The Bosnian Full-Auto SKS with AK Mags
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ส.ค. 2024
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During the Balkan Wars, a great many oddball guns were built and used. One of them was a Bosnian conversion of the Yugoslav M59/66 SKS to have a select-fire trigger and to use modified detachable AK magazines. These are extremely rare today, as only a few of them (probably a dozen at most) came into the US with the bulk of Yugoslav SKS imports. The ones that did arrive came with regular trigger assemblies and regular 10-round fixed magazines (and are not legally considered machine guns by ATF).
Today we will take a look at two examples, and go over the discreet changes required to make the conversion (the magazine conversion, that is - I unfortunately don't have a full auto trigger assembly to show you).
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In the early days of the Bosnian war, many Bosnian soldiers were armed with hand-made riffles. Essentially, single shot 12ga shotguns.
My neighbors mechanic garage in Sarajevo was actually used for the production of those guns.
He once said, "I pity poor bastards who will use my guns."
My father started the war armed with a Zastava Mauser action carbine in 8mm and a Beretta M70 pistol. Grandpa was armed with a Russian hunting shotgun and a Radom VIS 9mm pistol.
Later, dad received an M72 (RPK)
And when Grandpa died, we found a shoe box full of hand grenades in his basement. He kept them "just in case." Those hand grenades were produced in Sarajevo brewery, so they were notoriously unreliable and hated by soldiers.
We handed that shoe box to our local police station as we to this day have "no questions asked" policy when it comes to handing over weapons.
@@user-ue4nq3kc3j Man, I would love a box full of hand grenades.
But not +20 year old notoriously unreliable ones.
Were they F1 or RDG5 copys or something else?
@@chrisfrank1860probably made of sheet steel in that shape no doubt
This happens in every war. The aggressor is always better equipped, the defender has to improve and is mostly left alone with no support. I'm Spanish, and we had our Civil War and 40 years of fascist genocide dictatorship. I could tell stories about War....horrible.
Man you got a full auto sks and a device to load ak mags with stripper clips on the field all in a single package
Last shot hold open doesn't work on SKSs with this type of modification done, so actually you don't 😛
@@sethmoyer You underestimate the resourcefulness of a grunt. A quick addition of a piece of string or otherwise should add the bolt hold open feature back to the rifle enough to use stripper clips for the mags.
@@sethmoyer ye no it can, unless it's kalashnikov type mags, every mag with a bolt hold open feature will lock it
@@AethenTheProotTheSecond That's the point, when using the AK mags there will not be the proper geometry for the hold open to engage.
@@Tunkkis yugo mags
I had to read the title and look at the thumbnail twice to make sure this wasn't an Elbonia video
The Bosnians had to stave off genocide by both Serbia & Crostia with whatever they could find or convert, as the West decided it wouldn't interfere.
@@marks_sparks1never knew that
@@marks_sparks1 It did after 3 years and war stopped not just oh stop fighting, but destroyed the aggressor.
@@marks_sparks1Croatia did not make any type of agression on bosnians until they turn on us mostly mujahedins on bosnian side let alone genodice
High rate of fire and magazine "compatibility" might make this a good contender for an Elbonian squad automatic weapon
Short explanation why: SKS version in Yugoslavia was produced about a decade before of local version of AK. Once AKs started trickling to federal controlled Army, SKSs were passed to Federal Republic controlled Teritorial Defense. Once war started in BiH local government had control of some SKSes but very few AKs.
Similar in China, the SKS were mostly used by local organized militias and AKM's are for regular troops. I think even to this day, SKS are still used in remote villages.
@@user-ih6cl5bm2c China never got the AKM, though they did make a stamped variant of the Type 56. Similar but distinct.
Even shorter explanation…Communism
@@alexb7641hows that communism
@@xgamerbih 🤔
The last owner of the gun was a man named Huska (Husein) Ć. He engraved the stock in 1995.
I've fired a full auto SKS, and only the first round goes toward the infantry. The stock assures that all the rest fire at their air support.
Truly one of the guns of all time
Can't argue with that 😮
@@Patriot66699 it means it's notable but still really mediocre, possibly notable for the mediocrity
Pretty sure I tried to collect most these parts at a gun show when I was 18. It didn't work well.
