this wipe due to your spotlight on it several weeks ago.
Rather use a stock Vepr if I can afford to. Level 1 vendor 30 round mags are clutch imo (there's always one more scav). A Level 1 Traders Vepr build is solid if you have some cash. Vepr. UltiMAK. Bastion. Cobra scope and shade. Black furniture if you're ballin. 49 ergo/v&h recoil @ 120&278. This specific combo allows you to mount a found in raid infrared red dot on top of the UltiMAK and still have an unobstructed sight picture. Btw also tried this with an AK-100/RK-6, both at Level 1 Traders. Only 4 more ergo, v&h recoil the same and about 6.5k rubles more expensive (to me that's magazine and ammunition monies). However you can mount the blue laser dot to the AK-100 if that's your thing.
SKS gang! Always has a special place in my heart for the underdog chad kills this weapon platform has given me. Such memorable raids, such expensive loot! Even iron sighted with PS this gun claps! Just aim true with those 10 round hand loaded mags in OP-SKS chad destroyers. Not to mention that wood grain finish!
U can also budget out on the canted/4xPSO option, just put the ekp-8 on the socom rail, it limits the viewing angle just a little bit but it safes some roubles if needed :D
I ran op sks before I got my mechanic leveled now I run the vepr 209 w/ .336 ap. Which for its cost (500 rubles) is really good ammo can delete level 5 and below armor in around 3-5 shots.
I think VSS is the best chad killer atm. It costs around 50k and SP6 ammo is around 800 roubles each. In general, I have the feeling that fire rate is the meta.
important to note every time you reload with the sks and its not fully empty, you eject a bullet on the ground. if you're hurting that bad for money/ammo, better be picking up that 1k BP round.
I dont use an sks cus of the ridiculous reload times, i mean 4 seconds just to change the mag is incredibly slow. The only real upside to it is the price and the fact that it can use bp. Honestly now i think one of the best early wipe guns is the ump because of how cheap it is, how cheap the ap ammo is and how easy it is to level peacekeeper to ll3 for the ap ammo.
BSG needs to add the O.G. RPK and RPK-74 at some point, not saying I dislike Killa's choice of the RPK-16, just a slightly cheaper version and bigger bore version would be nice too
my PMC is basically just another Scav with the loadouts and weapons I use. Not because I cant afford to use meta/chad guns. I just enjoy the cheaper options.
I typically *love* high-powered, semi-automatic guns in FPS shooters, but for that, I need butter smooth, completely stutter-free gameplay and 100% reliable gameplay and server performance. One small hitch or a singular stutter can so easily throw your aim enough to cost you your life, and slower firing, semi-automatic guns are not even remotely as forgiving as full auto, high RPM guns. I'm playing EFT on a GTX 3080, with a 5800X coupled with 32GB dual-rank, dual-channel RAM at CL 16, 3600MHz - and even with that the frametime consistency isn't 'good enough' at 3440x1440 for me to feel comfortable enough to bring any semi-automatic weapons. The fact that different armor changes your sensitivity levels also makes 'muscle memory' far less of a thing, unless you adjust your sensitivity accordingly to match the armor, and that throws you off more with semi-automatic weapons than it does with something that allows you to spray an area, rather than relying on pin point accuracy.
The SKS is my best gun by a pretty good margin. My teammates always give me shit for running a super chunky kit with an SKS, but I always do a whole lot better with it.
I just ran an sks with ps ammo, last week and killed two chads ended up leaving with a meta m4 (m855a1), a meta ak-74m, 2 bastions, a troop, and a slick.
Best budget gun in the game that doesn't have any major issues if you like semi auto. The recoil pattern is cheaper to mod down without major cost. FAB stock kit is amazing.
i love this gun,for me is the best for woods! i modded very nice...somewhere between 85 vertical recoil and 150 horizontal..but in semi-auto fells very good! any weapon that have 100 v with 200 h aprox is good for tapping! and an scope like valday is the best for this map! and it costs something like 120k rubles!
I'd use it a lot more if the scopes didn't kill your FPS. I feel like previously the SKS's had far less vertical recoil not long ago but I could be wrong.
I try running mega guns I pick up but I tend to die more with em. When Idgaf about what I have, I use the sks and tend to walk out with 4 kills on average. Weird that I do better with cheap guns
The SKS has been and always will be my go to gun when I'm broke. Just throw some BPs in it and voila. It really is a cheap Chad destroyer. Last time I ran with it I went straight towards a geared lvl 32's face in dorms and destroyed him. That was a good investment lol
I do better with the SKS than with most full auto guns. Many rifles have a hard initial kick unless super modded, and spraying ruins my fps and more often than not I lose control and can't track anymore due to varying frame rate.