@@themeatpopsiclegood summary of the statement.
@@Patriot66699 It just means, it's one of the guns that ever existed. And on top of that it's also truly a piece of engineering.
The grease smudge adds street cred and is based. Keep up the great work, Ian.
i always knew he was gangsta
I have a Yugo SKS I bought when they went C&R 20 or so years ago. I paid 89.00 for it. It had never been issued. I even got the armorer's inspection book for it. Very cool weapon. Wish I had bought several now. Thanks Ian!
I added a Yugo cleaning kit to my Chinese SKS, much better quality and made from brass unlike the all steel Chinses kit that came with my rifle. Wish I had a Yugo SKS to go with it.
I remember the days of sub $100 SKS. They were the Bic lighters of guns. Use it until it stops working, then buy a new one.
And, they ONLY stopped working because too many Bozos neglected to THOROUGHLY clean them. The "El Cheapo ball ammo of the day was and remains, HIDEOUSLY corrosive. The primer salts got into every nook and cranny and in an area with more than single-digit relative humidity, you could hear the rust forming overnight. Strikers would rust solid in the bolt, extractor springs would rust and develop stress-risers, the entire gas-system would rust solid.
Very easy to strip, clean and reassemble, but lots of folk seemed to not bother. A bit of TLC and they are almost indestructible..
I’m glad you made this video. I seen some war footage in the Yugoslav war. A man was carrying a SKS with a AK mag. He was shooting it on full automatic and change out mags multiple times. An no it was not a Chinese SKS model D or M.
❤ from Bosnia
That's not grease, it's a beauty mark.
I can't help but notice a lot of modern warfare is being fought in semi-auto. And suppressive fire is being faded out with the advancements in drone ordinance and thermal imaging.
In what conflict is suppressive fire fading out?
It wasn't exactly easy to get your hands on an M70 in the early 90s during the war. People were arming themselves, out of desperation, with anything they could get their hands on - hunting rifles, shotguns, ww2 submachine guns etc. Hence this modification came to be.
Interesting. I remember back 30 years ago when everyone had an SKS laying around because they were $50-80 at every gun show. SKS 30rnd removable mags were pretty common, so this seems like the hard route to take. Its pretty cool. I remember we once had a "stuck fire pin" at the range, and that was terrifying. The range banned SKSs after that, but they never really enforced that
Mistaking a pistol primer for a rifle one will cause a slam fire with reloads.
@@robertbridges517 Probably not. More likely to have the primer blow out when firing though. People definitely weren't reloading 7.62x39 in those days because the surplus stuff was almost as cheap as .22 LR at that point in time.
The SKS slam fire issue's cause is well known, and it ain't soft primers. The rifles came in packed in cosmoline and if you didn't clean the grease out of the firing pin channel, the firing pin could stick causing slam fire and even runaway. I can think of at least one fatality.
Those sks mags were junk, mine lasted about 20 reloads and the tab ripped lol
I first expected this to be a Weapons and War alert. The explanation of M1/M2 carbine distinction was an unexpected bonus. Thanks!
I have a SKS that is modified to use AK mags. It has the original SKS mag release with a catch welded to it, most AK mags work. The nose catch is welded to the receiver. The stock is simply filled with wood filler with a screw thru it. Although not every AK mag fits, most do. The functioning is very good, never had a magazine failure yet in 20+ years.
I have a type B, came from the factory taking AK mags, check your bolt it won't have a stripper clip cutout if it's a type b
Its nice when an old school FW weapons video drops. Just Ian at a desk with a weird old rifle and a good story.
Hello Ian!
Came to tell you that you are on the news in Finland, iltasanomat has made an article about your coverage on the history of the Lahti AT rifle.
Been a viewer for long and seeing cool pieces of history such as these is very interesting. Great work in the brutality as well!
Keep up the good work!👍🏻🇫🇮
As always, Ian find interesting subject for us😊
SKS in Yugoslav wars was used as gun for trench warefare.
It's not assault weapon, so all those experiments done by gunsmiths didn't done job propperly.
There were different conversion try-outs. There is no full-auto triger mechanism. Original one were converted so you have those holes in wood. Sometimes AK mags were welded on so it was loaded with 3 clips standard from ammo box to get loaded with full 30 rounds.