Thanks for the content Jesse. I occasionally use the SKS, and now I know better on how to mod it. Always been a weak point for me. Keep up the good work I enjoy your vids. The only thing I'd ask is that if you do a video about a particular weapon/ class of weapons/ ammo etc... could you include some video of you destroying (or not, lol) Chads using the subject of the video? I've found on a few videos like this, and let's face it, this stuff can be dry. All spreadsheets and intense info. By no means is this a criticism, I'd watch regardless and this is just my opinion.
The SKS is a very soft shooting gun in real life, for that reason I think the base stats could use a buff, hear me out. At the moment there’s not a ton of reason to use an OP-SKS over the 7.62x39 Vepr. I think if they were to buff the default recoil of the SKS and reduce the effects of modding the SKS, it will become more viable and useable when unmodded. I think the AK pattern guns should require more modding to surpass the SKS, and the SKS should be softer when unmodded.
I killed a heavy man last night, had korund , exfil helm decked out and mp7 decked out, i one shotted him through his faceshield, as a scav with SKS! Best feeling ever, escaped with all his loot too, i bet dude was PISSED! Haha
Why would I use this over an AK that shoots the same ammo? How different is the price really when it's all modded out and more useable? I think the only benefits are the quite sound when suppressed and being able to topload in a pinch.
Yeah.. we just gonna completely ignore hands here, which are in front of thorax and acting as a perfect armor. But yes, on paper it's 2-3. However, In reality it's usually - very much not 2-3. And at this exact moment TTK of this weapon become a reason to your death from auto spray and pray in front of you. Reality check.
@@MrZlocktar hands can block any ammo dude, I'm talking clean shots to the thorax through level 5. Jesse said about 5 shots (he was referring to clean shots as well I'm sure), so I was just stating that it is a good bit less than that. When people say how many shots to the thorax through a certain type of armor, noone takes hands into consideration.. of course it happens in game but thats ridiculous to even say when evaluating ammo/armor
@@realscoobs Any other auto weapon don't give a shit about hands, because their TTK is high enough to pass it. SKS will face huge life and death TTK issue if enemy is in front of you. Your fantasy world when you are able to shoot clean shots to the thorax - in real world will be called as shooting in the back. But if enemy in front of you, you are in a real world, where bullets will hit his hands, and there is no such thing as clean shots to the thorax anymore. And your opponent have actual gun firing 650-700 rounds per one spray - if you are lucky, 800-850 if you are not.. and then 1100 if you are puling a death card. Your chances here are about zero in every scenario starting from 700. TTK of SKS is working in a fantasy world, not in real one. I am not even talking about recoil from fast firing. If you want good SKS, that can actually kill, and is very cheap, that thing is - RFB. If you want SKS that suck slightly less, that thing is - AKM.
@@MrZlocktar you just went off on an irrelevant tangent that has nothing to do with what I said.. I didn't mention an SKS or any gun for that matter. I specifically said BP takes 2 to 3 shots to the thorax through level 5 and that is ALL I said. That stands as true. I didn't say shit about fucking hands, full auto/ semi auto or anything else. You're the only weirdo who brings up hands when considering how many shots it takes to pen an armor. There's no way to determine whether it will hit a fucking hand and NOONE takes that into consideration for a reason. It's fucking ridiculous dude. Go smoke another bowl and comment to someone else. Maybe you'll make sense there
@@realscoobs A fantasy world as i said. You consider that you 2-3 shot, but oh boy reality check - it's not. What you gonna do, run? It's not ridiculous, it's a fucking statistic. Hands are not random or anything, they are always in front of thorax. When person aim at you, his hands hitbox completely block decent part of damage to the thorax. Always. You HAVE TO consider this before engaging. That's how hands hitbox is working. Ever wonder why all "test videos" are done with standing PMC looking far above his head? Because that's how hands work in this game. That's why armor which will protect hands is the worst in game. You know what is the best armor against m995 and igolnik? HANDS AND NO ARMOR. If you know that your enemy using M995 or igolnik, you better drop your armor straight away completely, which will give a huge advantage in this scenario. Very usefull if some chad kill your team mate and you already know from him, that he using 995 or igolnik. My point is, you consider the best scenario. While i consider the real scenario. That's where you miss. No one takes it into consideration, and that's why they suck in such scenario. And that's why SKS is a shit tier weapon to say the least.. TTK is the KEY.