Gun was incontrolable, barell were torn down from rate of fire.
After all it was bad experiment.
Ian was right. M70 were propper gun for most tasks of average solder.
Best regards.
The SKS platform 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 be modernized and turned into a proper assault rifle; but why would anyone waste their time when the AK exists. Honestly though in a case of practical use, one could throw a polymer Bubba stock with a pistol grip, and an AK mag conversion on their SKS, and they would have a decently ergonomic battle rifle. The SKS is a tough rifle that I wouldn't turn down if I was on the front. There's much worse options....but I also would take quite a few rifles over an SKS.
If anything ever were to ever happen in the USA you would see hundreds of thousands, if not millions of militia and minute men with SKSes.
@@ScoobieDoobieDoobwhen Bosnia was invaded from Serbia , Bosnian Army have only 30-40.000 guns including Pistols , shotguns, smg sks and some AK-47-m70, but we have 250.000 soldier. So its one gun to 5 soldier. And we have 2 tank -t34 comparing with enemy more thank 1500.
My father by Chinese SkS on 1992 for 2500german Mark( 300mark was everage month salary). First year od war was big Hell of Life. Next for year army grove up in very big army and we survive.
Just surviving for us is victory.
@@ensarzahirovic4137That's your personal view of things.
Someone vould say that there is agression from Serbia and Croatia.
Some vould say that muslims (now called Bosniaks) faked elections and forced Bosnia to step out of Yugoslavia so provoked the war, etc.
That's not the point here.
Let's stick to the subject, not politics. It's decade years old history.
Best regards.
A Full Auto M59/66?! I sincerely thought it would be one of the lesser known M/59's. I now have a new dream gun!
As always 🙏 That cosmoline schmooed SKS reminded me of my Yugo SKS fresh from surplus and loaded with cosmo, but it sure kept everything rust free!
The SKS still has the grenade launcher muzzle brake. That was a big no-no in the 89 and 93 gun bans.
There is no muzzle brake on that gun. The muzzle device is part of the grenade launcher only.
@@kirkstinson7316It is not a muzzle brake by any means, but grenade launcher adapter. Grenade was fired exclusively by special blank round (not a training round) that came with a grenade.
@@kirkstinson7316due to the what? And why?
@@kirkstinson7316 While they were debating the law I asked if someone could show me a recent example of a rifle attached bayoneting. For some reason the bayonet lugs were also removed from all imports.
Desperate times call for desperate measures when the Serbs had all the decent weapons. Really neat rifle.
Weapons that Serbs had were not much better, besides whole lot of ifferent t*rror groups and islamic governments imported alot of guns to bosnia.
@@vanja2565 what I meant was that the Serbs basically had control of the old Yugoslav military and Bosnia got the short end of the stick when it came to having weapons, equipment, and vehicles
@@Ulfrich_StormcockAnd croatia too got the short end, let's not forget.
@@vanja2565 yeah, this is huge BS...Serbs had all automatics, YPA spread among Serbs prior 1990, my friend had in trunk of his car AK47, 1991, I saw it personally. So, don't make a fals stories, we Bosnians had just enough to hold you not to overrun the country, and if you check the facts, with all weapons of YU military (lets start with handguns, tokarev M57, Ak 47, M72 M84 (M is for tactical machineguns), all PAMs and PATs (PAM is antiaircraft machinegun, caliber .50, PAT is antiaircraft canon, 20 mm), BOSFORS and PRAGA ( 40mm canons), lets go over to mortars, 60, 82 and 120 mm, howitzers, and 3 kind of tanks, T34, T55 and T84, and airforce J21, J22, G2 galeb and G4 super galeb) serb weren't able to conquer Bosnia...really shame.
so, even now you would like to say something that serbs were not much better armed than Bosnians? buddy, you talk horseshit!
@@ivanivanovic5586❤ 🇭🇷🇧🇦
Thanks ATF for keeping us safe from obscure military firearms that criminals do not know exist and would not know where to find them if they did. Good work.
Thank you so from Bosnia
Big respect for your work.
One fact Bosnia is very big producer of weapon and ammo.
I had one of these rifles. When I bought it I was told it was an SKK and it came with 3 AK banana mags. Best rifle I ever owned. Mine was semiautomatic and I purchased it in Australia (my home country). I had to turn it in when the gun buyback scheme was put in place after the Port Arthur Active Shooting. It was a great little rifle. Plenty of punch being a 7.62 and it was easy to maintain and clean. I was in the Australian army at the time I owned it and we were using SLR’s at the time, so it was a natural progression for me to pick up and use this type of rifle.
those were Chinese SKK's, there's probably tons of them still floating around LOL
SKK is just a made up designation by the sellers in Australia and NZ. I've seen it used to refer mostly to Chinese Type 63 select fire rifles and sometimes to the SKS modified to take AK mags like the SKSM. A number of Type 63 were accidentally imported and distributed in Australia as they look kinda like an SKS from a distance. There is a video here on TH-cam of a guy's wife firing one into some water. He got in trouble for not turning it in when the gov realized select fire Type 63 were sold as SKS
There's another legal aspect of these, specifically in regions that limit magazine capacity of firearms. Here in Finland the exception is first manufacture date of the firearm must be before 1950, and since SKS entered service in 1949, it would be legal to own an SKS converted to use AK magazines. And since AK and RPK magazines are interchangeable, it would be legal to own an SKS with a 75-round drum.
Many years ago I got to fire a full auto SKS and it was a bullet hose, it would empty a 10 round mag before the first empty brass hit the ground. But, because of that it was surprisingly controllable.... All of the rounds were gone and into the target before you really felt the recoil and it held pretty flat anyway. The conversion method was pretty simple but did require adding a hole and a small slot in the trigger group frame and the selector was just a piece of flat metal with a tab on one end and a pin on the other, but I remember it being on the left side instead of the right like this one
having shot a F/A SKS many years ago, like 30+, it had a cyclic rate of 1200+, as fast as a WWII MG42.
Wow, another crazy and interesting branch of the SKS's history! Love the videos and the sks!
I had a TRB refurbished rifle for a time. the story i heard is that bosnia bought a bunch of kit from yugoslavia, stripped everything down and refinished all the parts and rebuilt the rifles in their arsenal. presumably after tests and modifications like this were done, and they moved on to other things, they exported the now older kit. or it was just the us based importer.
mine was marked (Z) (circled, could have been 2) BA TRB G10 M59; still obviously a 59/66, but at one point the grenade spigot, launcher sight, and the flip up night sights were removed. maybe just bubba importers, but for what its worth it was spotless factory new, and unfired.
I’d really love to see a video on a complete Bosnian full auto SKS and the details of how these worked.
I had a factory triangle 26 chi-com made for AK mags from the factory. I wish I had kept that weapon, but I traded it off to a friend for parts to fix my truck years ago. They bring a fair price nowadays.
That is right out of a Country Music Song: "I sold my gun to fix my truck."
Excellent explanation of the legality of these.
God i love this gun! The sks family is just so cool
I remember seeing an sks to AK mag conversion advertised years ago, probably in Shotgun News back when 1000 rounds of 7.62x39 was $50 and AKs were $200. It did the same thing though, modified the bolt and dremeled out the mag well, but it used regular AK mags.
I don't think that mythical kit everyone remembers ever existed. I've never found any evidence of it. Just a lot of posts online "remembering" it going back to the mid 90s.
A couple of Canadian companies currently offer kits for an SKS to take a proprietary, skinny AK-47 style mag. And there are also kits to use 7.62X39 AR-15 mags.
@@donwyoming1936 kit is a strong word. Pretty sure it was paper instruction booklet that had specifications and some measurements, but no actual parts.
Best video for a while imo. I love these interesting variants and what people do during wars.
I’m briskly working through your back catalogue of videos. What a smashing channel 😄👌
Pretty cool idea. Hope more old weapons videos are coming. Kinda miss the old revolvers and rifle videos from the black powder era!
As a Bosnian, the flag on a video cought my attention immediately. That's the new flag. After gaining independence Bosnia replaced Yugoslavian flag with the new flag, the one with lilies, from the old medieval Bosnian kingdom coat of arms. So before and during the war, and at the time when modifications were made we had a different flag.
Tldr; flag is wrong ⚜️
They actually changed the thumbnail 😄
yeah 😊
Thanks-I fixed it
Coat of arms used on the Bosnian flag from 1992 is in fact not the same one from medival times, it is very similar, but not the same.
It's greatly appreciated. I love those small history specific details, and I had the chance to contribute a bit so I'm glad hehe.
Thanks man I needed that. You're the best Ian.
Very nice video. Guns themselves sometimes tell the story in more details.
China made SKS-D rifles with removeable AK magazines for sale in Canada. Commercial production. They were cheap to make and sold for a premium.
Nice. I had a Russian 1954 SKS and I discovered you can fire the weapon without the wooden furniture on it. Put a video on MySpace back in 2006ish…man I miss MySpace.
We have one of these at a local range in Serbia, it's semi only but the selector wasn't removed so it still looks like the original
From memory, there were semi auto versions in Australia before the disarmament converted to run AK mags for pig hunting in the late 80s, early 90s called the SKK. Scant info online for obvious reasons. I believe Ron Owen from Gympie, who owns the firearms museum may have had a hand in it. If you contact him, he may have an example with another interesting magazine conversion. At any rate, he has some fantastic items and would be good to talk to.
I have never heard of this. So freaking cool.
Very cool, this is the stuff I watch forgotten weapons for! Thanks Ian.
That would be a pretty cool Unicorn to add to a collection. Thanks for posting, Ian!
I had a Chinese SKS for awhile and it was solid but sure didn't feel like it had a reliable mechanism for full auto. Thanks Ian. Really great!
"Grease smudge"? Nonsense, that's just your latest piece of collectible headwear, obtained exclusively for this video.
Balkans and modified ak magazines, such a recurring combination
This setup is much better than the "traditional" full auto SKS.
That is a SKS with a dirty firing pin.
You pull the trigger and it mag dumps at a high rate of speed and can not be stopped until it runs empty.
First time I took down an SKS and looked at the "trigger pack", the fist thing that popped into my head was that it would be child's play to make it full auto. Select fire, on the other hand, I expect took a bit more imagination and work.
Yes, since the ordinary SKS has a "safety sear" which the ATF normally doesn't allow but for some reason they do allow it for the SKS.
Thanks Ian. Always interesting and quality content. Much appreciated.
Fun fact: SKS fitted for standard 30 rnd AK magazines were imported into Australia through the 1980s from Norinco in China. These were made for the Australian market as centre-fire , pistol grip semi-autos were banned imports.
As a gunsmith who has worked on a LOT of SKS's, I can tell you that modifying the trigger group to full-auto isn't all that difficult. 😅
'Get an M70' ..... TBF, back in those lively days, the Serbs weren't in a 'sharing' mood. But...that's what battlefield pick-ups are all about.
Methinks there's a _lot_ of stray weapons tucked away.....it's the Balkans after all.
Just for the magazine conversion alone this is very interesting. I’ve had my beloved Keng’s Chinese SKS since 89, and In the early years I tried the 20round attached mag with the stamped star on it, as well as the 30 rounder with the thing on the front. Neither one ever quite worked. At this point I don’t think I want to make the modifications to the bolt, I would not mind modifying the magazines, but the whole process does not look like rocket science if you had bolt and some magazines… and for that matter a spare stock,,,, something to think about!!!!! Thanks for sharing!!
this gave more freedom to people than any constitution
You can mill or grind that lip on sks bolts so you can run 20-30 round sks magazines and not have to worry if you have a jam. You can easily throw the 10 rd box magazine back in keeping it all matching if you desire.
The SKS should have always have had the option to take box magazines. Theres no reason not to.
Another excellent video as always. I see some of the most interesting items on this channel. 👍👍
Ian:
Really enjoyed this particular video. I have often wondered why select fire SKSs were never a widespread adaptation among the Soviet countries. Especially when you consider the superior nature of the accuracy of the SKS.
I would imagine it came down to the reduced costs and accelerated production of the AK in comparison to the SKS.
At any rate, really appreciated another outstanding video. 👍🏻🇺🇸🦅😂👍🏻
Love my milled M70’s! ❤️ An outstanding weapon. 👍🏻
Have a great week, my friend.
I had an AK mag SKS in the 90's before I knew anything about guns. I just found a cheap semi-auto during the 93 assault weapons ban so I bought it. I sold it sometime in the late 90's.
This is a fantastic piece of history!
We used to get Chinese SKS that were commercial in a pretty foam box and had 3 AK mags in them. Any AK mag fit great fun but gun bans meh
Norinco sks m
I have a yugo sks that I have modified myself and I also grinded off that shelf of the bolt carrier to make the magazines drop free and it works great
So many interesting guns from the breakup of Yugoslavia: honestly we don't give Đorđe Martinović enough credit for their contributions to firearms history. Cheers! Bottoms Up!
There's a mod for GMod that adds Firearms Source 2 content that became the first time I saw this- you could use the attachment system to mod 30rnd detachable box mags and full auto onto its SKS. It was my first real experience seeing the difference between internal and detachable magazines laid out that way so that was pretty nice.
Honestly really cool that you adjusted the thumbnail flag retroactively for the sake of accuracy!
Frick yeah! Finally here gang checking in
Nice job IAN lotta good info on his rifle. Thanks.🇺🇸
Heyyyy, nice French CCE camo blouse you got there. And thanks for the video, if course.
Man that is just funky lookin
Super interesting rifle, kinda bummed we can't see it at the range. I had a Yugoslavia 59/66 and m48 Mauser both were extremely well made fine tools. Would love to see a range day of this conversion if possible I bet its a joy to shoot.
I used to play with my dad's one during early days of Bosnian war.
did you had fun?
@@CapiBarius do you know anyone that have fun in war, while being constantly shelled from the hills?
Maybe he’s born with it, maybe it’s Cosmoline!
Gun Jesus has made a call to arms: If you live in the Balkans aske everyone you know to ask everyone they know (etc, etc) to locate one of these and extend an invitation to Ian. Ian has previously shown that he *will* protect the identity of owners who wishes to remain anonymous, so that's not an issue. Preserving firearms history, as objectively and unbiassed as possible, is important.
And here I was thinking we'd be looking at a regular SKS with a stuck firing pin and a tapco stock.
these modifications were made in Bihac by the 5th Corps of the ARBiH and were used in combat
it was used in the war, the bosnain soldier who used it is Huska Ć. and he carved in the year aswell 1995
Proly better than the mini-14
Waiting on the AK guy to do this modification to a stray SKS laying at a corner of his shop.
Seeing the receiver & bolt mods, it would be easy enough to mod an SKS to use AK Mags. AK mags are cheap enough, and it would be easy to mod them as well.
Idk why but when you showed the J being semi my brain locked onto the idea of jemi-auto
I'm surprised that they modified AK mags. There were Chinese SKS's that were imported using standard AK mags
How much do you want to bet the full auto capability relied on using the safety sear as an auto sear?
Lucky for us, the ATF has ignored that.
That sounds like the best thing ever.
Many years ago there were a few SKS's that came into Canada that could use an AK mag, designated the SKS-D model. Never got my hands on one to check out so I have no idea which country they came from (I assume Chinese, but who knows) and apparently they constantly jammed. Certainly no full auto marking like this one. Super cool find Ian!
One thing I've heard about the full auto sks is that they have a very high rate of fire which makes it rather useless as it's not very controllable either. I think just the magazine conversion by itself would be a lot better
The grease smudge makes you look more Indiana Jones and less of a classroom type historian.
Redditors frothing at the mouth to be the first to make an Elbonia comment on this video
Already is one
@@iyatemu of course
Interesting, thanks for this. Didn't know such a thing was done.
Funny how the modifications to the magwell opening and bolt narrowing are exactly the same to the AR magazine adaptors for the SKS lol
it's not often Ian shows us a gun he doesn't have many of the pieces for
I think China also made the SKS-D variant which also used detachable AK47 mags, I seen a video from a guy with an SOT License here on TH-cam that converted a semi SKS to full auto, the cyclic rate is insanely fast!
I heard from my Father who was in the Yugoslav Peoples Army that there we're some PAPs wich could fire Auto.
In the Bosnian war there were ALOT of handmade weapons at the beginning of the war and there are museums with these. Perhaps you could visit Bosnia and do a few videos on them
I'm sure Brandon would love to rebuild one to its full glory and full auto included too. 😉